By Daniel Gomez
Published: May. 17, 2024 at 5:54 PM CDT|Updated: 19 hours ago
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - It has been about two months since both HSHS Sacred Heart and St. Joseph’s closed their doors for good with the Prevea Health clinics following soon after.
Friday morning, Citizen Action and Democratic State Senator Jeff Smith spoke on what they called root causes of the health care shutdown.
Robert Kraig is an executive director for the group.
He said some of the reasons for the shutdown can range from the hospitals being a major provider for low-profit services, like mental health, to the lack of accountability towards hospital systems. He said there is not much regulation, leading to the systems being able to pick up and go whenever Kraig said.
State Senator Smith also gave some reasons.
He blamed his republican colleagues for not doing enough. Smith also referenced a comment made by U.S. Congressman Derrick Van Orden, who he said accused his democratic colleagues in Wisconsin of politicizing the health care shutdown. He also touched on Medicaid expansion.
“For over a decade, we’ve refused that Medicaid expansion. The most simple thing we could have done. And of course, Sacred Heart was the biggest provider of Medicaid patients. And they just couldn’t continue to do that,” said Sate Sen. Smith.
Republican State Senator Jesse James’ office said in part:
“Even with more Medicaid dollars flowing into the state, those dollars are not guaranteed to go towards reimbursem*nts. These rates are established in the state’s maximum fee schedule.”
His full statement can be found at the bottom of this article.
Without a doubt, impacts from the healthcare shutdown can still be felt today. And, former staff from the L.E. Phillips Libertas Treatment Center say, that the community recovering from addiction has been worse off since.”
“January 22nd, 2023, the nurses and the staff of St. Joseph’s were called in to a town hall meeting,” said Annie Ippel, a former L.E. Phillps Libertas Treatment Center nurse.
She stood with some of her former coworkers at the press conference.
While the discussion was focused on what is to blame for the recent health care shutdown, she wanted to paint an even bleaker reality for those recovering from addiction.
“When he looked in my eyes and said ‘I’m ready. If I don’t get help, if I don’t continue my help, I’m going to die.’ And I knew that that was true. Because, you got two options in this world. You get sober or you die,” said Ippel.
She said she and her fellow nurses from Libertas specialized in caring for recovering addicts.
They understand the ugly and messy reality of caring for someone in withdrawal that most would not understand or be prepared for.
“All the stuff you see in the movies is real. It happens in real life. These are all my co-workers here, so they know what I am talking about,” said Ippel.
We met David Peterson just before the treatment center closed in February. He told WEAU the community would be out of options for this particular disease.
“I spoke at a meeting the other week, and the whole place was packed. And, a lot of them were our patients,” said Peterson.
That has not changed, he said.
“There is no where to put these people. There is nothing. There is nothing right now. Outpatient is really not that effective,” said Peterson.
Ippel is concerned about the future for those she once treated.
“What that means to me is that I’m really afraid to read the obituaries,: said Ippel.
And Peterson just wants something to be done to address this lack of care for those he said are constantly blamed for their disease.
“It’s easy to get into this new-age politics where you choose your football team and throw stuff at each other. A lot of us are getting sick of it,” said Peterson.
The full statement from State Senator Jesse James is as follows:
Response to the Tuesday Floor Session:
“This issue has greatly impacted everyone in our community. I have heard countless stories about how these closures have created barriers for people needing care and the stress this has caused the Chippewa Valley. People in our area keep hearing from both sides that this shouldn’t have been a politicized issue, and it is truly unfortunate that it has reached that point. I believe in public debate and everyone getting their chance to speak on the Senate floor, and was not made aware the vote on the override was getting moved up, cutting off further debate.”
Response to future legislation:
“When the announcement of these closures first came, my office and I immediately had two thoughts: what can we do right now to help and what long term solutions can we come up with to help in the future. With session ending in only a few short months, we focused our efforts on what we could do to get help to our community as soon as possible, which is where the legislation for the $15 million for emergency department services came into play; for those longer term solutions, there was not enough time remaining in the session to do the proper background research, meet with the appropriate people, and get quality legislation drafted, introduced, and passed to address this complex issue in such a short amount of time. Although we are currently done with the 2023-2025 legislative session, conversations about legislation that can be introduced next session are already starting. We are taking this time to really dive deep to try and find what we can do. My office is always open to having discussions with anyone and everyone about legislative ideas that could prevent closures like this from happening again in the future.”
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