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Poughkeepsie, NY - In a visit today to Vassar Brothers Medical Center (VBMC), Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) announced $250,000 in federal funds he secured for a new cardiac catheterization and angioplasty suite in the hospital's Heart Institute.
"These federal funds are critical to Vassar Brothers' continued efforts to provide the best heart care possible in the Hudson Valley," Hinchey said. "People from all across the region have come to Vassar Brothers to receive state-of-the-art treatment for their heart ailments. With these funds we are ensuring that doctors and patients will recognize Vassar Brothers as the premier facility for heart care. The people of the Hudson Valley are very fortunate to have such an outstanding medical center in their own backyard."
Vassar Brothers will use the funds Hinchey secured for its cardiac catheterization laboratory, which includes fully equipped suites for cardiac surgery and angioplasty. The Heart Institute includes a dedicated chest pain emergency room, a 24-hour center, which includes eight monitored beds. Cardiac catheterization is a diagnostic procedure for evaluating certain problems with the heart and its blood supply.
VBMC officials also thanked Hinchey for his efforts in securing Medicare reimbursements at the higher rate paid to hospitals in the New York City metropolitan area, an annual increase in payments of approximately $12 million for the medical center. The regulatory provision that allows the higher reimbursement rate for VBMC expires in September 2007. Hinchey pledged to fight to make that provision permanent for VBMC and all Hudson Valley hospitals, which are competing for staff with New York City-area hospitals that can pay much higher wages.
"As the Hudson Valley grows and becomes more established as a bedroom community for New York City, health care workers have become more willing to travel downstate for higher wages. Unfortunately, Medicare has been slow to recognize how serious this problem has become for Hudson Valley hospitals," Hinchey said. "Our regional institutions cannot compete for employees when Westchester and New York City hospitals that receive much higher reimbursement rates can pay salaries that are 20 to 40 percent higher. I am very pleased that we succeeded in securing temporary relief for Vassar Brothers and other hospitals, but it is critically important that we make this change permanent, and expand it to all of the hospitals in the Hudson Valley."
The funds for the Heart Institute were included in the Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2005.
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