News stories tagged with "rugge"

(01/30/09) Earlier this month, we reported on a new pilot program aimed at reforming healthcare in the North Country. A consortium of hospitals, doctors and state officials hope to make medical care better and more affordable by focusing on primary and preventative care. More details of the "Adirondack Medical Home" pilot project were unveiled at a press conference yesterday in Plattsburgh. In this first of a two-part report, Brian Mann looks at some of the problems that these reforms are meant to fix.

(01/08/09) Governor Paterson says the state has to reform its healthcare system, to provide better coverage to more people at a lower cost. That's an ambitious goal. State officials plan to test-drive the state's new health model here in the North Country. A $9.5 million pilot project will launch next summer, linking hospitals and clinics from Glens Falls to Plattsburgh to Saranac Lake. Brian Mann has details.

(11/13/08) The Governor's proposed healthcare cuts have raised alarms across the North Country's network of hospitals and nursing homes. Martha Foley reports.

(11/13/08) North Country Public Radio is airing a new series of interviews called "A Fresh Start." We've asked some of the country's most compelling thinkers to make recommendations for president-elect Barack Obama. Healthcare is one of the top items on the national agenda. There are tens of millions of Americans without insurance. Many experts say skyrocketing healthcare costs are crippling the country's industries. Dr. John Rugge is head of the Hudson Headwaters Health Network, based in Glens Falls. He told Brian Mann that the government will have to play a bigger role in healthcare, reinventing the industry and picking up more of the costs.

(11/02/07) Hudson Headwaters Health Network announced this week that four major private insurers have agreed to boost reimbursement rates for basic medical care. Dr. John Rugge is CEO of Hudson Headwaters, which operates clinics throughout the southern and eastern Adirondacks, as well as the Champlain Valley. He says his organization is still struggling to end a shortage of primary care doctors. Rugge also told Brian Mann that this settlement with insurance companies won't help other hospitals and clinics in the region, but could serve as first step toward broader reform.

(10/09/07) One of the Adirondacks' biggest health care providers says two private insurance companies have agreed to pay more for basic health services in the region. Hudson Headwaters CEO John Rugge says the deal was reached on Monday. Healthcare experts have blamed the low reimbursement rates for a growing doctor shortage in the North Country. But according to Rugge, at least three other companies are still holding out for lower rates. If an agreement isn't reached this week, Hudson Headwaters clinics across the Adirondacks could stop accepting patients covered by certain brands of private insurance. Rugge told Brian Mann that the impasse could affect hundreds of people, some with serious medical conditions.

(08/30/07) What happens if you have health insurance, you have the money to pay for a doctor visit, but you can't find a doctor? Experts say that's a real possibility in northern New York, if current trends continue. The number of primary care physicians, the doctors who provide the most basic and the most essential care, is dwindling fast in rural America. As Brian Mann reports, a group of health care administrators, doctors and government are meeting this morning in Lake George to try to find ways to recruit and keep doctors in the North Country.

Program Note: Tomorrow during regional news, Brian will have a complete report, including a conversation with Dr. Barbara Starfield from Johns Hopkins University. She's an international authority on primary medical care in underserved areas who summers in the Adirondacks.

(11/29/06) Despite the fierce opposition to some of the state health commission's recommendations, nobody contests that changes are needed to the state's health care system. Many of New York's hospitals are in bankruptcy, and a majority of the nursing homes operate at a loss. Dr. John Rugge, of the Hudson Headwaters system of community-based clinics, has been appointed to serve on a panel advising Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer's transition team. He's one of three physicians serving on Spitzer's 26-person health care advisory committee.
Martha Foley talked with him about the commission's recommendations. He welcomed the revolutionary scope of the report, but he said it'll take many years to "fix" health care in the state.