system. They put through the first electronic record. | can say nothing bad about them. So if you thought that |
did, then my apologies. As far as the nursing home, you're right. | should have said that Hillsborough is the only
one in the black. When | spoke to them in accounting and | worked with DHHS, they’re still not getting paid
timely. They are in the black and they do a phenomenal job, but they were not getting paid timely. They had
some cases that were open for over a year that weren’t being paid. You're right on the things that you said. You
just misunderstood what | meant. It’s just they’re still not getting paid.
And as far as not getting the amount of money to mental health doctors and so on, we are paying less than
others. There’s no reason for them to come into the state of New Hampshire when they can go to Massachusetts
or Vermont. That much you must know, you must agree with me on that. Yes, | think the VA is second to none.
We only hear bad things about it, but | can tell you after working with them for as many years as | did —| started
from the bottom and worked my way up. | was part of the Veteran’s Integrated Service Network, which was all of
the New England VA’s. | went from Togus all the way down to West Haven to Providence. | dealt with every
single one of the hospitals and | have nothing but wonderful things to say about them.
Representative Harvey
| just want to chime in about the Hillsborough County nursing home, which | have great respect for. It’s been run
by a great director who recently left, but it is running in the black and that’s great. But among the Hillsborough
County delegation, there’s great reluctance, understandably, to raise county taxes. So when we don’t raise
county taxes or raise them infinitesimally, the services may not get what they need. The biggest problem that |
see at both the correction center on Volley Street and the nursing home, that we hear over and over again, is
when they put out word for openings for jobs, people don’t want them because they can get better money
elsewhere. They might come there and get trained as newbies and then they go on. | think, again, it comes back
to New Hampshire — and we hear this all the time in the legislature - New Hampshire is a very wealthy state and
very cheap state.
Alderman Lopez
| was actually going to make a comment similar to what was being expressed. In attracting workers to the
healthcare area, | think what we could do is look at their licensure and make sure that it’s not unachievably
counterintuitive. If people are working on a licensure requirement that they can go over the border and complete
the same licensure for 200 less hours where they’re not getting paid, and they’re spending money on internship
costs and that kind of thing, they’re going to do that. So looking at the different licensing requirements and
making sure that we stay absolutely competitive in terms of the quality, but not counterproductive in terms of the
rigidity, and make sure if we don’t have enough nurses, LNA’s or people working with the elderly, then those are
areas where those licensures need to be examined to make sure they’re not getting in the way of people who are
special and want to make a difference and are passionate about doing that type of work but aren’t necessarily
special enough to jump through every hoop that is put in front of them.
Senator Lasky
Alderman Lopez, that has just been passed in this last session, that if you are licensed in another state,
particularly Massachusetts, then there will be reciprocity without going through the added hoops that had been
necessary. Hopefully, that will help alleviate some of the lack of help that we’ve had here.
Alderman Lopez
That’s a very good step and |’m glad to hear it. But what | was specifically speaking of was the New Hampshire
licensure requirements. So now I’m kind of wondering if people are going to try to get their licensure in
Massachusetts, thinking they can transfer it to New Hampshire, and then not necessarily choosing to because
you can get paid more competitively in Massachusetts. | still think looking at our State’s licensing requirements
in areas where there is a definite need and making sure that we haven’t created a barrier by asking too much of
people trying to enter a new field, is this something we should do. And then also, making sure that we’re
retaining professionals by making sure that the licensure we have is necessary and at least consistent with the
states around us.
