County gets close to $2.5M in reimbursements
Westchester County will obtain nearly $2.5 million in health benefit reimbursements through the federal Early Retirement Reinsurance Program (ERRP).
Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins, D-Yonkers, said the funding would represent “significant revenue and resulting cost-savings for Westchester County taxpayers.”
Congress enacted the temporary program last March with $5 billion going toward coverage of retirees 55 years of age or older who are not yet eligible for Medicare and who fall under specified thresholds of health care costs.
Montefiore opens specialized laser center
Montefiore Laser and Eye Center has opened at 495 Central Park Ave. in Scarsdale. Seven board-certified ophthalmologists from the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center will serve patients at the Montefiore Medical Specialists of Westchester office.
Advanced Lasik surgery is available through in-house Wavelight FS200 femtosecond laser technology. A number of diagnostic services and medical treatments for glaucoma will also be available.
Montefiore has one of the largest ophthalmology departments in the nation and maintains a partnership with Albert Einstein College of Medicine with 29 full-time faculty members.
Prenatal care provider portal
The Westchester County Department of Health and the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network have developed an educational and resource tool called “Go Before You Show” connecting expectant women with prenatal care providers.
A developer of information technology streamlining access to health care, the Hudson Center for Health Equity & Quality hosts an online platform for patient care.
“Our goal at the Hudson Center was to find a convenient way to get patient information to providers,” said Hudson Center CEO Georganne Chapin, in a prepared statement. “We didn”™t want to create extra paperwork and we wanted the data to be easily used by the provider. That”™s exactly what the provider portal does. The data can be exported into a patient registry if the provider keeps electronic health records.”
WP Hospital benefits from foundation donation
White Plains Hospital has received 230 gift bags and 90 dry erase boards from the Hannah Banana Foundation, a nonprofit supplying therapeutic gifts to hospitalized adult patients. Pictured at left is White Plains Hospital nurse manager, Margaret Brock, with Joyce Zeller, a volunteer from the foundation.
