VA clinic to move to CANI building

The Jefferson County Veterans Affairs Clinic soon will move from Carthage Area Hospital to the CANI building, at 19472 Route 11 in Watertown, Gordon Sclar, a spokesman for the Syracuse Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said Wednesday. Valor Healthcare Inc. will operate the new clinic in Watertown, he said.

Carthage Area Hospital announced in a press release that it will close its VA clinic as of Feb. 15, apparently in response to proposed changes the hospital deemed unacceptable in its contract with the Syracuse VA Medical Center, which also runs area outpatient clinics.

But the precise timing of the service change is unclear. The press release from the Carthage hospital said the clinic will close Feb. 15, but hospital Administrator Walter S. Becker told a Carthage Tribune reporter Wednesday afternoon that the hospital's VA contract ends Nov. 30 and that Valor Healthcare would begin providing services Feb. 15.

"We have not been informed about provisions of care from Dec. 1 until Feb. 15," he said.

A hospital employee answering the phone at Mr. Becker's office declined to answer questions Wednesday afternoon.

The press release from the Carthage hospital said the space the VA clinic now occupies will be converted to primary care facilities. The hospital plans to retain in other roles employees who work at the clinic.

Carthage Area Hospital said in the press release that under the new contract terms the Syracuse VA Medical Center wanted, "the provider of service assumes most of the financial risk for care. With the pending national and state reimbursement changes, it is questionable for a small hospital to place themselves in situations of long tenured contracts and in which one assumes the burden of unnecessary financial risk."

Mr. Sclar, the Syracuse VA Medical Center spokesman, declined to provide more information about the change but said that VA and Valor Healthcare officials would hold a press conference Friday morning at the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown, where more details would be provided.

Valor Healthcare operates 15 similar outpatient VA clinics throughout the country, according to the company's Web site.