Read the Op/Ed from the Mad River Valley Health Center board of directors that appears on Page 10 of this issue of The Valley Reporter.
In it, board members discuss their recent meeting with UVMC/CVMC executives about plans to close our local health care and PT clinics. UVMC/CVMC have stated this these local closures are required to meet budget deficits due to Green Mountain Care Board decisions on the state’s largest health care behemoth’s rate requests.
But it’s clear – based on that meeting – that at a minimum, CVMC had these cuts in mind well before this year’s Green Mountain Care Board decisions on rate increases and finances. The execs told health center board members as much.
Given that, what likelihood is there that the finances of our local clinic were ever even given a full and fair review? And how, absent litigation which now seems likely – would anyone ever know whether this local clinic was a money-maker or money-loser.
Also, listen to the words of the health network execs. Their double speak is positively Orwellian. All 31 of their clinics are losing money, but our clinic (with 3,000 patients and a 650-person waiting list) can be merged with Waterbury (with a 500-person waiting list) successfully and offer better service.
Lack of transportation for Valley residents won’t be a problem because people only need cellphones for telemedicine and telemedicine is actually better than face-to-face human contact between patients and providers. Let’s ask ourselves if our most vulnerable neighbors and some of our seniors are going to be better off trying to use a tiny phone screen for an annual physical.
The health execs told our local board that cutting local service would provide SUCH better care that it would offset any difficulties in a.) traveling out of The Valley in all weather and b.) time lost at work impacting employees and employers. Really? Just how much better could that new streamlined service be than our current local, face-to-face interaction with our health care providers? (See the Op/Ed from Kara Young about how local care saved her life.).
There’s a lot of double-speak and corporate speak going on here when what we need are the actual, up-to-date financials for our health care clinic and some plain honesty.
