The Cambridge Health
Alliance's Somerville Hospital, in particular, cares for many needy
people, the homeless or about to become homeless. Since many of these
needy patients use Medicaid, the hospital has been steadily losing
money, asserting they are not getting accurate reimbursement for their
services from the federal government. So Somerville Hospital, along
with the rest of the CHA hospitals, will together cut their use of
Medicaid by $94 million in the coming fiscal year. "Even with these
changes, CHA is one of the largest psychiatric services providers,"
says Allison Bayer, Chief Operating Officer of CHA, at the start of the
public hearing. Faulkner Hospital and St. Elizabeth's Medical Center,
according to Dennis D. Keefe, the CEO of Cambridge Health Alliance, are
able to provide detox services for Somerville residents requiring it.
These hospitals, however, do not accept MassHealth, which many
Somerville Detox inpatients use. In all, 26 detox beds and 35
psychiatric beds are planned to be eliminated.

"Reducing
services is clearly the wrong way to go," says John Sharp of the
regional Cambridge/Middlesex National Alliance on Mental Illness
chapter. Sharp has personal experience with the effects of psychiatric
disease, his son is suffering from schizoaffective disorder. He holds
up a print-out of Governor Patrick's press release detailing the
administration's economic recovery plan for health care and safety net
services, allocating $14 million for mental health care in the
Commonwealth. "I thought we'd be okay," he says.

Other speakers
from social action organizations came to testify. Maryanne Frangules,
of Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery, pressed the Mass
DPH to hold off on closing the detox unit in Somerville. "Physical
recovery is the first recovery – before psychological and spiritual –
and that needs to happen in a detox." Frangules also mentions that
eliminating and reducing services might save money now, but the cost,
she argues, will be duplicated or made greater by the added use of
emergency services, and will crowd emergency rooms, putting unnecessary
pressure on doctors and nurses. "We should be looking to make things
easier; not harder," says Lee Polk, a recovering alcoholic.

The
hearing became heated when Lawrence Paolella, a Somerville resident and
recovering addict, talked directly to the three person panel from the
Mass DPH, instead of, like others, who addressed the crowd in the
auditorium. He hotly asked the panel, "Are we just whistling in the
wind?" inquiring if all the testimonies the committee heard that day
would matter in the ultimate decision to reduce and/or eliminate care.
Paolella was able to get the committee's Chair, Paul Dryer, to respond.
"Our purpose here is to listen to you folks," Dryer commented, also
adding that neither he nor his committee has the authority to stop the
reconfiguration plans already put in process by CHA. That would take
persons above Dryer in the Mass DPH and ultimately the Governor
himself. Dryer did say, however, that Paolella was on a good start.

Many
people from Somerville will be without their supports. Stephanie Grace,
a young Somervillian with addiction problems, testified about her
positive experience with Somerville Detox. She comments that the detox
got her off the streets and cleaned up and helped her to get a steady
full time job where she proudly states, she does pays taxes. "And the
only reason I can do this today is because I got my start at Somerville
Detox. Please don't close it."