$17 MILLION IN CUTS TO AMC NOT HEALTH CARE REFORM

SARANAC LAKE - The comprehensive health care reform legislation currently being considered in the House of Representatives, if approved, would result in a $17.4 million impact over 10 years for Adirondack Medical Center.

The impact on Medicare reimbursements for inpatient and outpatient services at AMC totals about $16 million in funding cuts, while the impact for AMC's skilled nursing facilities in Lake Placid and Tupper Lake totals about $380,000.  The Colby Center, AMC's inpatient psychiatric facility, would see a loss of $938,000.

The impact for health care facilities across New York State is roughly $10 billion.

Successful health care reform and coverage expansion cannot happen with a health care delivery system compromised by severe Medicare and Medicaid cuts. Effective reform must be policy-based, and not through across-the-board cuts. 

AMC supports reform to ensure universal coverage and to revamp Medicare payments to incentivize quality improvement and efficiencies, but not at the expense of undermining the health care delivery system through significant reimbursement cuts. 

"It is very troubling that we are starting to see on the federal level what has been happening on the state level for several years now," said Chandler Ralph, President & CEO of AMC.  "Cutting provider payments, whether it is the hospital, nursing home or physician, is not a viable solution to health care reform.  We need fundamental system changes, not further cuts."

AMC, like most not-for-profit health care facilities, generally operates on a budget that anticipates a modest, if at all any, operating margin at the conclusion of the fiscal year.  Within this tight financial environment, it is incumbent upon AMC to operate in a manner that is efficient while delivering high quality care to each patient and resident every day.  This financial environment is particularly acute in New York where health care providers have endured years of funding cuts from the state.

The public is being urged to contact their congressional representatives in the U.S. House, and tell them the $17 million in cuts to AMC is a serious threat to the viability of health care in the Tri-Lakes region.

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	Adirondack Medical Center's Bariatric Program and Dr. Michael Hill have been designated as a Center of Excellence by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.