The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

Chief Executive Officer Dewane Pace announced the addition of a speech language pathologist to the Haxtun Health care team during a late August meeting of the Board of Directors. Linda Falk plans to join the team at Haxtun Health later this fall.

Falk brings with her many years of experience as a Speech Pathologist. She will be able to assess and treat patients with speech, language, voice and fluency disorders as well as those with problems swallowing. She has worked at Rose Medical Center and more recently at Craig Hospital and Neurorehabilitation Center in Denver.

A Haxtun native, Falk is the daughter of Jack and Patricia Falk.

“She is looking forward to coming back to Haxtun to fill this much-needed role for us,” Pace said. “Linda should start seeing patients here in Haxtun starting in November.

In the Aug. 28 meeting, Pace gave board members a recap of a recent visit from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “This was the normal and regular onsite, unannounced survey that takes place every five years to ensure high quality care for the patients we serve,” he said.

Pace noted that over 2,000 standards must be met to be a licensed hospital and that Haxtun Health met all of those standards.

“The surveyors were very thorough and spent give days reviewing policies, procedures, documentation, credentials and compliance,” said Pace. “Haxtun Hospital continues to provide safe, high quality healthcare for our community as validated by this most recent survey.”

The CEO also gave an in-depth breakdown of Medicare versus Medicare Advantage, telling the Board Medicare Advantage is no advantage at all.

Pace said with Medicare, patients can use any doctor or hospital that takes Medicare. However, Medicare Advantage Plans receive Medicare dollars and then direct patients to where they can or cannot receive care. He said it is like putting a middle man between the patient and Medicare benefits and the denials of care have reached a level that have made it to Congress.

The United States Senate Finance Committee recently released a report titled Deceptive Marketing Practices Flourish in Medicare Advantage. A bill has been introduced in the House that would require the word Medicare to only be used for original Medicare requiring Medicare Advantage to be named something different so that patients are not deceived into thinking it is in fact Medicare.

“Our team works very hard to help patients with Medicare Advantage receive care here in Haxtun, but it is an uphill battle for us and the patients who would be able to receive care without asking permission if they had regular Medicare,” said Pace.

He noted that patients can drop their Medicare Advantage Plans and go back to original Medicare from Oct. 15 through Dec. 7.

At the end of his report and time with the Board, Pace gave a brief update on the main street construction project. He said work continues on the interior of the clinic including heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

“This will be followed by some farming tweaks, electrical and plumbing work. We are still hoping for a grand opening in the next six to seven months,” Pace said.

In other Haxtun Health news

• Physician Assistant Morgen Budde plans to start seeing patients at the clinic on Sept. 12;

• Dr. Jodi Fitzgerald will be joining the provider team on a part-time basis, beginning in November. She will be seeing patients three days a week every other week.