Health hub acquires base, $200K

An advocate for patients

By Len Baldassano | Manor Ink Mentor

Highland, NY – The Highland Health Access Initiative is advancing from ideas to reality, powered by fresh funding and landing a building as a home base. On top of a recently announced $100,000 state grant, the project has now secured a location in Barryville.

The initiative that is being developed to cover widening gaps in the town’s healthcare services has now received a total of $200,000 in state funds this summer.

One $100,000 state grant is slated to renovate the hub’s building and purchase medical equipment, according to statements issued by State Assemblywoman Paula Kay and New York University Professor Dr. Chris Dickey, who is overseeing the project.

The pilot program also received $100,00 from New York State Health Foundation earlier this summer, which helped kickstart the program in July.

Health group’s base is former clinic

The Barryville facility had been a health clinic run by Dr. Richard DeBoul and his wife Catherine. Dr. DeBoul, a well-regarded rural family doctor, who passed away in 2021. Catherine DeBoul served as the care coordinator and the clinic’s manager. In keeping with her husband’s belief in rural medicine, she decided to rent it to the Health Initiative so the town could continue to receive health care.

The facility will try to serve the community in the same way a small-town doctor would with limited clinical care, Dickey said.

As reported in Manor Ink’s August issue, potential services may include a health care advocate who would help patients navigate existing resources, provide blood pressure and glucose monitoring, keep patients’ medical records and provide internet and telemedicine services.

The advances made by the healthcare initiative are landing just as Sullivan County’s health care system faces severe federal reductions. Garnet Health, Sullivan’s largest nonprofit hospital, stands to lose $16 million this month in federal funding due to widespread budget cuts under the Big Beautiful Bill approved this year in Washington, DC.

Despite these cuts, Garnet officials said they are attempting to minimize service reductions, though they acknowledge the financial pressure is significant.

“Garnet Health is taking a proactive and thoughtful approach to managing and anticipating cuts by carefully managing our operations ...,” noted Marcy Manheim, director of marketing and corporate communications.

Although moving at a fast clip, Dr. Chris Dickey cautioned that the most significant change in coverage in the initiative will not be ready until next year.

“I think it may be a little early, since we haven’t fully figured out the whole model of care,” Dr. Dickey noted.

A model for other Sullivan communities

Health advocates in nearby communities are taking note of the progress being made by the Highland Health Initiative as a potential model for rural health access.

“The project is focused on (the specific health needs of) Highland,” said Denise Frangipane of Sullivan 180, which coordinates the project. “But that’s not to say there hasn’t been any interest from other communities.”

In addition to the grants, Sullivan Catskill Visitors Association CEO Michael Martelon may step in to help.

Citing concerns that dwindling health care options could drive away visitors, discourage new families with kids moving in and senior residents moving out, Highland Supervisor John Pizzolato is anticipating, pending approval, a SCVA grant will help pay rental costs for the new facility.

State withholds health funds

Silence was the only official response to questions about why Sullivan County was excluded from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $300 million Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program IV, announced in August, though multiple inquiries to the governor’s office were made.

NYSDOH announced the awards but did not include specific explanations for why any of the county’s projects and several others were not funded.

Assemblywoman Paula Kay said her office has submitted several requests for an explanation to the governor’s office, but none have been answered. Manor Ink also made separate inquiries, all unanswered. The omission has drawn sharp criticism and Kay called it “a travesty,” emphasizing the county’s urgent need for support.

The program was created to update facilities, expand services and stabilize hospital systems throughout New York; however, no provider in Sullivan received funding.

“I believe Sullivan County should be awarded funds, especially for mental health and substance abuse,” Kay said. “People work very hard – we need help from the state. We can’t do this alone.”

Kay noted that Sullivan currently ranks second highest in New York for overdose deaths, underscoring the pressing demand for expanded services.

Garnet Health Medical Center, the county’s largest hospital system, provided a statement acknowledging the omission but declined to speculate on the reasons NYSDOH announced the awards without providing any detailed rationale for why the hospital’s projects, and many others, did not get funded.

This lack of transparency by the state has heightened anxiety among local leaders and residents in the county who also face the prospect of imminent cutbacks from the federal government. Kay added, “We can’t do better unless the state helps us.”