Awards & Recognition

Community Conversations on Compassionate Care (CCCC) Program

The 2009 BlueWorks® Award for Best Practices in Empowering Consumers and Providers has been presented by the BlueCross BlueShield Association to Excellus BlueCross BlueShield in recognition of the health insurer’s Community Conversations on Compassionate Care (CCCC) Program.

Community Conversations on Compassionate Care is a program developed by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield to help individuals over 18 years of age complete health care proxies and living wills. The judges noted, “The program is valuable not only because it is tackling one of the most important problems in healthcare today, but also because it is available (via the CompassionAndSupport.org web site) to the community beyond Excellus BCBS members.”

BlueCross and BlueShield companies are dedicated to improving the quality and services available to their members, while working together to keep quality healthcare and healthcare coverage safe, affordable and accessible for all Americans. The annual BlueWorks Awards program is designed to advance that mission by highlighting Blue solutions that improve the quality and value of – and access to – our healthcare system.

BlueWorks entries are reviewed by the Harvard Medical School Department of Health Care Policy and independent judges from key medical societies for their innovation, scope, approach and impact on healthcare delivery in Blue companies' local markets.  By promoting evidence-based solutions to relevant challenges, the BlueWorks Awards are designed to benefit the entire Blue System and our overall healthcare system.

Community Conversations on Compassionate Care are an outgrowth of the Community-wide End-of-Life/Palliative Care Initiative that was launched in Rochester, New York in 2001 soon after the Institute of Medicine published its report, “Approaching Death, Improving Care at the End-of-Life.” More than 150 professionals and consumers were engaged initially in the Rochester effort and countless more from across the region are now involved, including Medical Society of the State of New York, New York State Bar Association, New York State’ s Office for the Aging, and Office of Family and Children Services.