Stefanik listens on Claxton-Hepburn tour

In the hospital’s board room, she fielded questions about the future of rural hospitals and health care in general.

“I do think health care needs to modernize,” Ms. Stefanik said.

Claxton-Hepburn’s interim Chief Executive Officer Charles Gijanto expressed concern about the possible loss of the 340B program that provides discounts for pharmaceutical products such as cancer or renal drugs. He expressed concern that with mid-term elections coming up, lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies who are against the program may yield enough support to shut down the program. Ms. Stefanik, a self-professed supporter of rural hospitals, expressed her support for the federal program, mentioning a letter she had sent to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), which provides the discounts for eligible hospitals.

During the meeting, Ms. Stefanik questioned whether heroin/opioids and mental health were issues the hospital often faced. Mr. Gijanto briefly, but emphatically, discussed the opioid crisis that faced rural communities in general, and then moved on to mental health, an issue solely for Claxton-Hepburn.

“There are needles in the streets,” Mr. Gijanto said.

Mr. Gijanto said mental health care was also a great concern of his. Claxton-Hepburn is the only hospital in St. Lawrence County that receives mental health patients in the emergency department for psychiatric evaluation; Canton-Potsdam sometimes sends mental health patients to Claxton-Hepburn, according to Vice President of Business Development and Behavioral Health Services Vicki Perrine. But due to a lack of available beds, mental patients, of which there have been a growing number over the years, are often unable to be seen in an adequate amount of time, sometimes up to a week, according to Mr. Gijanto.

“It’s inhumane,” said Mr. Gijanto.

The hospital was in the midst of obtaining a state grant that would only cover operational costs, but more was needed. Ms. Stefanik offered her support in finding federal funds for the hospital.

While the hospital faces funding challenges, it gets help from several government programs.

Ms. Stefanik backed a five-year extension of the Low-Volume Hospital and Medicare-Dependent Hospital programs upon which several hospitals in the 21st Congressional District rely. The extension was part of the bipartisan federal budget act passed in February.

“We receive about one million dollars a year,” said Chief Financial Officer Kelley M. Tiernan. Being a sole community hospital, however, they’re only eligible for LVH, not MDH, other Northern New York hospitals depend on the program as well. Massena Memorial Hospital and Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone each received more than $4 million over the five years of the program.