DeWITT — Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield, the largest health insurer in Central New York, on Wednesday announced plans to award grant dollars for health and wellness programs in the region.
Excellus plans to distribute community health awards totaling $25,000.
Nonprofit organizations in Excellus’s eight-county region of Central New York can apply for an award of up to $4,000 each, the health insurer said in a news release.
To be eligible, the organization must be a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and located in Cayuga, Cortland, Jefferson, Lewis, Onondaga, Oswego, St. Lawrence, or Tompkins county.
The funding is intended for programs that target the improvement of health or health care of a specific population in the community, Excellus said.
Excellus will consider organizations that offer programs focusing on activities that improve the health status of the community or that reduce the incidence of specific diseases, communitywide health education, group-specific health education, and wellness, the health insurer said.
Excellus will base the awards on criteria that include an organization’s need, program goals, overall number of persons to benefit from the initiative, and the impact the program has on the community’s health status, the organization said.
The application deadline is Aug. 9.
Applications and additional information are available online at http://bit.ly/176d3lR or by emailing Community.Health.Awards.CNY@excellus.com, according to Excellus.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com