2007 NYSAC Press Releases
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Diverse Group of Healthcare and Business Leaders, Environmentalists and Elected Officials Meet to Address Massive Healthcare Crisis in Adirondack Region
August 30, 2007
Rural New Yorkers face looming crisis with serious shortage in healthcare services
LAKE GEORGE, NY – An unusually diverse group from across the Adirondacks met today to address the serious and growing problem of the lack of access to primary healthcare in rural areas of New York State. County and state elected officials joined with healthcare advocates, business and environmental leaders to call upon Governor Spitzer to act to keep primary health care services available in the Adirondacks. The gathering, unique for its size and diversity, signaled the growing concern that even the most basic health care services may be lost.
“Nowhere in America is the challenge to health care greater than right here in the Adirondacks and right here with primary care,” said Dr. John Rugge, CEO of Hudson Headwaters Health Network. “We are a bellwether. If primary care is allowed to die here, it will soon die elsewhere.”
Numerous recent studies across the country have shown that when doctor shortages occur, those shortages typically come in the primary care field. As reimbursement rates continue to decrease, clinics and hospitals across the North Country continue to close their doors. The Adirondacks and rural areas across New York State have seen a rapid decrease in the number of primary care physicians. And because the pay for these primary care physicians is so low in rural New York, it is becoming extremely difficult to recruit and retain them. In far too many cases, primary care physicians in rural New York find attractive offers in other states offering better pay and fewer hours.
“We are facing a health care crisis in Northern New York and in other rural areas of our state. If we don’t begin to address the need for access to primary health care services, then we are heading down a slippery slope,” said Stephen J. Acquario, executive director of the New York State Association of Counties.
To help stanch the problem, lawmakers and healthcare advocates are calling on Gov. Spitzer to undertake the following steps:
1) Commit emergency funding to protect essential community providers in the Adirondacks from fiscal collapse;
2) Convene both public authorities and private carriers to assure that all payers contribute their fair share to both the rescue and continuing support of essential services; and
3) Establish an Adirondack Healthcare Demonstration Project to test and validate reforms that are needed statewide but for which this region can no longer wait.
“The responsibility of meeting the health care needs of Adirondack families is falling on the shoulders of fewer and fewer community primary care providers,” said Senator Betty Little. “As each physician leaves, the burden becomes heavier for those remaining. It’s a terrible downward spiral and the consequences are alarming. We need a commitment by the state to help us address the root causes of this problem and develop short- and long-term strategies to manage it.”
“State government has an important role to play in ensuring that health care remains available for those of us who live in the deeply rural Adirondacks,” said Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward. “We are looking for help from Governor Spitzer on this crucial, quality-of-life issue.”
“Living in a rural area should not equate to living miles from quality, accessible, affordable health care,” said Assemblywoman Janet Duprey. “We need the Adirondacks to be as attractive to qualified medical professionals as they are to the residents who call the area home.”
Researchers predict an emerging shortage of physicians nationally, fueled in part by an aging population in need of more medical care,” said Jean Moore, Director for the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the School of Public Health, SUNY at Albany. “A recent profile of physicians in New York found that the distribution of physicians in the state is changing, with some parts of the state seeing growth in supply, while others seeing a decline. Between 2001 and 2005, the North Country Region of New York saw an 8% drop in primary care physicians per 100,000 people. This decline in supply could make it harder for North Country residents to obtain basic health services, with longer wait times for appointments and longer distances to travel for care."
A lack of adequate healthcare doesn’t only lead to poor health conditions; it also costs employers in the form of productivity-losses and other negative economic impacts.
“If we’re going to get serious about helping the economy of the Adirondacks, we can start by ensuring that the economic cornerstone of health care is strong and viable,” said William Thomas, Chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors.
Also present at the discussion were a representative from Governor Spitzer’s office, representatives from federal elected officials--including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Congressman John McHugh, and Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand; doctors; clinicians and healthcare industry leaders.
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2007 Press Releases
- Albany County Executive Michael Breslin Receives Excellence in Leadership Award--June 20, 2007
- NYSAC to Host Municipal Energy Coalition's Bid Opening for Renewable Energy Credits-- June 19, 2007