Gray calls for immediate action to protect north country health care access, demands accountability in North Star collapse | Newzjunky
news release
WATERTOWN, NY — After sending letters to the state departments of health and labor, Assemblyman Scott Gray is continuing his call for action to protect rural health care access in St. Lawrence and Jefferson counties and to restore public confidence as North Star Health Alliance continues to deteriorate.
Reports to this office show that the CT scanner at Claxton-Hepburn has been down for nearly two weeks, MRI availability is limited due to overnight staffing shortages and patients needing imaging are being transported roughly 40 minutes away, tying up EMS crews and equipment for hours at a time. The instability of rural clinics in places such as Morristown, Hammond, Waddington, and Philadelphia has only added to the strain, leaving many residents with fewer options and longer trips for care.
At the same time, affected employees and professional staff have raised serious concerns that contractual notice pay, accrued paid time off and earned productivity bonuses may not be honored following recent terminations.
“North Country families are being asked to accept less care, longer delays, and more uncertainty while the system continues to sink. That is not good enough,” Gray said. “The priorities should be obvious: keep essential health care services in place, protect EMS capacity, preserve rural access and treat workers fairly. Bankruptcy is not a license to ignore obligations to employees and professional staff. This office will keep speaking up until this is fixed.”
Gray also sharply questioned the effort to retain Wintergreen, Inc. as the system’s financial and restructuring advisor. Bankruptcy materials include a proposed arrangement with an estimated monthly payment of $240,000. At the same time, Rob Bloom, identified as a principal of Wintergreen, is named chief restructuring officer, who would bill at $450 per hour. Those same materials state Bloom had already been serving through Wintergreen as advisory chief financial officer before moving into the chief restructuring officer role. The most recent cash flow projection also showed negative end-of-period cash for the week ending March 20, and information provided to this office indicates the shortfall may be revised to a significantly more negative figure.
“When a hospital system says it cannot afford to repair an essential CT scanner or meet obligations owed to workers, but still seeks approval for this kind of monthly consulting arrangement, people have every right to ask what is being prioritized,” Gray said. “Wintergreen was not an independent outsider brought in after the fact. It was already integrated into the management structure. Any senior management involved in the decision-making that brought this system to this point should not be part of the recovery plan. There needs to be a clean operational break, real accountability, and leadership focused on patient care.”
Gray said the state should move immediately to restore critical imaging capability at Claxton-Hepburn or provide a portable CT option if necessary, strengthen local EMS capacity so emergency crews are not pulled off the road for avoidable long-distance taxi-type transfers, protect rural clinic access and put in place a credible operational solution independent of the failed structure that brought the system to this condition.
“Rural health care is not a side issue. It is a basic public need,” Gray said. “The community deserves a health care system that can meet daily needs, a workforce that is treated lawfully and fairly and a recovery effort led by people whose first concern is patient access.”
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