Health Plus - Health Plus Cares for New York

For Immediate Release

Health Plus Cares for New York
Health Plus Partners With New York Cares To Provide Warmth

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New York, NY - November 30, 2004 — Monday, November 29, at 10:30am, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg launched the 16th Annual New York Cares Coat Drive at the Bowery Mission in Lower Manhattan. The Coat Drive, presented this year by Health Plus, will collect gently-used adult and children's coats from December 1st through December 31st and distribute them to needy New Yorkers at homeless shelters, agencies serving seniors, and community organizations.

This December, New York Cares is asking all New Yorkers to dig into their closets and donate a gently-used coat to The New York Cares Coat Drive. The group is looking to collect over 70,000 coats this year, adding to the more than half-million coats collected since the Coat Drive's inception in 1989.

Coats collected will be distributed to struggling men, women, and children at New York City homeless shelters, community organizations, churches, and agencies serving seniors. The New York Cares Coat Drive is a lifeline for New York's neediest citizens during the cold winter months.

This year’s presenting sponsor is Health Plus, the Medicaid managed care organization. Not a newcomer to coat collections, the company collected almost 1,500 coats to distribute to individuals in need last year. This year, they decided to magnify their efforts many times over by helping to underwrite New York Cares’s campaign.

“We are delighted to partner this year with the city’s largest distributor of coats to the homeless,” says Health Plus’s Chief Marketing Officer, Ada Rodriguez. “In the holiday spirit, it’s great that we can support one of New York’s premier volunteer organizations to provide a bit of warmth to those in need.”

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Health Plus Chief Marketing Officer Ada Rodriguez, Silverstein Properties, Inc. President and CEO Larry Silverstein, United Parcel Service Manager of Metro NY Lisa Mitchell, President and General Manager of WNBC Frank Comerford, and New York Cares Executive Director Ariel Zwang joined Mayor Bloomberg for the coat drive kick-off at the Bowery Mission in Lower Manhattan.

Public drop-off sites include:

All NYPD Precincts in the five boroughs - at any time, day or night,

New York Penn Station (LIRR and Amtrak/NJ Transit Concourses)- weekdays from 7:30AM -9:30AM.

Grand Central Terminal (Graybar Passage) - weekdays from 7:30AM - 9:30AM.

New York Port Authority Bus Terminal (Main Concourse, 42nd Street entrance) - weekdays from 7:30AM - 9:30AM.

Participating NY/NJ Washington Mutual Branches.

All Janovic Plaza Stores.

Executive Director of New York Cares Ariel Zwang, Chief Marketing Officer for Health Plus Ada Rodriguez, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly stand together at the launch of this year’s New York Cares coat collectio

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Health Plus, a not-for-profit, multi-cultural organization, is one of the fastest growing managed care organizations in New York City. It was established in 1984 with a commitment to provide coordinated quality health care and improving access to health care for uninsured and underserved families. In its annual review of managed care plans, the New York State Department of Health ranked Health Plus as the top plan for quality in its 2002 and 2003 "Consumer's Guide to Medicaid Managed Care in New York City." Health Plus is New York City's leading provider of Child Health Plus, a New York State Department of Health program that offers parents FREE or low-cost health insurance for children under the age of 19. "CRAIN'S New York Business" magazine ranked Health Plus fifth among the largest health maintenance organizations in the New York area.