To the Editor:
I read your article titled “Cove’s Edge employees see some changes” in the Dec. 6 edition with great interest. Medicare dollars seem to be stretched very thin these days and the impact is hitting the health care industry hard, especially here in Maine with its high proportion of senior citizens.
I couldn’t help but notice your article contained no comments from the rehabilitation therapy contractor that Lincoln County Healthcare hired to contain the cost of therapeutic services, Select Rehabilitation, about its plans to maintain affordable quality health care at Cove’s Edge.
Even more important your reporter did not interview any of the Cove’s Edge employees or patients who will be affected by these changes. I’m certainly curious about how the employees reacted to being promised “like” pay and benefits and how the patients felt about learning that Cove’s Edge intends to stop offering services that it can no longer “do…well” as opposed to figuring out how to do them well within the constraints of a carefully planned and managed budget.
Without covering all sides of the story your article as published is basically a press release put out by Lincoln County Healthcare management. I look forward to seeing a follow-up article in The Lincoln County News that addresses the outlook and concerns of all the players on the field.
Eric Tomassi Random, Newcastle
