SYRACUSE - Signatures of 1,600 Cayuga County residents were entered Monday into the record of a regional hearing held by the state Assembly Committee on Health.
Jennifer Meyers / The Citizen
Stephen Bowman, president of Peregrine Health Management Company and representing Lakeside Nursing Home of Ithaca, addresses the Assembly Health Committee during a hearing on the Commission's report at Convention Center at Oncenter in Syracuse Monday afternoon. About 50 Lakeside Nursing Home employees attended the hearing after the Berger Commission recommended closing the facility.
Stephen Bowman, president of Peregrine Health Management Company and representing Lakeside Nursing Home of Ithaca, addresses the Assembly Health Committee during a hearing on the Commission's report at Convention Center at Oncenter in Syracuse Monday afternoon. About 50 Lakeside Nursing Home employees attended the hearing after the Berger Commission recommended closing the facility.
Assemblyman Gary Finch, R-Springport, added the signatures gathered by Auburn Memorial Hospital's obstetric nurses against a proposal to close AMH's maternity ward.
Closure of the ward is one possible impact of the recommendations of the non-partisan Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century. The commission, created in 2005, was empowered to recommend the closure, restructuring and consolidation of facilities in order to reduce the size and the costs of New York's health care sector.
If both houses of the state Legislature do not choose to reject the commission's recommendations wholesale, the recommendation that nine hospitals, five of them in New York City, close and 48 other hospitals reconfigure, including requiring A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton to become an outpatient urgent care center, will become law Dec. 31.
Auburn Memorial Hospital has nothing but “gratefulness” that it was not No. 10 on the hospitals to close, interim chief executive officer C. Mark Gregson told the panel of eight Assembly members gathered at the regional committee hearing held at the Oncenter Complex in Syracuse. Committee hearings also were held Monday in Albany, Buffalo, Kingston, Long Island, New York City and White Plains.
“We're pleased, first of all, at what the report doesn't say,” Gregson said.
Several public officials have said that if AMH had not begun a financial turnaround by hiring outside firm Wellspring and halted the $8.1 million in losses of 2004 and 2005 that it would have been one of the hospitals the commission would have chopped.
Gregson also said AMH was pleased with the recently announced $4.4 million in state grant money that it will be able to use for needed improvements in technology and its physical plant. He said the hospital was fine with decertifying its number of beds to 91 because it already staffs for around that number.
But while the commission said in its Nov. 28 report that AMH was an essential institution for health care in this part of Finger Lakes, it did recommend that the hospital's maternity ward close.
Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore and interim City Manager Michael Long presented to the panel. Lattimore, after his presentation, argued the maternity ward's closure might pinch taxpayers in having to fund the transportation of Medicaid patients to Syracuse-area hospitals. Lattimore also said that havinga “great hospital” is important in wooing private businesses for economic development.
“In order to get the private sector to invest, you have to have quality health care,” Lattimore said. “As an economic driver, when you can't have your loved one have a baby nearby, it has an effect on whether or not people want to invest private-sector money. You don't
want to have to drive 15 minutes in the middle of the night when your loved one is having a baby.“
Gregson asked that AMH have the opportunity to prove that delivering babies and handling gynecological care is a viable part of the hospital's future.
He said that a valuable funding stream for AMH would be imperiled if the maternity ward is closed. Eighty-five percent of AMH's deliveries are from Medicaid patients, which results in the hospital receiving additional funds because of its disproportionate number of Medicaid patients.
The hospital has examined all of its services to find which ones are economically viable and the hospital found that it is financially sustainable to maintain the birthing service, especially if it increases the number of births from the current rate of 300 to up to the 500s, Gregson said.
“It would just push us down about the time we're about to climb up,” he said.
Monday's meeting place was crowded with employees and administrators of facilities that face significant restructuring, even closure, because of the report's findings.
Dennis Casey, the executive director of A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton, said the commission's recommendation that it eliminate inpatient care ignores the lake-effect whiteouts that make traveling even to nearby Oswego hazardous, ignored that 50 of the 55 beds the hospital staffs were full the day the recommendations came out, and ignored Fulton's aging and poor local population that relies on government insurance to pay for their health care. Transporting them to Oswego or Syracuse would increase, not decrease, Medicaid spending, he argued.
William Clark, the chair of A.L. Lee's board of directors, said the hospital provides 200 well-paying jobs in a community that has bled manufacturing jobs. It is Fulton's fourth-largest private employer and has a $14 million payroll.
“I thought, how can any intelligent group of people make a decision that devastates a local economy,” Clark said.
Sister Marie Castagnaro, the president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira, noted her hospital has filed suit against the commission, arguing that it violated open meeting laws by conducting its business behind closed doors. Her hospital is fighting the recommendation that it take up discussions with Arnot Ogden Hospital about consolidating services.
She said the hospital had talked to Arnot Ogden several times in the last two decades, but that their cultures, particularly regarding religion, clashed. St. Joseph's is working to partner with the Guthrie Healthcare System, which has facilities in both the Southern Tier and
just across the border in Pennsylvania.
“Forcing these two hospitals together is not, in my estimation, the best thing to do for health care in the Southern Tier of New York,” Castagnaro said.
Assembly members present Monday in Syracuse included Jim Bacalles representing Steuben and Yates counties in the 136th Assembly District, William Barclay representing Onondaga and Oswego counties in the 124th district, Jeff Brown representing Onondaga County in the 121st District, Finch representing the 123rd District, Barbara Lifton representing Cortland and Tompkins counties in the 125th District, Joan K. Christensen representing Onondaga County in the 119th District, William B. Magnarelli representing Onondaga County in the 120th District and Thomas O'Mara representing Chemung, Schuyler and Tioga counties in the 137th District.
The commission, also called the Berger Commission after its chairman investment banker Stephen Berger, was created to gain $1.5 billion in federal funds as long as the state cut $3 billion over the next five years in Medicaid spending.
The state Senate health committee has also held hearings. It is not clear yet if the legislature will vote on the commission's recommendations.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
Closure of the ward is one possible impact of the recommendations of the non-partisan Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century. The commission, created in 2005, was empowered to recommend the closure, restructuring and consolidation of facilities in order to reduce the size and the costs of New York's health care sector.
If both houses of the state Legislature do not choose to reject the commission's recommendations wholesale, the recommendation that nine hospitals, five of them in New York City, close and 48 other hospitals reconfigure, including requiring A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton to become an outpatient urgent care center, will become law Dec. 31.
Auburn Memorial Hospital has nothing but “gratefulness” that it was not No. 10 on the hospitals to close, interim chief executive officer C. Mark Gregson told the panel of eight Assembly members gathered at the regional committee hearing held at the Oncenter Complex in Syracuse. Committee hearings also were held Monday in Albany, Buffalo, Kingston, Long Island, New York City and White Plains.
“We're pleased, first of all, at what the report doesn't say,” Gregson said.
Several public officials have said that if AMH had not begun a financial turnaround by hiring outside firm Wellspring and halted the $8.1 million in losses of 2004 and 2005 that it would have been one of the hospitals the commission would have chopped.
Gregson also said AMH was pleased with the recently announced $4.4 million in state grant money that it will be able to use for needed improvements in technology and its physical plant. He said the hospital was fine with decertifying its number of beds to 91 because it already staffs for around that number.
But while the commission said in its Nov. 28 report that AMH was an essential institution for health care in this part of Finger Lakes, it did recommend that the hospital's maternity ward close.
Auburn Mayor Tim Lattimore and interim City Manager Michael Long presented to the panel. Lattimore, after his presentation, argued the maternity ward's closure might pinch taxpayers in having to fund the transportation of Medicaid patients to Syracuse-area hospitals. Lattimore also said that havinga “great hospital” is important in wooing private businesses for economic development.
“In order to get the private sector to invest, you have to have quality health care,” Lattimore said. “As an economic driver, when you can't have your loved one have a baby nearby, it has an effect on whether or not people want to invest private-sector money. You don't
want to have to drive 15 minutes in the middle of the night when your loved one is having a baby.“
Gregson asked that AMH have the opportunity to prove that delivering babies and handling gynecological care is a viable part of the hospital's future.
He said that a valuable funding stream for AMH would be imperiled if the maternity ward is closed. Eighty-five percent of AMH's deliveries are from Medicaid patients, which results in the hospital receiving additional funds because of its disproportionate number of Medicaid patients.
The hospital has examined all of its services to find which ones are economically viable and the hospital found that it is financially sustainable to maintain the birthing service, especially if it increases the number of births from the current rate of 300 to up to the 500s, Gregson said.
“It would just push us down about the time we're about to climb up,” he said.
Monday's meeting place was crowded with employees and administrators of facilities that face significant restructuring, even closure, because of the report's findings.
Dennis Casey, the executive director of A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital in Fulton, said the commission's recommendation that it eliminate inpatient care ignores the lake-effect whiteouts that make traveling even to nearby Oswego hazardous, ignored that 50 of the 55 beds the hospital staffs were full the day the recommendations came out, and ignored Fulton's aging and poor local population that relies on government insurance to pay for their health care. Transporting them to Oswego or Syracuse would increase, not decrease, Medicaid spending, he argued.
William Clark, the chair of A.L. Lee's board of directors, said the hospital provides 200 well-paying jobs in a community that has bled manufacturing jobs. It is Fulton's fourth-largest private employer and has a $14 million payroll.
“I thought, how can any intelligent group of people make a decision that devastates a local economy,” Clark said.
Sister Marie Castagnaro, the president and chief executive officer of St. Joseph's Hospital in Elmira, noted her hospital has filed suit against the commission, arguing that it violated open meeting laws by conducting its business behind closed doors. Her hospital is fighting the recommendation that it take up discussions with Arnot Ogden Hospital about consolidating services.
She said the hospital had talked to Arnot Ogden several times in the last two decades, but that their cultures, particularly regarding religion, clashed. St. Joseph's is working to partner with the Guthrie Healthcare System, which has facilities in both the Southern Tier and
just across the border in Pennsylvania.
“Forcing these two hospitals together is not, in my estimation, the best thing to do for health care in the Southern Tier of New York,” Castagnaro said.
Assembly members present Monday in Syracuse included Jim Bacalles representing Steuben and Yates counties in the 136th Assembly District, William Barclay representing Onondaga and Oswego counties in the 124th district, Jeff Brown representing Onondaga County in the 121st District, Finch representing the 123rd District, Barbara Lifton representing Cortland and Tompkins counties in the 125th District, Joan K. Christensen representing Onondaga County in the 119th District, William B. Magnarelli representing Onondaga County in the 120th District and Thomas O'Mara representing Chemung, Schuyler and Tioga counties in the 137th District.
The commission, also called the Berger Commission after its chairman investment banker Stephen Berger, was created to gain $1.5 billion in federal funds as long as the state cut $3 billion over the next five years in Medicaid spending.
The state Senate health committee has also held hearings. It is not clear yet if the legislature will vote on the commission's recommendations.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
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