AMC Urges Lawmakers to Oppose Cuts to Health Care

SARANAC LAKE - Protecting health care services and saving health care jobs were the key message points Adirondack Medical Center carried to Albany on March 3 for the annual legislative Advocacy Day.

A core team representing AMC's leadership and Board of Trustees travelled to Albany to impress upon their legislators the damage the proposed cuts to health care pose to the region as a whole.

"From Plattsburgh to Watertown, the governor's budget proposal contains damaging cuts that threaten the core health care services and jobs throughout the North Country," said Chandler Ralph, President & CEO of AMC.  "Whether we are talking about hospitals or nursing homes, our region must stand together to protect what the governor seeks to take away."

AMC met with officials from Sen. Elizabeth "Betty" Little's office and both Assemblywomen Janet Duprey and Teresa Sayward.  In addition to meeting with elected officials, leaders in both the Senate and Assembly addressed the crowd of hospital officials who gathered from all over the state.

Under the governor's proposal, AMC would endure a total budget loss of $551,671 in the 2010-11 fiscal year.  In its budget for 2010, AMC projected an operating margin, or excess revenue to reinvest in programs and services for the following year, of $220,000.

Central to the governor's health care cuts is an increase in the gross receipts tax, which is a levy on every dollar of revenue generated by hospitals and nursing homes, in addition to reductions in Medicaid reimbursements.

Hospitals and nursing homes have already endured six rounds of budget impacts over the past two years, and further cuts will jeopardize the jobs and vital health care services upon which the North Country depends.

According to the latest figures, AMC employs roughly 900 individuals and generated an economic benefit of nearly $97 million for the Tri-Lakes community.

Log onto www.helpyourhospital.org or www.helpyournursinghome.org to urge your lawmakers to oppose the proposed cuts to health care.

CAPTION:  Representatives from Adirondack Medical Center, CVPH, and Elizabethtown Community Hospital
met with Assemblywomen Janet Duprey and Teresa Sayward.

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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.