The Rochester Business Alliance held a health conference Thursday to help the community learn about new initiatives aimed on improving health care quality, access and cost.

The business alliance says there are many collaborative programs in Rochester that help lower health costs for businesses, allowing the region to be 20 to 30 percent lower in costs then the rest of the country.

Sandy Parker, RBA president and CEO, says many businesses have trouble providing good health care coverage for employees.

Parker said, "Health care and escalating health care cost is the number one issue employers say keep them up at night and they worry about it in terms of being competitive. So it's very very important to the overall economy."

The event also focused on teaching companies how to control and better manage health care and benefits for their employees.