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Federal And State Lawmakers Determining Next Steps For NARH

Jim Levulis
/
WAMC

While emergency services at North Adams Regional Hospital are operating, the rest of the facility is shut down. Federal and state lawmakers are trying to figure out the next steps.

U.S. Congressman Richard Neal was in Pittsfield Friday morning meeting with Berkshire lawmakers. The Democrat says the decision Tuesday by Northern Berkshire Healthcare to close the hospital and three other medical practices it owns came as a thunderbolt.

“It came as a total surprise,” Neal said. “Senator Downing called me late Tuesday afternoon to inform me of the announcement. There had been no forecast for us that the straits had been this dire. I suspect that we all got caught back-footed only because we had not heard from anybody at the hospital that this was a pending decision.”

Berkshire Superior Court has ordered NBH to keep the hospital’s emergency services open for the time being. The order, per requests from Attorney General Martha Coakley in conjunction with the Department of Public Health and Berkshire Health Systems, requires NBH to exhaust all its funds to keep the departments open until Berkshire Medical Center is able to license and operate a satellite emergency department from the North Adams hospital. Democratic State Senator Ben Downing of Pittsfield says those details are being worked out.

“In particular as Berkshire Health Systems assumes the VNA and Hospice functions of Northern Berkshire Healthcare, there are licensure issues both at the state level and at the federal level,” Downing said. “We were talking with the congressman those. He’s working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on those to expedite that to make sure there is a continuity of care there.”

NBH has said it will comply with the order, but makes no guarantee to supply staff and supplies without additional funding. A statement says NBH is worried about safety at the hospital while the order remains. According to Downing, keeping the emergency services open sustains jobs for about 70 people, while the VNA and Hospice and other NBH family medicine services being supported by BMC keep about 35 people employed. That’s about one-fifth of the 530 expected to be laid off.

“It’s better than zero, but certainly not good enough and we’ve got more work to do there,” Downing said. “I don’t think whatever we do we’ll ultimately be back up to 530, but we ought to work to make sure that first and foremost we provide access to those emergency services and critical care. Then we talk about as a community what we think are our priorities and how we go about funding those to make sure that we don’t go through a disruption like this again.”

Congressman Neal says he and the state are working on making sure services remain for the time being, hoping it broadens the runway for a long-term response.

“I think that moving the matter forward with CMS at the appropriate moment is going to be part of our strategy,” Neal said. “I think that making sure that adequate reimbursements are and, in the future, will be taking place is also a part of what I hope to be a solution.”

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
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