Future of Health Care 2020

BUSINESS FIRST SUPPLEMENT 

THE FUTURE OF 

HEALTH 

CARE 

2020 

Technology and innovation 

in Western New York 

drive changes in patient care.

The Future of Health Care 

is Built in the Present 

For 75 years, Buffalo Medical Group has made great strides in patient 

care. From integrating technology that makes care more convenient and 

streamlined, to staying ahead of the curve in offering the procedures 

and services our patients need most, our focus on innovation has always 

been driven by our commitment to treating you well. 

Our patients are at the center of everything we do—and we’re just getting started. 

DISCOVER THE DIFFERENCE AT TREATINGPEOPLEWELL.COM

Contents 

JOED VIERA 

The Covid-19 pandemic dramatically changed the health-care industry, and some of those changes will be around long after the virus. Above, Debbie 

Roman, RN, tests a patient for Covid-19 at the Greater Buffalo United Accountable Healthcare Network drive-thru testing tent on Niagara Street. 

THE 

FUTURE 

OF HEALTH CARE 

PATIENT CARE 

Sponsored by: 

TECHNOLOGY 

Sponsored by: 

BEHAVIORAL 

HEALTH 

HEALTH 

EDUCATION 

HEALTH -CARE 

EQUITY 

PAYMENTS AND 

REIMBURSEMENTS 

Sponsored by: 

Sponsored by: 

Sponsored by: 

Sponsored by: 

R LESSONS FROM 

A PANDEMIC: The 

health-care industry has 

been forced to make 

rapid changes due to 

Covid-19. Some of the 

new methods might be 

around long-term. 5 

R A COMPANY WITH 

BITE: Praveen Arany 

co-founded a Buffalo 

biotech startup, 

OptiMed Technology, 

which is working on 

commercializing two 

dental technologies. 12 

R COMING SOON: 

Technology’s 

continuing impact on 

health care. 13 

R IN WITH THE NEW: 

Attorneys weigh the 

pros and cons of 

telehealth. 16 

R WORKPLACE 

DILEMMA: Young 

adults have a higher 

incidence of mentalhealth 

issues than most 

adults and yet are the 

least likely to seek help. 

18 

R COVID-19 

STRUGGLES: 

Employers might need 

to offer full mentalhealth 

programming 

when the economy 

reopens. 24 

R MEDICAL SCHOOL: 

Dr. Alan Lesse of the 

University at Buffalo 

Jacobs School 

of Medicine and 

Biomedical Sciences 

says the abnormal 

semester presented 

opportunities. 26 

R TRAINING 

PROGRAMS: Colleges 

and students have 

been forced to adapt to 

distance learning. 29 

R ON A MISSION: 

Dr. Willie Underwood 

III leads the African- 

American Health Equity 

Task Force. 31 

R IMPROVING HEALTH 

CARE: Groups work to 

address disparities in 

Western New York. 34 

R DSRIP DESPAIR: 

Funding cuts bring 

concerns about 

the future of some 

programs. 36 

R A NEW MODEL: 

The region’s only 

state-designated 

accountable-care 

organization oversees 

care for about 30,000 

patients. 39 

Additional Sponsors: 

MAY 15, 2020 THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE 1

THE FUTURE OF 

HEALTH CARE 

WORD FROM THE SPONSORS 

Overcoming COVID-19 

Over the past few months, 

we have been put to the 

test. As a community, we 

have come face-to-face with our 

greatest enemy yet: COVID-19. 

Nevertheless, the best in us has 

found a way to persevere: caregivers 

and support staff putting the needs 

of our patients before their own; 

individuals practicing safe socialdistancing; 

and of course, our 

community’s continued show of 

support and gratitude for our heroes 

on the front lines. 

Through this global health crisis, 

Buffalo Medical Group (BMG) has 

adapted quickly, pivoting how we 

deliver care to ensure the wellness 

of our patients while aligning 

with CDC guidelines. Virtual care 

has been instrumental to this 

end. We’ve always understood the 

importance of telemedicine, which 

is why since 2010, our patients have 

benefited from the convenience 

of e-Visits through MyBMGChart, 

our online patient portal. Today, 

MyBMGChart is utilized by nearly 

200,000 patients. 

We took our virtual offerings a 

step further by adding new video 

visit capabilities, allowing patients 

to speak face-to- face with their 

provider from their homes. We 

stress the importance of being 

able to communicate with your 

own provider – the person who 

understands your health needs 

and has access to your medical 

records. We believe this is key with 

virtual care, and not something all 

telemedicine services can offer. 

This added virtual care option 

was vital not only to those 

experiencing COVID-19 related 

symptoms, but for routine needs 

and other health concerns. It aids 

in the effort to help keep hospital 

visits down, by triaging and caring 

for patients who may not need that 

level of care. This allows hospitals 

to stay equipped for critical patients 

with urgent needs, and in turn, 

Dr. Robert 

Zielinski is 

Associate 

Medical Director, 

Oncologist and 

Hematologist 

wi t hB u ff a l o 

Medical Group 

keeps patient 

costs down. 

New and 

expanded 

telemedicine 

offerings have 

been great 

allies in the 

fight against 

COVID-19, 

but their 

importance to 

the health of 

our community 

transcends the 

pandemic. We 

will continue 

to offer these 

services long 

after COVID-19, 

refining them to best serve our 

patients’ needs. 

Although providing alternative 

care options is important for our 

patients, it’s also critical for the 

business of BMG. COVID-19 has 

had a major financial impact on 

healthcare, and BMG has not been 

spared in this. Implementing new 

telemedicine methods have been 

essential in keeping patient volume 

up. As a physician-owned group 

with nearly 1,000 employees, 

more than 240 providers, and over 

220,000 patients, we consider 

ourselves a crucial healthcare 

organization for our community, 

and understand the importance of 

remaining a stable force for the sake 

of our patients and staff. 

For 75 years now, Buffalo Medical 

Group has been here to provide 

high-quality of care to our patients. 

Although the method in which 

we deliver care may be evolving 

in some cases, the level of care we 

provide is the same. We’re proud of 

our past, and the strides we’ve made 

over these 75 years, but we’re even 

more excited for the future. We will 

continue to bring new, innovative 

ways to empower and care for our 

patients, and build a healthier 

future for years to come. 

Two major 2020 Catholic 

Health innovations will change 

the face of local healthcare 

Virtual care available to the 

entire WNY community. 

Today’s most highly-rated 

electronic health record system. 

These 2020 initiatives are some 

of the best examples of how 

technology and innovation support 

Catholic Health’s commitment to 

always deliver the highest quality 

care — and will dramatically change 

the way care is delivered in Western 

New York. 

In partnership with industry 

leader Teladoc, CH Care OnDemand 

– our proprietary telehealth 

platform – launched last month and 

is already making an impact. The 

pilot phase of the initiative was fasttracked 

in response to COVID-19 

in order to provide a remote care 

alternative. CH Care OnDemand 

provides medical care to 11,000 

Catholic Health associates and 

their eligible dependents, allowing 

them to connect with doctors, 

physician assistants and nurse 

practitioners from Catholic Health 

and Catholic Medical Partners – 

as well as Teladoc’s nationwide 

network – via phone, tablet or 

computer. Clinicians can diagnose, 

treat and prescribe medications for 

non-emergency conditions like a 

sore throat, pink eye, allergies and 

bronchitis. 

This fall, CH Care OnDemand 

will be available to the entire 

WNY community – the first local 

telehealth program configured to 

provide virtual access along the 

entire continuum of care, from 

primary care to long-term and 

home care. 

On November 1, we’re launching 

Epic Systems technology – the 

highest rated Electronic Health 

Record (EHR) available. Epic 

will improve patient safety and 

quality of care across WNY with its 

ability to store and update patient 

information at all levels of care in 

real time. Epic can store information 

from your primary care physician, 

specialist, lab, hospital and more 

in a single record. With one chart 

that follows patients throughout 

multiple areas in which they 

receive care – even if they receive 

Mark A. Sullivan 

is President & 

CEO of Catholic 

Health 

treatment while 

out of town – 

Epic enables 

Catholic Health 

to continue to 

improve quality 

of care and 

patient safety 

by helping 

prioritize 

patient needs 

and identify 

potential 

problems and 

progress. 

Catholic 

Health is investing $135 million, the 

largest amount for a single bedside 

investment ever made in WNY, to 

transform the entire organization 

and improve healthcare in our 

community. Physicians will have 

information they need at their 

fingertips. Nurses will use advanced 

tools, including a mobile device 

similar to a cell phone that allows 

them to examine and update patient 

records without leaving the bedside. 

With a single click, patient charts 

are reviewed and updated with vital 

signs, allergies, medications, orders 

and more. The technology will make 

Catholic Health a better and more 

efficient organization while giving 

our caregivers considerably more 

time with their patients. 

Epic technology also includes 

MyChart, long rated the best patient 

portal in the industry. MyChart 

helps patients better manage their 

own health with easy access to their 

information. They will be able to 

schedule their own appointments, 

message their providers, review 

test results, pay bills and more. 

The portal encourages a proactive 

approach to healthcare, which 

leads to healthier lifestyles and 

contributes to people living longer. 

Together, CH Care OnDemand 

and Epic will be truly 

transformational for Catholic 

Health, supporting our goal to 

become the most trusted healthcare 

system in the State and enabling us 

to partner with the nation’s leading 

providers. 

2 THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE BUFFALO BUSINESS FIRST

ECMC’s 

Virtual Care 

EXTENDING HEALTHCARE SERVICES 

INTO THE COMMUNITY DURING THE 

COVID19 PANDEMIC AND BEYOND 

Connecting with patients using 

digital means has shown 

promise for many years. Often 

called telemedicine, telehealth, or 

virtual care, the ability to assess 

and treat patients remotely is 

rapidly becoming a common care 

modality. 

With the onset of COVID-19 and 

social distancing guidelines, many 

healthcare organizations, including 

ECMC, found it necessary to limit 

in-person patient contact for 

certain visit types and conditions. 

However, at the same time, we serve 

a vulnerable population with a high 

prevalence of chronic disease and 

complex medical conditions. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic 

continues to progress, it is 

critical that patients maintain 

communication for evaluation and 

guidance by their providers. In 

the immediate short-term, “well 

visits” and “routine care” could 

be postponed, but as the social 

distancing timelines extend, our 

dedicated ECMC providers must 

maintain a connection to our 

patients. 

At ECMC, we have rapidly 

developed ECMC Virtual Care in the 

outpatient, emergency department, 

and inpatient settings. ECMC 

announced in April the launch of a 

virtual ER care platform to provide 

video visits for remote emergency 

room services, in addition to the 

previously established virtual care 

outpatient services. 

Patients in the community can 

now schedule an on-demand video 

visit with an emergency medicine 

provider through the ECMC 

website to address appropriate 

medical conditions such as 

allergies, bronchitis, suspected 

COVID-19, cold and flu, cough, 

fever, sore throat, sinus infection, 

eye infection/irritation, rash, hives, 

upset stomach, heartburn, diarrhea, 

nausea, vomiting, and other minor 

ailments. For the Virtual ER Visits, 

patients select a time slot through a 

Brian M. Murray, 

MD, is the 

Chief Medical 

Officer for ECMC 

Corporation 

and Associate 

Professor of 

Medicine at the 

State University 

of New York 

a tB u ff a l o 

Jacobs School 

of Medicine 

and Biomedical 

Sciences. 

portal at www. 

ecmc.edu; they 

then receive 

a phone call 

from an ECMC 

representative 

to confirm 

the time slot 

and to collect 

additional 

information; 

patients then 

follow the 

instructions 

provided to 

connect to the 

virtual visit 

using their 

phone, PC, 

or tablet. The 

emergency 

room provider 

consults with 

the patient 

to assess 

symptoms, 

provide 

recommendations and prescribe 

medications as needed. 

In addition, ECMC’s outpatient 

clinical services are offering phone 

and video visits for primary care, 

medical specialty services, surgical 

specialty services, dental, and 

behavioral health. Patients can visit 

www.ecmc.edu/virtual or call 716- 

898-3700 to schedule a phone or 

video visit with their provider. 

The COVID-19 crisis has ushered 

in the rapid adoption of ECMC’s 

Virtual Care, which we believe will 

continue into the future as our 

patients and our providers recognize 

the value and importance of these 

virtual visits. As Dr. David Ellis, 

ECMC Emergency Department 

Attending Physician and Director 

of Telemedicine, UBMD Emergency 

Medicine said, “Life and healthcare 

have changed significantly due 

to COVID-19. Our ability to use 

telemedicine and telehealth 

capabilities to reach out to our 

patients is more important than 

ever.” 

Gates 

Vascular 

Institute 

opened in 

2012 on 

Ellicott Street. 

JOED VIERA/FILE PHOTO 


THE FUTURE OF 

HEALTH CARE 

WORD FROM THE SPONSORS 

Ready to meet the demand 

for health-care careers 

Rising to meet the 

challenge of Covid-19 

Awell-rounded, personalized 

education is needed for the 

next wave of health science 

professionals. 

Throughout history, world events 

and major developments have 

caused trends to emerge in higher 

education. 

When Sputnik, the world’s first 

artificial satellite, was first launched 

by the Soviet Union in 1957, it 

stimulated an incredible interest in 

space travel. 

This effect translated to a great 

increase in students pursuing 

the sciences, engineering and 

mathematics through higher 

education. 

When the home computer first 

became an option to society, many 

colleges and universities began to 

offer computer science programs to 

meet the high demand of interested 

students. 

Based on these past watershed 

moments for higher education, 

there is reason to believe the 

COVID-19 pandemic will ignite 

another wave of interest, this time 

in health science related programs. 

This virus has an impact not only 

on the U.S., but the entire world. 

While health leaders strive to 

develop advanced testing methods, 

antibodies, vaccines and improved 

forms of treatment, our youth are 

viewing devastating effects on 

society through news media and 

their own personal experience. 

This will likely instill a desire in 

them to join the frontlines and work 

to make a difference by becoming 

successful nurses, physicians, 

chemists and other types of health 

professionals. 

Daemen College is wellpositioned 

to meet the needs of this 

next generation. 

As an institution, Daemen 

offers an entire pallet of medical 

science programs with a history 

of excellence and success, while 

providing a well-rounded and 

personalized education – both 

essential in teaching our students 

to become caring, compassionate 

healthcare leaders. 

We offer programs in physician 

assistant studies, physical therapy, 

nursing, athletic training, public 

health, natural sciences and many 

Michael S. 

Brogan, DPT, 

Ph.D. is Senior 

Vice President 

for Academic 

Affairs, Dean of 

Daemen College 

other healthrelated 

fields, 

and deliver 

them in a way 

that integrates 

the intellectual 

qualities of the 

liberal arts and 

humanities with 

the professional 

knowledge, 

proficiency 

and skills that 

are required in 

these various 

medical 

professions. 

Essentially, 

in addition to technical skills, it 

is imperative that our students 

understand the emotional and 

sociological needs of patients to 

provide them with the best possible 

care. 

We offer a curriculum that is 

heavily focused on experiential 

learning, internships and service 

learning requirements, which 

provide pertinent hands-on 

experience working with those in 

need. 

For instance, our Students 

Without Borders non-profit 

organization allows physician 

assistant and physical therapy 

students, along with faculty and 

local practitioners, to help provide 

medical assistance both locally and 

in the Dominican Republic. 

In addition to exposing our 

students to humanitarian values, 

we also teach our students in small, 

inclusive classroom settings. As a 

result they receive personalized 

attention from professors who are 

not only instructors and experts in 

their field, but serve as role models 

as well. 

This relationship opens doors 

to networking opportunities, 

placements and research 

experience, again exposing our 

students to the essential hand-on 

experience they need for a valuable 

education. 

Overall, teaching with a 

personalized approach and a wellbalanced 

curriculum will help the 

next wave of health professionals 

provide superior care to our 

community and beyond. 

It was Tuesday, March 3, 2020, the 

day Evergreen Health formed its 

COVID-19 Response Team. We 

were a few weeks away from one 

of our favorite events – our annual 

all employee meeting. Instead of 

finalizing plans to celebrate our 

success and get motivated for the 

exciting year ahead, we quickly 

changed gears to focus on these 

three priorities: keep our employees 

safe, keep our patients healthy and 

keep our organization open for 

business. A daunting task in this 

unprecedented time, but I knew 

deep down that if anyone could get 

through this it was Evergreen. 

COVID-19 is a challenge that 

none of us have ever faced, however 

Evergreen Health was created 

in response to a crisis; the AIDS 

epidemic of the 1980s. And while 

we do not want to compare the 

two situations from a medical 

standpoint, we do know that we 

can rely on the same values to get 

through this together: collaboration, 

compassion and a commitment 

to providing exceptional care. The 

COVID-19 situation is changing 

every single day. And so are we. To 

adapt and continue caring for our 

patients. 

I’m proud to say that many of 

our services have remained open 

during this time – primary and 

specialty care, STI testing, syringe 

exchange and drug user health 

programs, harm reduction services, 

counseling services and our 

pharmacy. By working together, we 

Ray Ganoe 

is President 

and CEO of 

Evergreen Health 

have found ways 

to continue vital 

patient services, 

even if they 

look and feel 

different than a 

mere few weeks 

ago. 

In the 

midst of these 

challenges, 

what’s been 

most inspiring 

is watching how 

our employees 

have cared for each other, our 

patients and the community. 

Some have made masks to donate 

to other organizations who need 

them. Birthday celebrations are 

taking place via video conferencing 

technology. And, we’ve even had 

a few impromptu socially distant 

dance parties in our lobby. Our 

commitment to our patients and 

each other has been our north star 

guiding us to what we know are 

better days to come. 

We are all in this together. 

Not just as Team Evergreen, but 

as service providers, caregivers, 

business leaders, parents, 

employees and the list goes on. 

The quick-thinking, camaraderie, 

thoughtfulness and humanity we 

have witnessed not only in the local 

healthcare community, but the 

community at large, has been a true 

inspiration. On behalf of everyone 

at Evergreen, we are proud to be a 

part of this community and we will 

see through it. 


Patient Care 

Sponsored by 

BEYOND THE PANDEMIC 

“A lot of decisions have to be made, and 

hopefully we’re getting it right,” says Dr. Leslie 

Bisson, president of UBMD Orthopaedics & 

Sports Medicine, who is now seeing about half 

of his patients via telehealth. 

JOED VIERA 

HEALTH CARE HAS EVOLVED QUICKLY SO WHICH CHANGES WILL STICK AROUND? 

BY TRACEY DRURY tdrury@bizjournals.com 716-541-1609, @BfloBizTDrury 

Patients on a 

doctor visit via 

their smartphone 

or Zoom should 

get used to that 

method because 

telehealth and 

other new 

business models 

are likely to 

remain. 

Health-care providers are finding that 

some pandemic solutions are easier and 

more readily acceptable than expected. 

And that’s after 50 years of dabbling. 

Ask Dr. Thomas Hughes, chief medical 

officer of Optimum Physician Alliance 

and Great Lakes Integrated Network, 

which includes Kaleida Health and Erie 

County Medical Center Corp. 

Hughes points to a book called “Five 

Patients” by Michael Crichton, a physician 

in Boston before becoming a 

best-selling author. 

Crichton wrote about his experiences 

as a resident and about a telehealth 

program in the early 1960s at Logan Airport 

for patients arriving on international 

flights who needed treatment. 

“Teletechnology has been around for 

a long time,” Hughes said. “This is something 

people have been talking about for 

a long time, dreaming about, but for a 

complicated set of reasons, it’s never taken 

off.” 

Part of the delay was payers, he said, 

who didn’t like the idea, and physicians 

who weren’t sure exactly what 

to do. Now telehealth is being used for 

almost everything, including orthopedics, 

non-urgent emergency care, dermatology, 

mental health, sleep medicine 

and even dentistry. 

Today, 100 percent of Optimum’s network 

practices offer telehealth in some 

form, including the smallest practices 

with the oldest practitioners. 

“All of a sudden, Covid comes up, and 

we had an adequate ability to test it,” 

Hughes said. “I’m a physician, and I have 

an obligation to take care of my patients. 

But I also have an obligation to take of my 

staff. So how can I provide excellent care 

in a safe setting where I’m protecting my 

SEE PRIMARYCARE, PAGE 6 


THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // PATIENT CARE 

Primary-care telehealth growing quickly 

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 

staff and my patients, realistically in a 

matter of weeks?” 

Payments for new models of care 

ultimately will play the biggest role in 

how they’re adopted long-term. 

Until recently, insurers — both commercial 

and government — only paid 

for limited telehealth visits and often 

at rates far below an in-person visit. 

Pressure from employers could play 

a big role in changing that. 

If CEOs see that employees can get 

the same type of care without taking 

a day off or even leaving their home or 

office, they could demand better rates 

and flexible service models. 

Quick, timely appointments 

Once the economy begins to open 

up, it’s likely some patients will want 

to go back to traditional office visits. 

Physicians are likely to favor that too, 

especially for patients with chronic 

health conditions. 

But individuals with a busy schedule 

or who can’t get away from work 

are likely to keep the telehealth option. 

The model seems to have led to both 

physicians and patients being on time. 

“We’re assuming this becomes the 

new normal, and I think it should, 

absolutely,” Hughes said. “I saw a 

patient the other day and the appointment 

was at 9. The appointment started 

at 9 and was over at 9:20. The 

patient was doing whatever they were 

doing at 8:59 and resumed their life 

at 9:21. Personally, I think that once 

patients figure out that I can give you 

high-value care in a much more convenient 

setting, they’re not going to 

accept going back to ‘normal.’” 

The pandemic may have been the 

immediate cause of rapid telehealth 

“In anticipation of high patient surge, we proactively erected the tents outside the emergency departments to 

improve efficiency and better care for our patients,” said Jeff Zewe, president and CEO of Upper Allegheny Health 

System. Olean General Hospital is pictured above. 

adoption, but the years-long shortage 

of primary-care physicians is another 

piece of the puzzle. Simply, telehealth 

allows physicians to see more patients 

more efficiently. 

Dr. William Mills, senior vice 

president of quality and professional 

affairs of Upper Allegheny Health 

System, a division of Kaleida Health 

that includes Olean General Hospital, 

says primary-care telehealth has 

taken off. 

“That’s been the biggest change in 

the delivery part that we’re seeing, 

and I truly think a lot of this will stick 

now,” he said. “We’re living in a technological 

world where everyone wants 

it right now, when they want it and 

how they want it.” 

Other factors to determine longterm 

adoption include whether medical-error 

rates are affected, whether 

regulations that allowed for more 

flexibility are extended once state and 

COURTESY OF UPPER ALLEGHENY HEALTH SYSTEM 

federal waivers expire and the ability 

of patients to access mobile telehealth 

tools and devices from home for more 

advanced care and diagnostics, Mills 

said. 

“That’s probably the next wave,” 

he said. “There are a lot of things that 

touch the physician diagnostically as 

well as therapeutically and are very 

important.” 

SEE PROVIDER, PAGE 8 

WORD FROM THE SPONSOR: KALEIDA HEALTH 

Meeting the challenge of an unprecedented health issue 

I 

think it’s fair to say that on New 

Year’s Day, none of us had any idea 

what we would face in a few short 

months. 

COVID-19 turned our world upside 

down and required all of us to throw 

out our collective playbooks on 

everyday life and adapt quickly and 

decisively. 

As a nation-and especially for those 

in health care-we were tested in ways 

that we hadn’t been since the 1918 

pandemic more than 100 years ago. 

There’s a saying that “there is no 

‘I’ in team.” Beyond a doubt, the 

response by the Kaleida Health team 

to the COVID-19 pandemic proved 

that saying to be true. Their ability to 

work as a cohesive team from the very 

beginning of the pandemic, and across 

all job titles and responsibilities, 

laid the foundation for our ability to 

Jody L. Lomeo 

is President and 

CEO of Kaleida 

Health 

provide the very 

best care possible. 

They have 

shown incredible 

dedication, 

compassion and 

commitment to 

their patients, 

their patients’ 

families and each 

other. And while 

our way of life 

has been forever 

changed, one 

constant remains: 

the outstanding work that is done by 

the Kaleida Health team! 

Enormous gratitude goes to all of 

those who have volunteered to care 

for COVID-19 patients within their 

respective hospitals, across the Kaleida 

Health system, and those retired 

clinicians who put their lives on hold 

to return to the front lines of care. 

The pandemic created an 

unprecedented issue for healthcare 

providers to have to deal with; yet 

the response by the organization as 

a whole is what we have come to 

expect: nothing short of remarkable 

and solely focused on taking care of 

our community. 

A special note of thanks to our community 

and government leaders these 

past few months. The partnership 

and teamwork have been phenomenal. 

Governor Cuomo and County 

Executive Poloncarz in particular have 

shown tremendous leadership on 

behalf of our community. So we thank 

them and their staff for all that they 

have done and will continue to do. 

Without a doubt, the unsung heroes 

of this pandemic have been the 

community at-large. In the early days 

when there was a need for masks, we 

were inundated with kind offers to 

donate or make masks. As our staff 

worked long, stressful hours, restaurants 

throughout the community 

donated and delivered thousands of 

meals to our employees-and continue 

to do so. The community has and 

continues to show enormous support 

and appreciation: from social media 

thanks to notes written in chalk on 

sidewalks by local children. 

The future of health care will, in 

part, be influenced by the experiences, 

ingenuity and lessons learned from the 

world’s experience with COVID-19. At 

some point this pandemic will end. 

But what won’t end is Kaleida Health’s 

unwavering commitment to our 

patients, staff and community. 

We are #KaleidaStrong. 


For a complicated time, 

the simplest words 

are best: thank you. 

These are unprecedented times for all of us. But we’re heartened by what 

we see day in and day out as Western New York takes on COVID-19. 

To our caregivers, thank you for being there for patients who need 

you more than ever. To our support staff, thank you for keeping our 

hospitals thriving at the peak of challenges. To Governor Cuomo, 

County Executive Poloncarz and all of our partners in government, 

thank you for your leadership during these extraordinary times. 

And to our community, thank you for staying home and staying safe 

in the face of isolation. 

Western New Yorkers, please keep up your part in the fight. We promise 

that we’ll be out here doing the same to get us through this challenge. 

kaleidahealth.org/coronavirus


Provider collaboration boosts patient health 


JOED VIERA 

LaVonne Ansari, CEO of the Community Health Center of Buffalo, said providers across the state are learning new 

ways to deliver care that may continue into the future. 

Telemedicine 

vein evaluations 

available by 

request 

Dr. Dana Dunleavy, Director 

Your Doctor’s Partner in Care 

Diagnosing and delivering 

cost-effective, cutting-edge treatments 

for vein disease, cancer, uterine fibroids, 

enlarged prostates and much more. 

716.929.9484 | windsonginterventional.com 

Healthy coordination 

Expanded collaboration was developed 

between practices and health 

systems during a state-led, five-year 

Medicaid reform initiative that forced 

providers at all levels to work together 

to gain additional value-based bonuses. 

Though those funds have expired, 

it’s likely the collaborative relationships 

will remain and new value-based 

models will emerge. 

Ultimately, Hughes said, there’s 

a universal recognition that no one 

health system is strong enough to do 

everything on its own. Hospitals need 

ambulatory-surgery centers and primary 

care needs specialty services. 

“You will start to see a realization 

from everyone that we are stronger 

together,” he said. 

The ongoing integration of smaller 

practices into larger, multi-group 

practices and hospital-employment 

arrangements will continue. Without 

those, many smaller practices almost 

certainly would not have survived 

shutdowns during the pandemic. 

Those relationships allowed many 

Optimum practice groups to receive 

tech support for telehealth, attain 

access to personal-protective equipment 

in group-purchasing arrangements 

and demand advance payments 

from insurers to ensure a steady cash 

flow. 

“If you were truly an independent 

physician, you would find yourself 

very exposed at the moment,” Hughes 

said. “Whether it’s through emerging 

deals or tight partnerships, you’re 

going to see more a year from now.” 

Electronic scheduling 

Electronic scheduling for appointments 

and tests is almost certain to 

remain in place. Though some labs 

and physician offices have offered 

that through patient portals and electronic 

health systems, the practice has 

become more widespread in recent 

weeks. 

“Historically, health care is one of 

the most backward industries in the 

country, so we’re very slow adapters,” 

Mills said. “This may radically shake up 

some of that and how we think about 

ourselves and maybe, fast-forward 

health care into a more competitive 

and maybe more nimble industry that 

doesn’t drag its feet as much as it has.” 

Options for patients, providers 

Catholic Health is banking on telehealth 

continuing as a bigger part of 

its future. 

The Covid-19 pandemic led to the 

development of a new on-demand 

care platform for its 10,000 associates 

in tandem with Independent Health, 

allowing free virtual visits. And now 

the system is deploying 2,000 digital 

units to its home-care patients to stay 

connected with caregivers. 

“We’ve worked for years using 

telemed or telemonitoring, and now 

they’ve been bringing in additional 

telemonitoring equipment that has 

a Covid-19 protocol in it,” said Joyce 

Markiewicz, executive vice president 

and chief business development 

officer. 

The program was added to the computers 

of all home-care nurses, allowing 

them to complete virtual visits 

with patients who want to minimize 

potential exposure to the virus. 

“We want to see the patients face 

to face, but there are some saying, ‘I 

need the care but I don’t want people 

coming into my home,’” she said. “The 

beauty of it is, it gives them an alternative 

to still see those patients.” 

New destinations for care 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 

Services will now pay for more 

than 80 additional services furnished 

via telehealth. These include emergency-department 

visits, nursing-facility 

and discharge visits and home visits 

provided by a clinician. The changes 

allow for video and audio calls. 

Another change will allow ambulances 

to transport patients to more 

locations when other transportation 

is not medically appropriate, including 

community mental-health centers, 

federally qualified health centers 

(FQHCs), physician offices, urgent- 

SEE LESSONS, PAGE 10 


Collaboration, 

compassion and 

exceptional care. 

Evergreen Health is proud to be a part of Buffalo’s healthcare community 

and is doing its part to slow the spread of Coronavirus. We’re working 

hard to keep our employees safe and have continued to provide vital 

services to keep our patients healthy. We’re truly in this together. 

We remain open and offer the following services: 

• Primary Care 

• Pharmacy and free delivery services 

• HIV Care 

• HIV Prevention & PrEP 

• Sexual Health Testing and Treatment 

• Hepatitis C Care 

• Behavioral Health Services 

• Drug User Health Services 

Because your health matters. 

For locations and hours in Buffalo 

and the Southern Tier, please visit 

our website, www.evergreenhs.org


Lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic 


care facilities and ambulatory-surgery 

centers. 

Helping to divert visits to the ER 

makes sense for community health 

centers, said LaVonne Ansari, CEO of 

the Community Health Center of Buffalo. 

That decision would be made by 

paramedics if they determine a patient 

does not need an ER visit. 

“We’re looking at putting together 

peak times to see when you would 

need us most, what things we can do 

and cannot do,” she said. “If this model 

works, it would be something that 

could stay post-Covid.” 

Brett Lawton leads the Safety Net 

Association of Primary Care Affiliated 

Providers of WNY, a regional collaborative 

of 12 health centers, known 

as SNAPCAP, which includes community 

health centers and primary-care 

centers at Aspire of WNY and People 

Inc.’s Elmwood Health Center, Evergreen 

Health and primary-care clinics 

at ECMC and Kaleida Health. 

All have remained open during the 

pandemic, and Lawton expects those 

organizations to play a broader role in 

the region’s health care. 

“We think there is going to be this 

need,” he said. “They’re very much 

interested in being part of the solution.” 

Novel diagnostic tools 

New ways of diagnosing patients 

have emerged. UBMD Orthopaedics 

& Sports Medicine developed instructional 

videos to help patients show 

providers via video call their range of 

motion and determine trouble spots 

and severity of injury. 

Those were developed by teams of 

surgeons and research and education 

personnel during Zoom calls, said Dr. 

Leslie Bisson, president. Those teams 

determined the best ways to standardize 

evaluation of different body 

parts. 

The practice starts by sending 

someone a video in anticipation of 

the telemed call, and asks them to 

record themselves going through certain 

movements and send it in before 

connecting with the physician. 

“I don’t want to say it’s equivalent. 

No one has measured and compared 

these things yet. But if the doctor or 

provider thinks it’s at all possible to 

substitute a telemed visit for an in-office 

visit, we’re encouraging everyone 

to do it,” he said. “Obviously in orthopedics, 

a lot of people are breaking and 

tearing things, and they need splints 

and therapy to get better, so you can’t 

do all of it remotely.” 

The practice is also using telehealth 

to review test data, such as 

displaying an MRI scan on-screen to 

save a patient a trip into the office. 

So far, patient satisfaction with this 

type of care is at 98 percent, on par 

in comparison to past years when 

the only option was an in-office visit. 

Cynthia Voelker is associate CEO at Spectrum Health & Human Services, where just a small group of workers now 

report to office sites, while 95 percent of its 250 staffers are working from home, including counselors who are seeing 

patients virtually. 

That bodes well for keeping the system 

intact. 

“How much will we keep? It’s hard 

to say, but it’s going to be more than 

it was before, that’s for sure,” Bisson 

said. 

The crisis has forced providers 

to recognize the value of new ways 

to deliver care, said Dr. John Notaro, 

medical director at Buffalo Medical 

Group, the region’s second-largest 

private, multi-specialty medical 

group. 

He told the story of a patient who 

had a video visit with a BMG primary-care 

doctor who determined he 

was likely passing a kidney stone. 

Before the pandemic, the patient likely 

would have gone to the emergency 

room. Instead, the physician sent 

him for an outpatient scan, followed 

by a video visit with a urologist who 

explained what to expect as the kidney 

stone passed. If the patient ever 

develops another stone, he’s going to 

remember this experience and question 

the need of going to the emergency 

department. 

“We’ll never go back to the old 

way of delivering care,” Notaro said. 

“Patients will recognize that, and 

physicians will recognize that and 

we’ll never go back to the old way, nor 

should we. It saves the patient a lot of 

money and convenience.” 

Shrinking offices and staff? 

What that means for the future of 

physician offices and staff size remains 

to be seen. If a good portion of care 

goes virtual, that may change resources 

and negate the formula of three 

exam rooms or 10 parking spots for 

each practicing physician, Notaro said. 

“That’s the way we’re going to be 

able to reduce the cost of medical 

care for patients,” he said. “People 

who were forward-thinking always 

believed that was true. Now the crisis 

has thrust us into a position where 

we’re actually experiencing this.” 

“This pandemic is a great tragedy. If 

there’s a silver lining in this, it’s that 

we’re going to learn some lessons on 

how to innovate around care delivery 

that patients will benefit from and will 

improve the quality and timeliness of 

their experience of care. And it will 

reduce the cost of care to a nation 

that’s struggling with that question 

how to reduce the cost of care.” 

About 95 percent of all services provided 

by Spectrum Health & Human 

Services are happening via telehealth 

now, but that’s in large part because of 

waivers and special allowances by state 

JOED VIERA 

and federal agencies. That includes 

mental health, addiction counseling 

and some medication-assisted 

treatment. 

Cynthia Voelker, associate CEO, 

said a small group of staff and nurses 

are still going into the community 

to see high-risk, high-needs clients. 

The team visits the patient and uses 

an iPad to allow a remote visit with a 

physician or nurse practitioner to evaluate 

and prescribe medications. 

And because of special circumstances, 

those who require methadone 

or other drugs can receive more than 

one day’s dose at a time due to regulatory 

relief from the state Office of Mental 

Health and the Office of Alcoholism 

and Substance Abuse Services. 

Voelker isn’t sure what the fate of 

those changed models will be in the 

future, but she’s hoping some regulatory 

changes stay in place. 

“A lot of us have been saying we’ve 

engaged some people more than we 

may have by making them come into 

the offices every day,” she said. “We are 

looking at how can we make sure our 

technology and the ability to do virtual 

visits continues. I think it’ll change 

the way we do business going forward. 

When you’re forced to embrace it, it’s 

different. But change is hard.” 



NATIONWIDE IMPACT 

Discussion focuses on role of nurses 

BY LAURA WILLIAMS-TRACY 

American City Business Journals 

Never before have most of us thought 

about our neighbor’s health as much 

as our own. 

The nation’s top nurses mirror that 

worry, and the Covid-19 pandemic is 

likely to drive change within their profession, 

including a possible return to 

public health nursing. 

“Our public health system has 

been decimated,” said Julie Fairman, 

the Nightingale professor of nursing 

and director emerita of the Barbara 

Bates Center for the Study of the History 

of Nursing at the University of 

Pennsylvania. 

During the 1918 flu pandemic, the 

U.S. had a robust brigade of visiting 

nurses who saw patients in their 

homes and who looked at communities 

and figured out the health risks. 

The move toward specialization in 

medicine over the last half-century 

shifted the focus and that meant public 

health surveillance, contact tracing 

and risks to communities were gone. 

Today’s nurses focus on the patient 

in front of them and not, largely, the 

KAREN DUCEY/GETTY IMAGES 

Charge nurse Liliana Palacios 

removes her mask after tending 

to a patient with Covid-19 in the 

acute care Covid unit at Harborview 

Medical Center in Seattle. 

community as a whole. 

The Covid-19 disruption ought to 

trigger a change in thinking, Fairman 

said. That is coupled with the equally 

daunting public health crisis of the 

opioid epidemic, which kills, on average, 

130 people a day, according to 

public health statistics. 

“It’s usually not one factor that makes 

change, and we have a whole lot of factors 

that have raised their heads and are 

showing that our health-care system is 

not getting at all of this,” Fairman said. 

The Affordable Care Act in 2010 

established the Public Health Service 

to be in charge of containing disease 

outbreaks and to have a ready reserve 

component — like the National Guard 

for public health — to be ready to 

deploy in times of crisis. 

Legislative stumbles kept it from 

becoming a reality, but the Covid-19 

crisis provided an impetus. The $2.2 

trillion CARES Act relief package 

enacted in March provides for $323 

million over five years to train and pay 

2,500 reservists. 

“Covid-19 is an opportunity now to 

resurrect public health nursing,” said 

Eileen Sullivan-Marx, dean of the Rory 

Meyers College of Nursing at New York 

University and president of the American 

Academy of Nursing. She said a 

corps would be attractive to nurses, 

especially if student loans were forgiven 

in return for service. 

One vestige of public health exists 

under the Office of the Surgeon General. 

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned 

Corps has more than 6,000 

nurses who do projects for the Food 

and Drug Administration or with Indian 

Health Services. 

“There isn’t an equivalent at the 

state or county level of what used to be 

a public health nurse,” Sullivan-Marx 

said. “They just went away because 

there was not funding for it.” 

The loss is felt when a pandemic 

strikes, Sullivan-Marx said, and there 

are few formal connections in the community 

to facilitate a local response. 

Other problems to tackle include 

the opioid epidemic and understanding 

that poverty and other social determinants 

play an outsized role in health. 

“With all of our therapeutics and 

treatments, we haven’t moved the needle 

in chronic illnesses, so we are asking 

what we can do to prevent people from 

getting these diseases,” Fairman said. 

The pandemic also has revealed a 

need for clinical professionals to be 

more broadly skilled to help in a crisis. 

“We have been so stuck in our silo 

specialties, and we need more cross-modality,” 

Sullivan-Marx said. “How would 

a gastroenterologist help with Covid? 

We need much more of that.” 

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Praveen Arany co-founded OptiMed Technology, a biotech company in the dental space. 

JOED VIERA 

Oral health oracle 

OPTIMED IS COMMERCIALIZING SEVERAL PROMISING BIOTECH PRODUCTS 

“One of the best 

ways to prevent 

disease is simply 

good hygiene. 

We think we 

can truly 

revolutionize 

oral care.” 

PRAVEEN ARANY 

BY DAN MINER 

dminer@bizjournals.com 

Praveen Arany has what you might call 

a sweet tooth for innovation. 

He earned a Ph.D. in biological sciences 

in dental medicine from Harvard 

University in 2011. He has been a University 

at Buffalo assistant professor in 

the Department of Oral Biology, School 

of Dental Medicine, since 2015. He is also 

president of the World Association for 

Photobiomodulation Therapy. 

Amid all that, Arany found time to 

co-found a Buffalo biotech startup, 

OptiMed Technology, based on research 

from his UB lab. 

Arany, who is chief scientific and 

strategy officer for the startup, started 

the company with Daniel Chan and Robert 

Bachellor. 

OptiMed, which has been accepted 

to the Start-Up NY tax break program, 

is working on commercializing two 

technologies. 

One is a specialty toothpaste and the 

other is a 3-D printed denture material, 

both designed to treat irreversible gum 

overgrowth and fungal conditions. 

The OptiMed team is raising money 

for its first full-time hire, Saeed Rahman, 

who will help drive development and 

regulatory efforts and bring the products 

to the market. 

Once there, Arany said OptiMed can 

quickly become a multi-million dollar 

company and start capturing market 

share in a $15 billion industry. 

“One of the best ways to prevent 

disease is simply good hygiene,” Arany 

said. “We think we can truly revolutionize 

oral care.” 


Technology 

PAID ADVERTISEMENT 

Sponsored by 

ON THE 

HORIZON 

Technology will continue to drive innovation in the health-care sector, says Edward Robb of Robb Surgical Devices. 

JOED VIERA 

TECHNOLOGY EXPECTED TO CONTINUE TO SHAPE HEALTH CARE 

BY PATRICK CONNELLY 

pconnelly@bizjournals.com 

In 2000, Edward Robb helped to create Applied Medical 

Coatings, a Lockport contract medical-device 

manufacturer. 

Fourteen years later, he launched Robb Surgical 

Devices, based in the Innovation Center on the Buffalo 

Niagara Medical Campus. 

That company develops and manufactures medical 

devices, including a niche line of products for 

laparoscopic surgeries. The business saw a bit of a 

dip with elective surgeries on hold due to Covid-19, 

but orders have started to pick back up. 

“We expect business to grow and we’re in the process 

of launching a few of our new medical products,” 

Robb said. 

Among them is a product his company developed 

with Silipos, a Niagara Falls manufacturer of 

gel products. 

“We’ve come up with a cardiology product that 

uses their gel technology. It insulates, cushions and 

protects patients’ pacemakers,” Robb said. “Pacemakers 

that stick out of the chest (make for) an 

uncomfortable situation for the patient whether 

they’re driving in a car, actively moving or even just 

sleeping.” 

The device is a patch that is reusable for a period 

of time and fits over a person’s skin so he or she can 

wear it while going about a normal routine. 

“We’re looking to launch that sometime before 

summer,” he said. 

Much like Robb, Dr. Michael Galang, senior vice 

president and chief information officer of Catholic 

Health, and Daniel Porreca, executive director 

of HealtheLink, regularly envision what technologies 

will innovate health care and improve business 

efficiencies. 

They offered insight on the areas they expect to 

see at the center of conversations. 

Medical record-keeping and 

information sharing 

As HealtheLink has grown operations in Western 

New York, Porreca said its pool of data also has 

grown. 

The organization enables health-care professionals 

in its network to quickly access patient information 

with the goal of providing better treatment. 

Porreca said HealtheLink is utilizing data to see 

how to assist in population health and value-based 

care efforts in the region. 

“This is something relatively new to us, but we’re 

able to leverage the data from across the community,” 

he said. “The health-care landscape is shift- 

SEE PANDEMIC, PAGE 14 


THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // TECHNOLOGY 

Pandemic spurred awakening in tech field 


ing in that direction. In addition to 

the clinical data that we have, we are 

now layering in claims data to round it 

out. When it is up, and running in full 

force, it is going to be a powerful tool 

for the community.” 

Studies have shown that data helps 

doctors better identify gaps in patient 

care, he said. 

All data is held and transmitted 

securely via HealtheLink. The wave of 

the future in the industry, particularly 

after requirements were issued this 

year by the U.S. Centers for Medicare 

& Medicaid Services, is that patients 

have the rights to their data at any time 

and knowledge of where it is stored, 

Porreca said. 

He expects more groups to look 

for ways to standardize data as the 

data-sharing realm progresses. That, 

he said, could be aided by artificial 

intelligence, machine learning and 

other forms of technology. 

“I think we are limited by our imagination 

as to what we will be able to 

do,” he said. 

Patient and clinician 

shared portals 

Electronic health records and ease 

of access are likewise a focus at Catholic 

Health, where Galang leads a 

$135 million project with Epic Systems 

that will make nearly everything hospitals 

do operate from the same portal 

on smart devices. 

“It really does provide that true 

integrated platform that we’ve always 

dreamed about,” he said. 

The project is still on track to be 

Dr. Michael Galang expects Catholic Health’s project to have all digital 

systems operate from the same portal will launch in early 2021. 

ready for use next year and will bring 

an end to multiple systems in use at 

Catholic Health, he said. Employees 

will be trained so they can get up to 

speed quickly. 

The My Chart feature of the platform 

allows patients to use their smart 

device to access personal records and 

test results, schedule appointments 

and pay bills. Secure telehealth capabilities 

are available, too. 

“It allows many things that the 

patient can do to increase efficiency,” 

Galang said. 

Patient information held by the 

platform, with consent, is also accessible 

to some health-care entities that 

JOED VIERA 

are non-users through its Share Everywhere 

feature, he said. That will come 

in handy if a patient needs medical 

assistance while traveling. 

Behind the scenes, the platform is 

even more powerful for clinicians. 

“It’s one integrated health record 

(system). You can access real-time 

information that’s entered into the 

chart and you avoid repeat documentation,” 

he said. “There’s also a reduction 

in medication errors with the use 

of bar-code scanning at the point of 

administration, primarily used by the 

nursing staff.” 

He said platforms such as this that 

simultaneously have a portal available 

to patients will become more 

robust as efficiencies improve, especially 

with an intuitive feature similar 

to Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa in 

development. 

“I think the technology is here now, 

but it will become even better,” Galang 

said. 

Personal-protective 

equipment manufacturing 

Robb expects consumer demand to 

drive the U.S. development and manufacturing 

of safety and protective 

products. 

Much of that work shifted overseas 

to countries like China. But he predicts 

people will demand to buy products 

such as masks in the places they typically 

shop. That, coupled with government 

instruction to be ready for future 

outbreaks, will usher in a new era for 

U.S. manufacturers. 

“I don’t think anybody before this 

pandemic realized how much reliance 

on China we really have,” Robb said. “I 

think with the pandemic, that’s broken 

out and there will be an awakening 

coming out of this. Once the dust settles, 

I think that’s going to be the new 

norm in the medical-device industry.” 

He said he believes that mindset 

will make standard development and 

manufacturing of other medical devices 

more prevalent in the U.S., as well. 

“It’s going to be a concern, and people 

are going to want to have those 

products readily available,” Robb said. 

“The unfortunate side of this - yet fortunate 

- is that it shed light on this in 

our industry and just how important 

(local device manufacturing) is to the 

survival of our country.” 

WORD FROM THE SPONSOR: ROSWELL PARK COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER 

Sometimes our best work is forged out of adversity 

The need for innovation is 

all around us, a drive for 

improvement that pulses through 

every facet of our lives. 

Few moments have punctuated 

that need the way the COVID-19 

pandemic has. This new and uniquely 

deadly virus has reset our whole 

world, raising an urgent call for 

treatments, vaccines and testing 

tools to control a pathogen that was 

unknown to us just a few months ago. 

The Roswell Park team has 

answered that call with incredible 

dedication, in both predictable 

and wonderfully surprising ways. 

Innovators from all over our center 

immediately jumped in to say, “How 

can I be part of the solution? How can 

I fix a problem or make things better, 

at Roswell Park and maybe even 

across the globe?” 

There are the clinical researchers 

and immunology experts who, as the 

first reports of the new coronavirus 

Candace S. 

Johnson, PhD, 

is President 

& CEO of 

Roswell Park 

Comprehensive 

Cancer Center 

came from 

overseas, 

immediately 

started asking 

whether some 

of the same 

strategies we 

put to work 

to immobilize 

cancer’s assault 

on the immune 

system might 

also work against 

COVID-19. There’s 

a lot about the 

way the new 

coronavirus 

inflames our 

immune system that is similar to 

what cancer does. 

As I write this, just weeks since the 

virus arrived in the U.S., our team has 

already initiated three research efforts 

focused on ways to treat COVID-19 or 

study how it behaves: 

• A study to learn whether 

a drug used to treat rheumatoid 

arthritis and lupus can be repurposed 

as a therapy for severe COVID-19 

• A regional program to see if 

infusions of “convalescent” plasma 

from the blood of people who have 

cleared the virus from their systems 

helps patients to generate their own 

immune response against COVID-19 

• A groundbreaking 

collaboration that will apply 

approaches we use in cancer to 

develop strategies for treating 

COVID-19 patients based on the 

genetics of their immune systems 

And you can expect more studies 

like this to come. 

The Roswell Park team’s ingenuity 

in the face of COVID-19 extends 

across every area of our operations. 

With global demand for hand 

sanitizer so high and hand sanitizer 

an essential everyday resource at 

Roswell Park, we knew we needed 

a better long-term supply — so our 

scientists and engineers figured out a 

way to make it, right in our labs. 

We have world-class molecular 

virologists here at Roswell Park. As 

soon as it became clear that COVID-19 

would hit our shores, they started 

working to develop their own FDAapproved 

detection test so we would 

be able to do rapid COVID-19 testing 

for our patients and staff onsite. 

There’s so much more to our lives 

and our mission at Roswell Park 

than COVID-19, but these examples 

illustrate an important truth: 

Sometimes our best work is forged 

out of hardship and adversity. 

As you read through these pages, 

I know you’ll find many examples of 

people who turned disappointment 

or failure into something useful, 

efficient, productive, even life-saving. 

Watching the COVID-19 crisis 

unfold around us, with no clear end 

in sight, that reminder is a welcome 

one: that something so challenging 

and painful can yield good things too. 


ROSWELL PARK COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER 

RISING 

TO THE CHALLENGE 

When innovation is at the core of what you do, new challenges 

become opportunities. At Roswell Park, when the novel coronavirus 

introduced a new enemy, we knew what we had to do. From our 

nurses and doctors on the front lines to the pathologists, scientists, 

engineers and everyone behind the scenes, we got to work. Armed 

with a think tank of brilliant minds, compassionate caretakers 

and committed staff, we are applying what we know in new ways 

Providing comfort at the bedside 

Applying what we know about cancer 

to find new ways to fight COVID-19 

Connecting our patients with their 

families through technology 

Developing new ways to detect it 

Overcoming supply shortages 

so that we will come out on the other side even stronger. 

www.RoswellPark.org

THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // TECHNOLOGY 

Eased telehealth laws 

offer test run for future 

Telehealth’s test run during the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to advancements in the field. 

GETTY IMAGES 

BY PATRICK CONNELLY 

pconnelly@bizjournals.com 

There is a misconception among some health-care 

providers that starting out in telehealth can head 

down a dangerous path, Buffalo attorney Robert 

Trusiak said. 

“It’s important to recognize, and oftentimes 

providers get tripped up on this, but clinical merit 

does not subordinate privacy laws created to ensure 

patient privacy,” he said. 

For safety reasons and to continue care during 

the Covid-19 crisis, most health-care providers 

have shifted in-person visits to a telehealth 

where patients meet with clinicians remotely via 

a teleconference. 

Trusiak’s legal practice focuses on health-care 

laws. He is also a former assistant U.S. attorney and 

corporate compliance officer at Kaleida Health. 

He said telehealth has obvious benefits, but providers 

need to tread carefully to comply with federal 

requirements such as HIPAA. 

“It’s critically important to remember that these 

privacy and security laws are paramount,” Trusiak 

said. 

Telehealth is considered health care’s next frontier, 

but advancement and widespread adoption by 

clinicians have been slow up until now. 

The increased use during the pandemic shows 

what the industry could see in years to come, said 

Lauren Suttell, a senior associate at Lippes Mathias 

Wexler Friedman LLP. 

“There’s certainly a segment of the population 

that’s a little wary of using technology and surely 

in the practice of medicine,” she said. 

The Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department 

of Health and Human Services in March issued a 

notice of enforcement discretions for the pandemic. 

In that, Suttell said some HIPAA laws were temporarily 

relaxed for telemedicine purposes. 

“For those clients that are traversing into this 

area for the first time, we remind them the change 

does not constitute a free-for-all,” she said. “There’s 

some relaxation around the requirements, but it’s 

not a blanket waiver of the requirements across the 

entire practice. 

“Generally, the advice is to start in a place of 

greatest compliance possible.” 

Providers can take precautions to maximize 

compliance, she said. 

Suttell offered some tips for health-care 

providers: 

R Use a HIPAA-compliant communication 

platform. 

R Obtain the patient’s consent, preferably in 

writing. 

R Compliant video apps include commonly 

used platforms available through Microsoft, Google, 

GoToMeeting, Zoom and others. 

R Online patient portals for electronic medical 

records may have compliant video platforms. 

R Do not make virtual meetings public or 

patient information available in any capacity. 

R Use a platform’s privacy and security features, 

such as encryption and meeting codes. 

If a virtual meeting is hacked or breached, she 

said the provider needs to report that to the FBI’s 

Internet Crime Complaint Center. 

Trusiak said regulatory laws in telehealth have 

stunted its growth. But after the crisis runs its 

course, some regulations could be permanently 

relaxed, which in turn would lead to advancement 

in capabilities. 

“People are experiencing the real and genuine 

benefits of telehealth,” he said. 


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JOED VIERA 

EXPERTS: MORE EMPLOYERS NEED TO CONSIDER MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS 

BY ANNEMARIE FRANCZYK 

Contributing writer 

Young adults, those between 18 and 25 years old, 

have a higher incidence of mental-health issues 

than most adults and yet are the least likely to 

seek help for their problems. 

And that is the sum of the challenge for mentalhealth 

professionals who want to treat them and 

businesses who want to employ them. 

Not to address mental illness in the lives of young 

adults means they will develop more serious problems 

that are more difficult to treat as they get older. 

“If left unmanaged or undetected, it could lead to 

social isolation, being withdrawn, alcoholism, suicide, 

and could affect other life areas such as relationships, 

jobs and the overall quality of life,” said 

Megan Tevens, who has counseled young people for 

a decade. “The earlier you intervene, the better.” 

Employers need to step in and recognize symptoms 

of mental distress, such as significant changes 

in mood, low productivity, being withdrawn, low 

or no socialization, lack of focus, absenteeism and 

negative self-talk. 

But are employers willing to do so? Not so much, 

said Caleek Roman, 22, youth peer advocate with 

Mental Health Advocates of Western New York. 

Employers see mental illness as “extra baggage.” 

“Employers understand a death in the family, but 

anxiety and depression? That won’t get accommodated,” 

he said. “In most cases, it often is, ‘Leave your 

problems at the door when you step in. You can’t 

bring that inside. We need an uplifting environment, 

don’t bring down the morale.’ That expectation is 

placed on you, and you don’t know where to go for 

help.” 

The older generation in charge seems to cling to 

the long-standing stigma of mental illness, Roman 

said, which conflicts with the younger generation’s 

general attitude of openness and acceptance. 

That gap in understanding can make it difficult for 

young adults to function on the job while battling a 

mental illness, he said. 

Despite outward appearances, youth and opportunity 

don’t always present themselves as positives, 

the experts said. 

Moving from high school to college and from college 

to the work world can be stressful enough and 

has been from generation to generation. 

This group, however, has come up in a go-go-go, 

fast-paced world, driven by ever-present technology, 

Tevens, a senior therapist with Horizon Health 

Services, said. 

“They are reliant on technology, social media and 

video games. And a lot of the time, they’re not used 

SEE BEHAVIORAL, PAGE 22 


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THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // BEHAVIORAL HEALTH 

Behavioral health struggles a concern for young adults 


to managing their emotions, and that 

can be difficult for someone who is not 

used to doing that,” Tevens said. 

The 24/7 accessibility to work is 

putting a lot more stress and pressure 

on this group, said Lindsay Herndon, 

director of outpatient services at 

BryLin Behavioral Health System. 

“They are so focused on their goals, 

and what it takes to achieve them, 

that’s just one more thing placed 

on them,” Herndon said. “They are 

caught up in life and afraid to look 

like a failure.” 

Shifting family dynamics and the 

recent mounting bad news only adds 

to the group’s anxiety. 

Social isolation from the coronavirus 

hasn’t made their situation any 

easier. And they won’t seek help, she 

said. 

Contributing to their mental 

problems is the Covid-19 impact on the 

workforce. It is a shock particularly to 

this age group with no work perspective, 

said Kenneth Houseknecht, executive 

director of Mental Health Advocates of 

Western New York. 

“Any employee 30 years or younger 

has never worked in an economic 

slowdown,” he said. “We’ve gone from 

the lowest unemployment in February 

to the highest since the Great Depression 

in two months.” 

Even before the challenges of 

Covid-19, this young-adult age group 

had the highest prevalence of mental, 

behavioral or emotional disorder 

among adults at about 26 percent, 

according to a 2017 study by the 

National Institute of Mental Health. 

At the same time, the percentage 

of this group who received mentalhealth 

services, at 38 percent, was 

lower than other adult groups, the 

study found. 

And yet, this group, more than any 

other that came before, is attracted 

to employers who are sensitive to the 

mental health of their workers and 

recognize the necessity of work-life 

balance, Houseknecht said. 

To attract and keep younger 

employees, he said, the company culture, 

philosophy and leaders need to 

address the whole person, including 

JOED VIERA 

The Covid-19 crisis has shocked young adults, says Kenneth Houseknecht of the Mental Health Advocates of WNY. 

mental health. 

How that can take shape is to start 

at a basic level, Roman said. 

“We want the people we work for 

to take an interest in us as individuals 

and not as workers,” he said. “We 

want an openness and transparency 

and to make sure that our voices are 

being heard.” 

WORD FROM THE SPONSOR: SPECTRUM HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES 

Telehealth in Behavioral Health — Now and the Future 

COVID-19 has generated an 

immediate need for behavioral 

health agencies to pivot to virtual 

services options (telephonic or televideo) 

to sustain critical mental health 

and addiction services for those in 

need. This includes at the provider 

level virtual team meetings and 

virtual supervision for clinicians who 

are delivering services. 

The loosening of regulations by 

the State and Federal governments for 

Medicaid and Medicare consumers, 

as well as commercial insurance 

companies waving copays for 

telehealth services makes virtual 

service delivery a viable alternative. 

While most providers were 

doing some telehealth, the need to 

go completely virtual has placed 

tremendous pressure on: 

• Payers and regulators 

• Getting consumers to accept the 

new paradigm 

• Need to train staff 

Clinical professionals need formal 

training to assure privacy, security 

Bruce Nisbet is 

President/CEO 

of Spectrum 

Health & Human 

Services 

and effectiveness 

of treatment 

delivered with 

this new modality 

(e.g. transfer of 

skills from face to 

face to virtual). 

The consumer 

adoption and 

readiness is 

variable. .Some 

consumers seem 

to like telephonic 

counseling 

and clinicians 

report that in 

many cases the consumers seem 

more comfortable discussing their 

challenges when it is not face to face 

and telephonic or virtual. Other 

consumers are much less comfortable 

with one of the virtual approaches. 

Other challenges that effect some 

consumers is the availability of 

sufficient telephone minutes for ongoing 

telephonic counseling, capacity 

of their phone to connect to video 

telehealth or access to a computer 

with internet access and privacy.. 

Advocacy by the State has helped 

to have some phone and internet 

providers allow unlimited minutes 

for Medicaid and Medicare recipients 

as well as more access to the internet. 

This is critical so large numbers of 

consumers in poverty can access 

treatment services. 

Payers are offering during this 

crisis the following: 

• Waving cost sharing for innetwork, 

non-COVID-19 behavioral 

health visits 

• Waivers are in place until May or 

June 2020 

• Video and telephonic visits 

allowed 

• New billing codes to support 

these changes 

With over 25% of the country’s 

workforce unemployed, research 

(Kaiser Family Foundation April 

Health Tracking Poll) shows that 

job loss is associated with increased 

depression, anxiety, distress, and low 

self-esteem and may lead to higher 

rates of substance use disorder and 

suicide. The polling data shows that 

more than half of the people who 

lost income or employment reported 

negative mental health impacts from 

worry or stress over coronavirus; and 

lower income people report higher 

rates of major negative mental health 

impacts compared to higher income 

people. 

In addition to the job loss burden 

effecting behavioral health needs, 

the effect of social isolation due to 

mandatory stay at home orders is 

also contributing to mental health 

challenges. The Kaiser Poll referenced 

above found that 47% of those 

sheltering in place reported negative 

mental health effects resulting from 

worry or stress related to coronavirus. 

With these new stressors on our 

community population, telehealth is 

the key for access to behavioral health 

treatment. The future of behavioral 

healthcare will have telehealth 

become a major vehicle to provide 

services to overcome current and 

new challenges and increasingly the 

preference of consumers. 


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DIAGNOSIS: MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES 

Covid-19 concerns just added to an 

Marie Story, corporate wellbeing consultant at Walsh Duffield Cos. Inc., says the stigma of mental illlness gets in the way of people receiving help. 

JOED VIERA 

BY ANNEMARIE FRANCZYK 

Contributing writer 

For employers reluctant to recognize 

the impact of depression, anxiety 

and stress among their workers, the 

Covid-19 pandemic might push them 

into full mental-health programming 

when the economy reopens. 

Companies must first embrace 

that mental health is affecting operations, 

and the increasing trends of 

opioid addiction and suicide might 

force the issue. Some have seen rising 

use of their employee-assistance 

programs and employee claims data 

around mental-illness diagnoses and 

treatment. 

“They are being treated, and that’s 

a good thing,” said Marie Story, corporate 

wellbeing consultant at Walsh 

Duffield Cos. Inc. “There needs to be an 

extra step to create a culture, to make 

sure that the employers are supporting 

them.” 

But many employers are not doing 

so, Story said. For many, the stigma 

and the shame that come along with 

mental illness may be getting in the 

way. Ignoring problems only makes 

things worse. 

“Something that could be addressed 

simply and inexpensively festers and 

gets more difficult and expensive to 

treat,” said Kenneth Houseknecht, 

executive director of Mental Health 

Advocates of Western New York. 

The value of an investment in mental 

health could be a motivation. For 

every dollar put into scaled-up treatment 

for common mental disorders, 

there is a return of four dollars 

in improved health and productivity, 

according to a May 2019 report by the 

World Health Organization. 

Recent statistics around that point 

to a severe level of workplace mental 

illness, pre-Covid-19. 

RRThree-quarters of workers 

reported suffering from work-related 

stress. 

RRA quarter of all workers indicated 

they are depressed. 

RRMore than half say anxiety and 

stress affect their work performance. 

It should not be a surprise that 

workforce surveys had indicated that 

most employees were interested in policies 

and procedures regarding mental 

health, Houseknecht said. 

“It’s been on everyone’s radar well 

before coronavirus,” Houseknecht 

said. “If we had a workforce already 

dealing with anxiety, depression and 

stress, this is just going to accelerate 

and exacerbate it. There will be 

even greater urgency and immediacy 

to address the mental illness in the 

workplace. 

“Employers: Will you be anticipatory 

and take a positive approach and 

take a productive approach and create 

a mental-health culture, or will you 

just deal with issues as they come up?” 

Lindsay Herndon, BryLin Behavioral 

Health System’s director of outpatient 

services, said an organization’s 

leadership should be intent on becoming 

aware of how employees are functioning 

in the workplace. 

“The way you treat your staff, the 

more willing they will be to take on 

extra duties,” she said. “If they’re there 

just there to get a paycheck, they’re not 

going to be productive.” 

Communication can stem the problems 

that can lead to mental distress, 

Herndon said. 

“In the workplace, you get rumors 

that fly around, like ‘Oh my god, are 

they talking about me? Is my paycheck 

safe?’ That’s when mental-health 

problems break in,” Herndon said. 

To jump ahead of potential problems, 

BryLin engaged in two communication-focused 

initiatives to help 

administrators open the lines with 

staff. 

One was a survey that asked 

employees to rate workplace environ- 



already stressed workforce 

ment, leadership support, organizational 

goals and the like. The second 

was trauma-informed care training for 

supervisors offered through the University 

at Buffalo. 

Herndon credits the improved 

communication and transparency 

that resulted with ultimately facilitating 

BryLin’s outpatient services shift 

to online when Covid-19 changes were 

instituted. 

“We went into telehealth within a 

week,” Herndon said. “We said, ‘This 

is how we are going to do it and how 

we’re going to support you.’” 

Such a positive approach, replacing 

a punitive tone, is an important element 

in trauma-informed care, said 

Susan Green, cofounder of UB’s Institute 

on Trauma and Trauma-Informed 

Care. 

For example, the workplace tone 

changes when assertive messages 

such as “All staff should be working 

remotely at this time and cannot 

come to the office without permission 

from their manager” are replaced with 

“We expect that all staff are working 

remotely at this time. As a reminder, 

staff can only come into the office with 

prior permission from their manager.” 

“The trauma-informed approach 

has employers, while moving through 

all the changes, very interested about 

how they are messaging and paying 

attention to the mental wellness of 

their workforce,” Green said. 

Prompted by requests from its 

employer groups, Independent Health 

developed a mental health “tool kit” 

that was introduced to its own staff of 

1,500 in January. 

The health plan expects to offer it to 

large employer groups and then small 

groups by yearend. 

Put together with Horizon Health 

Services, the program offers a straightforward 

plan of action: Train the leadership 

on signs and symptoms of mental 

illness; add a focus on depression, 

anxiety, suicide prevention and substance 

abuse; and give workers information 

and resources to recognize 

mental illness and incentives to follow 

through. 

“Mental health should be treated 

just like diabetes and high cholesterol,” 

said Jennifer Picone, corporate 

wellness manager at Independent 

Health. “Our ultimate goal is to give 

people a little bit of knowledge and 

information in order to take that first 

step and not be afraid.” 

Feedback has been encouraging. 

The program has lifted whatever barriers 

there were to talk about mental 

health in the workplace, Picone said. 

Staff now knows how prevalent problems 

are, how to recognize mental illness 

in others and themselves and how 

to handle situations as they arise. 

The situation is similar at Walsh 

Duffield Cos. Inc., where internal 

mental-health programming for the 

insurance agency’s 100 workers has 

been extended to its employer groups. 

It has risen in importance with physical 

activity as a contributor to overall 

workplace wellness, Story said. 

“Physical activity programs aren’t 

enough. Employers, if an employee 

is struggling with something, all the 

walking in the world won’t work,” 

Story said. “The more we talk about it, 

the more we put it on par with physical 

health, the more it becomes accepted 

in the workplace.” 

“Mental health should 

be treated just like 

diabetes and high 

cholesterol. Our 

ultimate goal is to 

give people a little 

bit of knowledge and 

information in order to 

take that first step and 

not be afraid.” 

JENNIFER PICONE, 

corporate wellness manager 

at Independent Health 

Adapting Care to Meet the 

Needs of Our Patients 

and their Families 

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For a Confidential Phone Assessment 

CALL TODAY 

(716) 866-8200 

Or Visit 

www.brylin.com 

For More Information 

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Health Education 

Sponsored by 

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JOED VIERA 

“We’re trying to be as flexible as possible,” says Dr. Alan Lesse, senior associate dean for medical curriculum at UB’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. 

COVID19 IMPACT ON MEDICAL STUDENTS WILL BE FELT FOR YEARS 

Doctors and other medical professionals must be ready for 

any circumstance, but preparing for a world that wasn’t 

Q 

A 

& fathomable at the start of 2020 has proven especially difficult. 

Dr. Alan Lesse, senior associate dean for medical 

curriculum at the University at Buffalo Jacobs School of 

Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, credits UB’s staff and 

students for their flexibility in getting through this semester. 

The upheaval has been tremendous, he said, but all students have 

remained on course to advance toward graduation in spite of the obstacles. 

Covid-19 could end up offering teaching opportunities for both students 

and faculty. 

How was the transition for the semester? It’s 

been interesting. I have to compliment our 

students on their resiliency and their endurance. 

It impacts each class differently. They each have 

their own points of anxiety. Since we don’t know 

what’s happening going forward, we’re trying to 

be as flexible as possible. We’ve been coordinating 

with other medical schools on best practices. We 

changed delivery of high-stakes exams. They’re 

SEE MEDICAL, PAGE 28 


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THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // HEALTH EDUCATION 

Medical school and students adapt to Covid-19 


normally in proctored settings, but are now 

distributed virtually. They can be virtually 

monitored, but students are not required to do 

so. We’re relying a lot upon the honor system. 

We’ve noticed no problems with that, as this 

year’s scores are comparable to the previous 10 

years’ worth of scores. 

What feedback have you received from 

students? We stay in touch through email and 

virtual town halls. They’ve been very patient 

with us as we’ve worked through ongoing 

changes. I know they realize there are a lot of 

things outside of anybody’s control. But they feel 

we have their best interests at heart. We’re trying 

to minimize their anxiety and difficulty in terms 

of coursework and flexibility. 

How has the pandemic changed how students 

learn? It’s not what, but how it’s delivered. 

The Association of American Medical Colleges 

recommends that students not be in the clinical 

environment. So they’re not in the hospitals. 

That has some effect on first- and second-year 

students, and a greater impact on third- and 

fourth-year students. In some ways, it’s actually 

been beneficial. 

We’ve been looking at a curricular reset 

in 2022, prior to any thoughts of a pandemic. 

To do that, we want to continue to use good 

teaching principles with learning objectives 

and a very structured accounting of what they 

need to know and how it’s delivered. With the 

pandemic and (students’) rapid removal from 

the wards, everybody has really bought into the 

disruptive change. As a result, some practices 

now are the delivery types and learning 

objectives we wanted a year from now. 

Clearly, what’s significantly different is they 

don’t have clinical exposure. Many schools have 

offered Covid electives, and we’ve tailored other 

electives. We’re now concentrating on delivering 

core online material. 

Once hospitals are clear, we will return 

students to clinical environments, making sure 

they are as well-trained as they otherwise would 

be. Any new curriculum would be competencybased, 

not time-based. Some people can master 

things more quickly. It’s the measure of that 

competency that’s much more important. 

How will this outbreak change your 

curriculum going forward? The Liaison 

Committee on Medical Education is requiring 

contingency plans for significant disruption 

for delivery of the educational content. This 

is something we’ve always talked about. It is 

something you really need to plan for, but until 

it happened, most plans were theoretical. 

In the future, there will be much more 

detailed plans. It has gone as well as it could. 

Look back to late 1990s with the avian flu. The 

world developed concern that it might be a 

worldwide pandemic. Also, there was SARS in 

2002. It was a pandemic in terms of disruption, 

but not in terms of infectivity. It was easier to 

control. Then in 2009 with H1N1, that was dealt 

with extremely well. But this one really showed 

us how to react in a faster and more defined 

manner. 

Are there any positives to take from this 

situation? I think everybody has gotten a lot 

better at online delivery of content. We talk 

in medical education about backward design. 

You identify your learning objectives, figure 

how you’ll assess and decide what material 

is important to achieve that. It’s that sense of 

urgency. You have to figure out what you need to 

know. 

What impact has there been and might there 

be on med-school applicants? For next year, we 

were through most of the interviews already. The 

last several sets occurred virtually. What’s going 

to happen next year is really a topic for national 

discussion. It’s going to be impacted at multiple 

places down the line. Students who haven’t 

taken the MCAT can’t take it. 

Colleges and universities have gone to pass/ 

fail. Courses that might give some insight into 

how students will handle the large volume of 

information are going to be graded on a pass/ 

no-pass basis, which might impact the school’s 

ability to discern applicants. We have adopted 

a holistic approach in recent years, so that has 

put us a little bit ahead of the curve. 

But it’s really going to impact the admissions 

process. From high school to college and college 

to graduate-level, everything is going to be 

impacted. 

Can prospective students do anything to get a 

leg up? It will probably change some people’s 

approach toward the timing of testing and 

requirements. Sometimes people put things off. 

I think this will give them a greater appreciation 

for (the fact that) you don’t have much control 

over many things. Get the requirements done so 

you’ll still be in good standing. 

Has there been or will be there be a surge 

in demand for your next class of graduates? 

(Federal) recommendations did make 

allowances to have graduates participate earlier, 

graduate earlier. But our graduation being May 

1 anyway, it hasn’t impacted our students nearly 

as much. If some part of the health-care system 

wants to utilize them prior to their residency, 

all the different organizations have set up 

guidelines. 

It’s not just as simple as them starting earlier. 

That’s not the best option. New graduates take 

training. It takes resources to train people. One 

has to be careful about introducing additional 

requirements on the system. 

— Paul Lane 

WORD FROM THE SPONSOR: D’YOUVILLE 

Higher Education Keeps Pace With Evolving Health Care Field 

There are two things that 

innovative educational 

institutions have learned during 

the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. First, 

no organization is immune to the 

effects of massive market disruption. 

Second, those institutions which act 

rather than react or become idle, will 

not only thrive but drive the future. 

Healthcare education leaders, 

over the last five years, could often be 

quoted saying, “We must be nimble. 

We have to be ready to respond 

quickly to changing market demands.” 

It meant launching new programs fast 

and tightening curriculum to expedite 

length to degree. It meant condensing 

credits to lower student costs and 

bringing in new technologies. It meant 

developing pathways for students 

to move in and out of educational 

experiences, from certificates to 

Lorri Clemo, 

PhD., is 

President of 

D’Youville. 

doctorates, 

as their life 

circumstances 

evolved. These 

were cuttingedge 

ideas in an 

industry that 

traditionally 

moved slowly. 

That is no longer 

the case. 

The future 

of healthcare 

education will 

demand more 

than fast responsiveness. It is now 

apparent that an institution will never 

be able to respond fast enough to the 

volcanic market that is the world today. 

So, for a university like D’Youville, we 

will continue to take the lead in our 

industry, not by responding to market 

needs in a reactionary way, but by 

shaping the future through education 

today. This commitment is evident 

in D’Youville’s Health Professions 

Hub, a 57,000 square foot epicenter 

of health care delivery, future-forward 

educational pedagogies, and workforce 

development opportunities aimed at 

building a healthier community. 

Moving forward, what might it 

mean to shape the future through 

education? It could mean reshaping 

cross-disciplinary academic programs 

into physical and digital team-based 

learning experiences that will not 

only educate, but tangibly improve 

public health outcomes. It could 

mean driving the workforce in an era 

when funders are suddenly pouring 

dollars into expanding programs 

like telehealth. What jobs might we 

imagine in this new future? How will 

these professionals shape healthcare 

outcomes twenty years from now? 

It could mean training students, 

not just to acquire skills needed in the 

work environment, but to anticipate 

and develop protocols around 

community health and wellness 

needs long before the disaster is at 

our door. We all know from this life 

experience that has overtaken our 

world, that we can – individually and 

collectively - adapt to technology 

we thought we would never use. 

Education must drive and familiarize 

its students and the communities 

they serve with future technologies 

that allow us to pivot quickly when 

common methods of service delivery 

suddenly become obsolete. 

The higher education marketplace 

throughout America is facing 

challenges. Colleges and universities 

will close. D’Youville will gather up 

its strength to ensure that healthcare 

education tomorrow sets the pace. 


THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // HEALTH EDUCATION 

CURRICULUMS IN TRANSITION 

Health-care education could look vastly different 

BY PAUL LANE 

plane@bizjournals.com 

Already a rapidly evolving area of academia, 

medical-related programs and 

curriculums promise to look far different 

once the Covid-19 pandemic 

winds down. The spring semester was 

one of upheaval for students receiving 

health-care training as they all converted 

online. Some got thrust to the 

frontlines of the Covid-19 battle; all got 

an education on adaptation that health 

care requires. 

Short-term impact 

As students switched programming, 

so did instructors who have long 

used traditional methods and mainly 

practiced emergencies in a hypothetical 

setting. 

“Our faculty will use this opportunity 

to teach the importance of collaboration 

throughout the health-care 

system and focus on the immediate 

disaster preparedness needed within 

the state,” said Diane Roth, assistant 

vice president of academic affairs 

at Niagara County Community College. 

“I see inter-collaboration within 

health-care professions becoming an 

even bigger focus in the future.” 

The key will be to find teaching 

moments, according to Allyson Lowe, 

Trocaire College vice president of academic 

affairs. That can be present on 

the frontlines and behind the scenes, 

including in health-care informatics. 

The popularity of the Johns Hopkins 

Covid-19 daily dashboard, for example, 

showed the importance of being 

able to visualize numbers, she said. 

Cheryl Nosek, chair of the nursing 

department at Daemen College, said 

many students at the graduate level or 

taking part in an R.N.-to-B.S. nursing 

program have been working in health 

care all along and much their work 

was already being done online. 

The pandemic has given faculty a 

new appreciation for demands put on 

students. 

“The amount of stress they’re 

enduring is just incredible,” said 

Nosek, citing one working student 

who was living in an RV in the driveway 

to minimize exposure to his loved 

ones. “What we’ve tried to do is be as 

flexible as possible. Extended deadlines. 

Incompletes so they can finish 

over the summer.” 

Job prospects slim 

Students without jobs in the field 

may have a hard time lining them up, 

according to Gregg Shutts, program 

director and department chair for 

physical therapy at Daemen. 

“A lot of offices in the area have furloughed 

their staff because they have 

no patients,” he said. “I think people 

are going to be somewhat cautious 

in expanding and getting back to the 

norm.” 

That will get worse the longer this 

goes, he said. Kids who aren’t going to 

school are not bringing home illnesses. 

Noncritical issues have been put off, 

further siphoning away revenue. 

Students who continue their studies 

may have issues of their own, especially 

those in the workforce who may 

be too overwhelmed to come back to 

school in the fall, said Doug Pisano, 

dean of St. Bonaventure University’s 

School of Health Professions. 

Rethinking training 

The pandemic situation has accentuated 

the need for changes in how 

health care is taught, Shutts said. 

R R Telehealth has surged and proven 

to be fairly reliable in many cases. 

More training in that area could ease 

the burden on patients to come in for 

face-to-face visits. 

R R Technological training could 

help in other areas, as well, such as letting 

students hear lectures over again 

and connecting students to each other. 

R R Faculty members can not worry 

about missing a class and throwing 

their schedules off. They can use virtual 

reality and artificial intelligence to 

create more life-like simulations. 

Upgrades in these and other areas 

could create a new normal for medical 

training, which Shutts said has 

long been based on a that’s-how-it’salways-been 

methodology but could 

be improved while not compromising 

on accreditation requirements. 

“There’s been a call to be more 

tech-savvy for years. This actually 

expedited the process, and we’ve 

been able to see the benefits,” he said. 

“How many weeks of experience do 

you need to be a doctor or a PA or a 

nurse? It’s always been historical, but 

people haven’t evaluated if it can be 

done in a shorter time. There’s going 

to be a lot of research into that.” 

A different curriculum 

To get to that point, institutions will 

have to bolster their offerings. While 

the certifications needed for programs 

required many changes to begin before 

the onset of Covid-19, several are still 

on the way for next year. 

St. Bonaventure will roll out a graduate-level 

physician-assistant studies 

program in January 2021. It’s the latest 

addition to a quickly growing School 

of Health Professions that opened in 

fall 2016 and has since added several 

bachelor’s and master’s programs. 

“The surrounding counties will 

really benefit,” said Pisano, adding 

that the pandemic isn’t expected to 

impact the applicant pool. “On average, 

one-third of physician-assistant 

graduates nationwide stay in the area 

near where they graduated from.” 

Genesee Community College will 

help students build up to the graduate 

level with a health-studies associate 

in science program coming in 

the fall. The program will offer about 

half the content online and is meant 

to feed students into SUNY’s Health 

Education Transfer Path, which sends 

students to four-year colleges to earn 

health-care degrees. 

The pandemic also has shown the 

The Covid-19 

pandemic 

has shown 

the need 

for changes 

in the way 

health care 

is taught, 

says Gregg 

Shutts, 

program 

director and 

department 

chair for 

physical 

therapy at 

Daemen 

College. 

JOED VIERA 

need for leadership, which is the focus 

of Trocaire’s new bachelor’s program 

in health-care management. 

“Health care is at a crossroad and 

needs skilled leadership across all 

health-care professions to address the 

many challenges,” said Gary Smith, 

Trocaire’s vice president of innovation 

and workforce development. 

There are no concrete plans for 

stress-management coursework, but 

Nosek said current circumstances have 

pointed out the need for some. 

“I think there’s going to be a lot of 

post-traumatic stress when this settles 

down,” she said. “We need to think 

about managing that.” 

Facilities upgrades 

The space available to train also will 

be different at some schools. 

St. Bonaventure got a waiver to continue 

construction on renovations to 

Francis Hall, which is being converted 

for the School of Health Professions. 

The $17.5 million project should be 

done by about Thanksgiving. 

D’Youville College has been able 

to continue work on the $26 million 

Health Professions Hub and remains 

on track for a December opening, 

President Lorrie Clemo said. 

Given some time, halls new and old 

again will be full with students. The 

pandemic will lead to development of 

strong plans in place should there be 

a next time, educators agree. 

“These kinds of things happen, but 

we will slog through. We are really 

looking to the future,” Pisano said. 

“We will overcome.” 

O 


To the nurses, physicians and all 

the health care heroes serving 

patients all over WNY ... 

THANK YOU

Health-Care Equity 

Sponsored 

by 

DOC ON A 

MISSION 

Dr. Willie Underwood III was hired 

this January as executive director 

of the Buffalo Center for Health 

Equity. He says the time has come 

for a focused regional effort on 

the disproportionate health issues 

that plague the city’s East Side. 

JOED VIERA 

DR. WILLIE UNDERWOOD III HAS WORKED ON ISSUES OF 

HEALTH EQUITY HIS WHOLE CAREER. HE’S JUST GETTING STARTED 

Q & A 

More than 300 people were in attendance at the University 

at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical 

Sciences in August 2019. 

The gathering was for the African-American Health 

Equity Task Force’s second annual Igniting Hope conference, 

with the theme “Building a Culture of Health 

and Ending African-American Health Disparities.” 

Officials for Erie County Medical Center Corp. used the occasion 

to announce a $372,000 grant for a new initiative, the Buffalo Center 

for Health Equity, which focuses specifically on health issues affecting 

residents of Buffalo’s East Side. 

Five months later, a Buffalo doctor was chosen as leader of the 

new program. Dr. Willie Underwood III is a urologist, biotech entrepreneur 

and member of the board of trustees of the American Medical 

Association. 

Underwood has spent his career on issues of health disparities and 

policies. He is a past board member of HealthNow New York Inc., the 

Love Canal Medical Fund, the Medical Society of the County of Erie 

and the National Medical Association Commission to End Health Care 

Disparities, among other posts. 

Founded in 2015, the African-American Health Equity Task Force 

is specifically focused on identifying racial and ethnic health disparities 

in Buffalo and enacting policy changes and community-level 

solutions. 

The task force works closely with the newly formed University at 

Buffalo Community Health Equity Research Institute. 

SEE UNDERWOOD, PAGE 32 


HE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // HEALTH-CARE EQUITY 

Underwood has plan to tackle health-care disparities 


Underwood spoke about health 

disparities in Buffalo and his plan to 

help fix the issues. 

Define the problem for us. I’ve 

dealt with health-care disparities 

in research and in my clinical care 

for more than 20 years. Here in 

Buffalo, years ago we put together the 

African-American Disparities Task 

Force, and we produced a document 

highlighting health-equity issues in 

the region, which are mostly focused 

on the East Side. Those ZIP codes 

are at higher risk of mortality from 

cardiovascular disease, diabetes, 

cancer. Those diseases have a lot to do 

with proper transportation, adequate 

housing and a whole host of financial 

or economic circumstances. 

What is your task force planning to 

do? The goal here is to address those 

things and to uplift the community. 

A community is only as strong as its 

weakest link, and one part of that 

chain is much weaker than all the 

rest. So it’s one thing to talk about a 

problem, and it’s another to say, ‘OK, 

what resources are we going to bring 

to bear to solve it? And who are we 

going to be accountable to?’ 

The strategy is going to be multifaceted, 

public and reach across 

disciplines. One aspect is going to be 

agenda-driven research so that we 

identify interventions, prove that they 

work and then bring them to scale. We 

are going to work with partners from 

inside and outside the community to 

put long-term changes in place. 

Dr. Willie Underwood III is a board-certified urologist who has spent his career on issues of access to quality health 

care. He says his new role leading the Buffalo Center for Health Equity isn’t just about lifting the East Side, but about 

supporting health outcomes for the entire community. 

That sounds ambitious. Everyone 

sees our society as us and them, but 

research has shown us that it’s just us, 

and that we’re sort of in this together. 

We’re hoping one thing that comes 

out of this coronavirus crisis is a 

newly reinvigorated effort to address 

social determinants of health in a way 

that we can resolve them. We want to 

make the East Side of Buffalo a strong 

JOED VIERA 

link within the chain. 

We’ve been working on this for 

years, but really we’re just getting 

started. 

— Dan Miner 

WORD FROM THE SPONSOR: TROCAIRE COLLEGE 

Proud to educate WNY health care workforce 

As our society has been engaged 

in fighting the COVID-19 

global pandemic, we have been 

reminded on a daily basis the critical 

role health care workers play within 

our community. Many have referred 

to health care workers as the new 

“army” our society needs to fight this 

pandemic and other future healthrelated 

crises. 

For over 60 years, Trocaire College 

has been proud to educate and train 

the Western New York health care 

workforce. Whether current students 

preparing to enter the workplace or 

alumni who have already heeded 

the call to serve, Trocaire graduates 

are workplace ready from day one 

to join other frontline workers to 

deliver quality care. Building on the 

foundation of the Sisters of Mercy 

who came to Buffalo to serve its ever 

increasing population by building 

schools and health care facilities, 

Bassam M. 

Deeb, Ph.D., 

is President of 

Trocaire College 

Trocaire today 

remains focused 

on the Buffalo 

Niagara region 

with its ever 

increasing racial 

diversity as well 

as its urban and 

suburban mix. 

The focus on 

infusing diversity 

in the field of 

health care has 

become even 

more critical 

as the Buffalo Niagara region has 

welcomed New Americans as it has 

done so many times throughout its 

history. This trend has been noted 

for decades, and the need for more 

racial and ethnic diversity in the 

health care field is only growing. A 

HealthAffairs.org research article, 

The Case for Diversity in Health Care 

Workforce notes that “a workforce 

that mirrors the population will 

help to expand health care access 

for the underserved, foster research 

in neglected areas of societal need, 

and enrich the pool of managers 

and policymakers to meet the needs 

of a diverse population.” Trocaire 

has been a strong contributor and 

supporter to increasing qualified and 

diverse health care providers that 

mirror the population of the Buffalo 

Niagara region. 

Trocaire has already executed 

several initiatives to increase equity 

in this area, knowing the outcomes 

will benefit the community at large. 

The College launched a Cultural 

Competency Certificate program 

open to both students and employees, 

bringing in community leaders to 

speak on a variety of issues and 

fostering opportunities to increase the 

knowledge, sensitivity and skills in 

cross-cultural interactions on both an 

institutional and an individual level. 

In addition, thanks to a federally 

funded grant, Trocaire created the 

Pathways to Nursing Success Program. 

In partnership with the Erie Niagara 

Area Health Education Center and the 

Community Health Center of Buffalo, 

the program is helping to diversify the 

local nursing workforce by addressing 

educational, social and financial 

barriers for minority students who 

wish to enter and be successful in the 

field. Now more than halfway through 

the program, the enrolled students are 

already seeing the positive change the 

Pathways program is having on their 

lives. 

Diversity in health care matters. It 

is about a commitment to ensuring 

all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, 

perspectives and experiences are 

represented within the various 

health-related career paths to meet 

the needs of an increasingly diverse 

population and to provide culturally 

competent and quality care. 


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THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // HEALTH CARE EQUITY 

Jericho Road East Side Medical Director Takesha Leonard and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allana Krolikowski are on the front lines of the health-equity battle 

in Buffalo. 

JOED VIERA 

On the road to progress 

GROUPS FIGHT HEALTH DISPARITIES, ESPECIALLY IN EAST BUFFALO 

BY DAN MINER 

dminer@bizjournals.com 

Of 12 chronic health conditions and health 

behaviors measured in a recent study by FTI 

Consulting’s Center for Healthcare Economics 

and Policy, Erie County ranked last in asthma, 

cancer, diabetes, heart attacks and hypertension, 

and scored poorly in several other 

measures. 

FTI’s report measured Buffalo against 11 

other metro areas ranging from Rochester, Syracuse 

and Albany to Louisville and Columbus. 

The report was commissioned by Population 

Health Collaborative of Western New 

York, which is led by local attorney John Craik. 

“The big things for health disparities in Buffalo 

are the chronic diseases, and those are the 

ones killing people on the East Side of Buffalo 

in particular,” Craik said. “The good news 

is there are a lot of good things being done 

about it. The bad news is it’s going to take a 

lot of time.” 

Craik is among a group of people, from 

attorneys to doctors to community organizers, 

who are on a quest to find out what is making 

Western New Yorkers so much sicker than the 

average American. The average life expectancy 

here is six years lower than the mean, Craik 

said, and on the East Side that number balloons 

to a whopping 13 years. 

“That is a 13-year-old who has never met 

his or her grandparents because they are 

dying prematurely,” he said. 

Craik’s organization is focused on the social 

determinants of health. 

He said the problem isn’t a lack of resources, 

it’s about purposeful coordination of the 

effort across the entire community. He’s one 


THE FUTURE THE FUTURE OF HEALTH OF HEALTH CARE // HEALTH CARE // PATIENT CARE EQUITY CARE 

of the driving forces behind the Live 

Well Erie Task Force, commissioned by 

Erie County and involving more than 

40 partner groups. 

Live Well kicked off in October 

and remains nascent, but Craik said 

behind-the-scenes work is focused on 

synthesizing data, deciding on specific 

initiatives and then finding community-based 

evangelists to be the faces of 

the effort. 

A report by summer will summarize 

what they’ve learned. 

“What we’re hoping to do is create 

a movement and culture change,” he 

said. “It’s the kind of thing that will 

manifest itself 10 to 15 to 20 years from 

now.” 

One clinical hub for equitable 

health care is Jericho Road Community 

Health Center, which has grown 

substantially since opening 23 years 

ago. It became a federally qualified 

health center in 2013. 

Until Covid-19 forced the closure of 

its Genesee Street facility, there were 

three health centers in Buffalo. The 

newest opened in 2018 on Broadway 

on the East Side. 

“Our goal has always been to serve 

the most vulnerable in our communities,” 

said Dr. Allana Krolikowski, 

Jericho Road’s chief medical officer. 

“We’re in the business of taking care 

of people who aren’t taken care of in 

other places.” 

Krolikowski said African-American 

and Hispanic populations suffer 

from implicit societal bias and racism, 

which contributes to quantifiably 

worse health outcomes for both 

groups. 

Rodney Haring is director of the Center for Indigenous Cancer Center at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Jericho Road took care of more than 

20,000 unique patients last year, most 

of whom were on Medicaid. 

While the health center represents 

the community-based clinical end of 

the spectrum, Western New York’s 

research hubs also are taking aim at 

the issue of health-care disparities. 

Rodney Haring, director of the Center 

for Indigenous Cancer Research at 

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer 

Center, recently hosted a live fireside 

chat with leaders of indigenous groups 

across the United States and Canada 

The Population Health Collaborative, headed by John Craik, is pushing to improve health outcomes throughout 

Western New York. “It’s the kind of thing that will manifest itself 10 to 15 to 20 years from now,” he says. 

FILE PHOTO 

FILE PHOTO 

about cancer, health disparities and 

the Covid-19 epidemic. 

Haring is a research faculty member 

at Roswell in its Cancer Prevention 

and Populations Sciences Division, an 

adjunct faculty member at the University 

of Arizona and a National Congress 

of American Indians scholar. He is an 

enrolled member of the Seneca Nation 

of Indians and resides on the Cattaraugus 

Reservation with his family. 

Haring said health-care equity 

issues affect rural communities 

as well, particularly ones that serve 

indigenous populations. He said those 

cohorts face the same elevated levels 

of cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disorders 

and other diseases, stemming 

from socioeconomic and access issues. 

The coronavirus situation is shining 

a light on the resiliency and 

sense of community in many of those 

populations. 

“One of the things I’m seeing 

among all communities and people is 

coming together in the spirit of innovation 

and creativity,” he said. “It’s 

bringing people together to be resilient 

and to work together in ways they 

haven’t before.” 

Haring is working to ensure clinical 

trials and federal research opportunities 

extend to populations that are 

being hit the hardest. 

“It’s especially important for indigenous 

people and African-American 

and Latino populations that are facing 

some of today’s greatest health 

inequities,” he said. “Universities and 

research organizations that have clinical 

trials need to make sure they are 

including the populations that are 

being hit the hardest.” 


Payments and 

Reimbursements 


Sponsored by 

SCRAMBLING 

FOR FUNDS 

Elizabeth Woike-Ganga 

of BestSelf Behavioral 

Health: “The DSRIP 

funding really allowed 

us to implement some 

innovative, out-of-thebox 

solutions to keep 

people out of the ER and 

the hospital, and we did 

that really successfully.” 

JOED VIERA 

END OF $335M MEDICAID REFORM PROGRAM CHALLENGES PROVIDERS 

BY TRACEY DRURY 

tdrury@bizjournals.com 

For the last five years, area health-care 

providers have been developing programs 

and innovations to cut emergency-room 

visits and unnecessary hospital 

readmissions, thanks to $335 million 

in federal dollars for Medicaid reforms. 

March 31 was the official end to the 

Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment 

(DSRIP) program, leaving providers 

to figure out how to continue programs or 

find resources and grant funding to keep 

staffers in new or adjusted roles. 

The federal waiver, initially approved 

in 2014, brought $8 billion into the state, 

with $335 million distributed in Western 

New York through the Millennium Collaborative 

Care system — led by Erie County 

Medical Center — and Community Partners 

of Western New York — led by Catholic 

Health’s Sisters of Charity Hospital. 

The two organizations funneled those dollars 

to hundreds of area providers to focus 

on solutions in physical and behavioral 

health, as well as ways to address how 

poor transportation and lack of child care 

affect access to health care. 

Amy White-Storfer, director of 

Community Partners, said successful 

efforts to help physician practices achieve 

operating efficiencies has already led to 

better quality care for patients. 

“We were able to get way more practices 

up and running, from our biggest primarycare 

networks to our smaller sites,” she 

said. “We were also able to implement 

some population health tools, identifying 

at-risk patients and what interventions 

SEE PROGRAMS, PAGE 38 


COVID-19 Survey 

COVID-19 Survey 

If If you are concerned or have symptoms (fever, cough, 

shortness of of breath, etc.) about the coronavirus disease 

outbreak (covid-19) download our free apps (UFP, GBUAHN, or or GBUACO) 

and and fill fill out out our our COVID-19 Survey so our nurses can can evaluate you! you!

THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // PAYMENTS AND REIMBURSEMENTS 

Programs look for new funding options as DSRIP ends 


we need for them in a measured way.“ 

But some programs will end unless 

new funding can be identified. ECMC 

announced in mid-April it will distribute 

$7.24 million to its partners to help 

ensure ongoing access to services, but 

there’s no guarantee all existing programs 

would be funded. 

BestSelf Behavioral Health 

BestSelf had contracts with 

Millennium and Community Partners 

through DSRIP. One of the most 

successful was the hospital bridger 

program that posts a staffer at ECMC 

to ensure patients ready for discharge 

are linked up with care. 

Another program funded through 

a $300,000 annual DSRIP contract 

links behavioral-health clients with 

primary-care providers to get care 

for chronic conditions. UBMD Family 

Medicine has an office at BestSelf’s 

clinic, so patients can develop that 

relationship while they’re in for 

treatments or therapy. 

People with mental-health and 

addiction conditions often fall through 

the cracks or forgo traditional healthcare 

needs, said Elizabeth Woike-Ganga, 

BestSelf’s chief operating officer. 

“We’re looking at different options 

for sustainability,” she said. “We have 

some grants for this year to try to transition 

it into a different type of model, 

but that would be a big loss.” 

Most of those services can’t be billed 

to Medicaid, so finding new funding 

is vital, especially with revenue and 

patient volume down and many private 

funders focused on Covid-19. 

Niagara Falls Memorial 

Medical Center 

Niagara Falls Memorial will absorb 

costs to enable some DSRIP programs 

to continue. That includes one to help 

behavioral-health patients connect to 

outpatient services within seven days 

of discharge. 

The hospital hired therapists to 

conduct home visits after discharge, 

which often provided a window to 

other issues to improve care. 

Another program enabled 

screenings for mental-health patients 

when they arrived in the ED and 

identified conditions such as diabetes 

and heart disease. And a third program 

provided help for mental-health 

patients to adhere to their medications. 

Funding from DSRIP totaled more 

than $400,000 annually. 

“We were really identifying a lot 

of people with underlying conditions 

that really could be very problematic if 

they didn’t take care of those issues,” 

said Sheila Kee, executive vice president 

and chief operating officer. 

To keep that going, the hospital has 

restructured its workflow to allow 

continued screenings in the ED. Home 

visits are on hold during the coronavirus 

pandemic, but Kee hopes to find a 

way to allow that to resume as well. 

“For the ED screening, the hospital 

is providing it at its own cost,” she 

said. “For the home visits, we’re taking 

our 15 staff and restructuring workflow 

and workloads to continue to do 

what we can, keeping them on the 

payroll with other responsibilities.” 

As fewer people come into the ED or 

are admitted unnecessarily, the hospital 

reduces expenses, Kee said. 

“In our world, I think 

it was extremely 

beneficial and we 

would not have been 

able to do all these 

things without it. I 

am disappointed we 

don’t have DSRIP 

Round 2, but we’ll 

figure it out.” 

BONNIE SLOMA, senior vice 

president, People Inc., speaking 

about DSRIP funding 

Catholic Charities of Buffalo 

Catholic Charities had several programs 

funded by DSRIP, including 

a community health-worker program 

that tracked down patients who 

missed appointments. 

Megan Lostracco is project coordinator, 

overseeing three staffers with a 

caseload of up to 75 patients. She said 

the agency was hoping a federal extension 

of the DSRIP waiver would enable 

the program to continue. Without that, 

the program is funded only through 

June. 

“Right now we’re still just in the 

process of reaching out and talking 

with community providers within our 

network that we already work with to 

try and figure out if there are additional 

funding opportunities,” she said. 

The goal is to keep the three workers 

on the payroll for now, even if the job 

titles and responsibilities change. The 

program has had successful outcomes, 

which could help the agency find support 

through a value-based payment 

model, Lostracco said. 

Without the program, a physician 

might label someone as non-compliant 

for not showing up. The community-health 

worker, who could provide 

job training or access to food stamps, 

might find out the patient lost a job 

and couldn’t afford the co-pay. 

“We had some people who didn’t 

understand they should have a voice 

in their care decisions,” she said. 

Catholic Charities has linked up 

with the Western New York Integrated 

Care Collaborative to find ways to 

adapt or expand that could lead to 

new funding sources. The agency also 

is requesting funding from the annual 

appeal. 

People Inc. 

People Inc. developed a telemedicine 

program through DSRIP with 

Community Partners of Western New 

York three years ago. The program 

sends a nurse with telemedicine tools 

to see people with developmental disabilities 

to avoid ambulance rides and 

ED visits. 

Launched with an initial grant of 

$200,000, the program has worked. 

Independent auditors assessed Medicaid 

data to show ED visits declined 

by 30%. Those numbers helped People 

Inc. land a $500,000 grant from the 

Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to 

keep the program going. 

An early grant from the Tower 

Foundation helped provide access to 

telehealth as the DSRIP program was 

ramping up. The results are especially 

validating as everyone shifts to telemedicine 

during the pandemic, said 

Bonnie Sloma, People Inc. senior vice 

president. 

“There wasn’t pushback, but there 

was a lot of apprehension on the ability 

to provide quality care and can it be 

done,” she said. “But it did work, and 

the outcomes were very good.” 

The Cabrini grant could allow 

expansion and to train house supervisors 

about telemedicine. 

Sloma said the DSRIP funding was 

clearly valuable. 

“In our world, I think it was 

extremely beneficial and we would not 

have been able to do all these things 

without it,” she said. “I am disappointed 

we don’t have DSRIP Round 2, but 

we’ll figure it out.” 

WORD FROM THE SPONSOR: GBUACO 

G-Health Enterprises’ Community Response Plan 

G-Health Enterprises has always 

strived to transform healthcare 

by removing barriers created 

by social determinants of health in 

underserved communities. With all 

the news of COVID-19 cases and death 

disparities in minority communities, 

this mission has become more 

important than ever. To that end, Dr. 

Raul Vazquez and his Value Based 

Payment team are leading the charge 

with The Community Response Plan. 

The Community Action Response 

Plan’s initiative is to unite churches, 

community based organizations, and 

medical partners in Western New 

York for a comprehensive approach 

Raul Vazquez, 

M.D., is President 

and CEO of the 

Greater Buffalo 

United Accountable 

Care 

Organization 

(GBUACO) 

to combat the 

coronavirus 

and mitigate its 

effects on the 

community. 

Testing is 

available for high 

risk patients of 

Urban Family 

Practice, all 

primary care 

providers in 

the GBUACO 

Network, and 

now to members 

of the community 

whose providers 

are outside of our 

network, in which case we will send 

the results your primary provider. 

If an individual has no primary 

provider, Urban Family Practice will 

make an appointment through them 

to ensure everyone has the option to 

get tested. Insurance covers COVID-19 

tests and for those who do not have 

insurance and qualify for medicaid, 

we can connect you with an GBUAHN 

outreach enroller who will help get 

set up with insurance. 

Before visiting our COVID-19 testing 

locations, please complete a screening 

by our nurses to determine if you are 

eligible. You can begin this process 

by downloading the UFP, GBUAHN 

or GBUACO apps and completing the 

COVID19 surveys or by calling our 

Nurse Advice Line 716-604-0504. 

G-Health Enterprises is a health 

care organization which encompasses 

several affiliates: The Greater Buffalo 

United Accountable Healthcare 

Network (GBUAHN), The Great 

Buffalo United Accountable Care 

Organization (GBUACO), Urban 

Family Practice (UFP) and The 

Greater Buffalo United Independent 

Physician’s Association (GBUIPA) 

facilitated by CEO and President Raul 

Vazquez, MD. 

G-Health Enterprise’s mission 

is to cultivate hope and quality 

healthcare in children, families, and 

communities. 


THE FUTURE OF HEALTH THE CARE FUTURE // PAYMENTS OF HEALTH AND CARE REIMBURSEMENTS 

// PATIENT CARE 

Boosting care 

ACO MODEL DESIGNED TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES WHILE SAVING MONEY 

Q & A 

It’s been four 

years since a 

Buffalo healthcare 

organization 

launched a Medicaid 

pilot program 

designed to reward physicians 

and providers for cutting costs and 

improving care and outcomes. 

The Greater Buffalo United 

Accountable Care Organization 

(GBUACO) remains the region’s only 

state-designated accountable care 

organization (ACO), overseeing care 

for about 30,000 patients across 

the region insured by government 

programs through Fidelis and 

YourCare Health Plan. 

GBUACO, an affiliate of the 

Greater Buffalo United Accountable 

Healthcare Network, includes 

participation by providers at Erie 

County Medical Center, Kaleida 

Health, Jericho Road Community 

Health Center, Greater Buffalo 

Independent Physicians Association, 

Dent Neurologic Institute and 

Western New York Medical Group. 

Growth for the program is in the 

works through additional contracts 

to take care of more patients while 

saving more money for the state and 

the overall health-care system. 

Dr. Raul Vazquez is CEO of 

GBUACO and the Urban Family 

Practice on Buffalo’s West Side. He 

talked about the challenges and 

opportunities of making the funding 

model work. 

Dr. Raul Vazquez 

says the GBUACO 

program 

continues to 

report the best 

outcomes of any 

state-designated 

accountable care 

organization. 

What makes the ACO model 

different? It’s the ability of bringing 

physicians together, both primary 

care and specialists, with agencies 

and organizations so that you’re the 

glue so patients don’t get lost. You’re 

helping individuals and doing the 

right assessment, whether it’s social 

determinants of health or using our 

digital platform. 

What’s your main focus? It is a 

value-based model. You’re looking 

at five buckets of cost: inpatient, ER, 

ancillary, pharmacy and professional 

costs. What you’re doing with the 

dollars is looking at how best to 

look for areas where there’s waste 

in the system because the patient 

isn’t being better managed. And for 

people with chronic diseases, why 

aren’t we doing better with quality 

metrics, while also focusing on the 

prevention side and wellness? 

SEE CHALLENGES, PAGE 40 

JOED VIERA 


THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE // PAYMENTS AND REIMBURSEMENTS 

Challenges and opportunities of ACO model 

How are you using incentives to 

prompt participation? We create 

incentives for (patients) too. Within 

that high-risk population, how do 

we push to get those measures and 

screenings? They get a check. If they 

get a mammogram, they get $25; if 

they get a colonoscopy, it’s $25. If 

their blood pressure is controlled 

or whether they’re on preventive 

meds, all these are checklists. It’s a 

lot cheaper for us to pay $25 for a test 

than ending up in an intensive-care 

unit for $25,000. The patient has to be 

engaged, and has to be a player in this. 

What other tools keep patients 

and physicians involved and 

informed? We have three apps: one 

for Urban Family Practice, one for 

care coordination for GBUAHN and 

one for GBUACO. They’re used for 

information, so if they do the test 

through the apps, they get their 

dollars for it. Those apps also push 

out services, including for Covid-19, 

so they can fill it out if they have 

symptoms. We now have 1,300 

people on the apps. 

What outcomes and results are you 

seeing? The 2019 data is not here 

yet, but the 2018 data shows that 

ER visits were reduced 27% from 

2016; patient drug and alcohol abuse 

dropped 12%; and there was a 12% 

increase in use of generics. That’s 

a $780,000 savings on the ER side; 

and $323,000 for inpatient for one 

year alone. On the pharma side, by 

increasing generic use, there was a 

$1.9 million savings. 

How realistic is it to expand 

those programs and savings to 

commercially insured individuals? 

If you can do it with government 

programs, you can expand to 

everyone else. My love has always 

been in the city, doing government 

programs. Not a lot of doctors want 

to go into those areas, but with the 

tools we use, they can be applied to 

anyone in the system. 

As the state’s DSRIP program winds 

down, could you play a role there too? 

We’re looking at how accountablecare 

organizations like GBUACO could 

play a role for that kind of a program 

long-term. You’re setting a table to 

bring a lot of organizations together. 

That can create a more risk-based 

value-based model. You see where the 

economy is. You’re going to have to 

provide services. The best way to do it 

is to set up a lot of these organizations 

on one page, as opposed to everyone 

doing their own thing. 

Are there opportunities to expand 

GBUACO geographically? Now that 

we have a better feel for the system, 

with 250 primary-care providers 

and our contracts including not just 

Urban and its IPA but also Kaleida, 

ECMC, General Physician and Jericho, 

we’re looking at going to the state. 

We have good support from Crystal 

Peoples-Stokes (majority leader, 

state Assembly) and Tim Kennedy 

(state senator). We’ve talked to their 

committees about how does GBUACO 

expand and GBUAHN expand with it? 

You need the IT informatics piece and 

the care coordination too. 

— Tracey Drury 


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PROFESSIONAL GOAL BEFORE I TURN 









40: 

40: 

40: 

OLIVIA MCCARTHY 






DEPUTY DIRECTOR, EXPLORE BUFFALO 






501 John James Audubon Pkwy., 









Amherst, NY 14228 








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2 0 1 9 B E S T P L A C E S T O W O R K 

B E S T P L A C E S T O W O R K 












































































































































































































































GBUACO, an 

affiliate of 

the Greater 

Buffalo United 

Accountable 

Healthcare 

Network, 

includes 

participation 

by providers 

at Erie County 

Medical Center. 

JOED VIERA 


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Future of Health Care 2020

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