Neuroscience Plan Seen As Game-Changer

West River has a chance to rebuild its business core, upgrade its housing and link neighbors to good jobs.

New Haven can put hundreds of more people to work, not to mention collect a needed $11.9 million in the short term.

Those were some of the takeaways that New Haven’s top elected officials see in the decision by Yale-New Haven Hospital to build a 505,000 square-foot, $838 million neuroscience center at Sherman Avenue and George Street in the West River neighborhood.

Mayor Toni Harp and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker offered those takeaways during the latest episode of WNHH FM’s ​“Mayor Monday” program.

They were joined on the program by Yale-New Haven Health CEO Marna Borgstrom. The three women played central roles in discussions leading up to last week’s announcement of the planned new center, which will be New Haven’s biggest development project in a decade. (Click here for a previous story detailing the project.)

All three agreed that their gender affected the tenor of those discussions, which they characterized as built on trust and a collaborative spirit.

Borgstrom said Yale-New Haven decided to embark on the project to concentrate in one location its neuroscience care and research, which occur in various parts of the complex; to address a shortage of beds (the hospital’s 1,540 beds are usually 90 percent occupied); and to take advantage for growing support for neuroscience research and Yale’s leading role in it. The center will focus on treatment and clinical trials involving brain-related and neurological diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and strokes. Borgstrom said neuroscience represents the hospital’s fastest-growing branch.

“It’s a constant struggle to get the right person in the right space at the right time,” Borgstrom said.

In the short term the center will create 300 to 350 construction jobs over the four years it is built, Borgstrom said. She said she doesn’t yet have an estimate for the number of permanent jobs it will create.

Walker-Myers and Harp spoke of the importance of directing New Haveners to training programs for many of those jobs.

“This is an opportunity to get this right,” Walker-Myers said in reference to the city’s efforts to create job ​“pipelines.” Harp spoke of existing programs at Gateway Community College and Southern Connecticut State University — for health and biomedical jobs — as a good foundation to build on. 

Walker-Myers grew up in West River and still lives there, representing the neighborhood on the Board of Alders. She predicted the new center will help the neighborhood bring back the businesses that once filled its commercial corridor, lift property values, and employ her constituents.

“When the hospital grows and does well, so does the neighborhood,” Walker-Myers said.

In the short term, she said, she intends to make use of the communication channels that the leaders have developed to help the neighborhood roll with the disruption during construction. 

Medicare For All

Also during ​“Mayor Monday,” Borgstrom responded to a question about the prospect of a ​“Medicare for All” system currently proposed by some members of Congress.

She called the prospect ​“a bit terrifying.”

“I think most people don’t understand what Medicare for All is,” she said.

“If we want to see a two-class system of care emerge — which is very contrary to our values at Yale-New Haven Health — Medicare for All will move us in that direction. You have a lot of providers who simply can’t afford to take more governmentally paid patients. I think you’re going to see providers allocate a certain part of their practice for people who can pay. You’re going to have a private insurance market develop just for the most affluent people.

“My personal values and our values in the health system are that we don’t provide care based on your payer source. Whatever bed you’re in, you’re being seen because of your medical necessity. I don’t want to see us move away from that.”

Medicare reimbursements fail to cover the full cost of care patients receive, Borgstrom said. ​“We lose about 12 cents on the dollar of cost for every Medicare patient,” and 40 cents on the Medicaid patient dollar.

She was asked if it’s unrealistic to try to accompany a Medicare for All plan with far greater reimbursements for hospitals as well as doctors accepting a slightly lower standard of living.

Yes, she said; that’s unrealistic.

Click on the Facebook Live video to watch the full episode of WNHH FM’s ​“Mayor Monday” program with Mayor Toni Harp, Yale New Haven CEO Marna Borgstrom, and Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers. The episode included discussion of Yale New Haven’s growth over the past 14 years, changes in health care over that time — and why the hyphen has disappeared from the hospital’s name.

WNHH’s ​“Mayor Monday” is made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.