Editorial

SOME OF OUR esteemed legislators are at it again in Montpelier and this time its local newspapers who are going to take it in the shorts.

Health Care Committee Chairman, Steve Maier, D, Middlebury thinks that hospitals should be banned from advertising in newspapers and has included his idea in a new bill working its way though the legislature to stop it under the guise that hospital advertising is driving up health care costs.

This is total and unadulterated nonsense.

In fact, hospital advertising, if anything results in greater competition and helps to reduce health costs.

The ads which the Northfield News runs from CVMC which are entitled ‘Did You Know?’ let people around the area know what’s available such as pediatric, speech and OT programs that are available not only on the campus in Berlin but at other facilities around the area. This is valuabl einformation that the public may not otherwise know.

It also helps to keep you, the people, informed about the various health care alternatives that are available in our local area hospitals.

The biggest problem with this proposed legislation is that it would have the unintended consequence of putting a whole bunch of people in the newspaper business out of work and would certainly would cause those of us trying daily to just make ends meet, stay in business.

“Lots of people hear ads, see ads; you get glossy annual reports mailed to everyone in the service area or county,” Mr. Maier told the Burlington Free Press last week. “On one level it’s competing for business. I think it’s appropriate to question whether our not-for-profit system needs to compete.”

Sen. Kevin Mullin, R, Rutland, a member of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee has said that he agrees. “On television, over the radio and in print, he said, Vermont hospitals advertise in another hospital’s area, obviously trying to lure patients away from the other facility,” he told the Free Press.

What is silliest of all is that out of state hospitals would be able to continue to advertise while only Vermont hospitals would not according to the current draft of the legislation.

Fortunately, some legislators do see that banning hospital advertising would run afoul of the right to freedom of speech.

“There are just a lot of questions it raises,” said Bea Grause, president of the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems. “It’s really hard to understand what’s advertising. There’s a whole range of communications that I think it’s kind of blurry — is it marketing, is it advertising?”For example, some of Fletcher Allen Health Care’s advertising includes telling people about health-care lectures and programs that are available, informing them about care that’s available that people might not otherwise know about and generally letting people know what’s available in the area, Mike Noble, spokesman for the Burlington hospital told the Free Press. “It wouldn’t be as easy for us to get that word out,” he said, if the hospital were not allowed to advertise.

Mr. Noble said it’s difficult to say how much Fletcher Allen spends on advertising without knowing exactly what would qualify as advertising. “I will say, however, that what we spend on advertising is well under 1 percent of the hospital’s annual budget,” he said.

At the Northfield News we try to publish most things that the hospitals in the area are doing in the way of special programs and health care seminars both at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph and at the Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin. This we do for free and think that it is a public service to our readers.

At the same time, we believe that the advertising that we get from these hospitals also is a public service to our readers and informs them about many things that they might not otherwise know that are available to them locally without having to travel either to Burlington or Hanover.

As Marianne Apfelbaum who publishes the Williston Observer said in an e-mail when she heard about this potential legislation, “I'm beyond shocked at the illogical nature of this legislation. If advertising were a ‘cost,’ then every newspaper in the country, as well as every other form of media, would have been out of business a long time ago. Advertising is an ‘investment’ – It makes money, not costs money. Combined with the fact that out-of-state hospitals would still be able to advertise in Vermont and thus have a huge competitive advantage, this is one of the craziest pieces of legislation I have ever heard.”

Since we became aware of this potential legislation following an article in the Burlington Free Press last Sunday, at least seven daily publishers and about two dozen weekly newspapers have expressed their concern about the financial impact that the loss of hospital advertising would have on their newspapers.

Those who may have missed the article in the Burlington Free Press can access it at:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress. com/article/20100307/NE WS02/100306020/Lawmakersconsider banning-hospital-advertising.

Mike Donoghue of the Vermont Press Association attended a portion of the health care committee hearings held last week in the house in Montpelier.

He said that there has been no specific hearing on this aspect of the bill as yet but he was able to speak with Mr. Maier and told him that the newspaper community and the Vermont Press Association have serious reservations about this legislation and specifically requested that newspapers be allowed to appear at a hearing to discuss it.

One hospital executive told Mr. Donoghue that he is opposed to this bill - much of our advertising pertains to educating people about their healthcare options and education. I also wonder if banning hospital advertising violates any first amendment rights (free speech?).”

Mr. Donoghue said that he believes that legislators understand there are some basic Constitutional hurdles that they would have to try to clear if such legislation is passed.

The advertising issue, which is part of cost “Slowing Growth of Health Care Costs,” is part of a sub-section: “Focus on eliminating unproductive spending (e.g. hospital readmissions, advertising).

If you want to read the whole bill, the number is H 627. The online link as introduced is http://www.leg.state.vt.us/data base/status/summary.cfm?Bill= H%2E0627&Session=2010

The Northfield News would be seriously jeopardized by any bill that restricts hospital advertising. And, I ask you, if the hospitals can’t advertise would the pharmacies be next. After all, the cost of drugs is another factor in the equation.

If you want to continue to read the Northfield News, we sincerely ask each of our readers contact their local representatives both in the house and senate and tell them that they don’t want to lose their local paper.

Without advertising, we couldn’t continue to bring you the articles and information that we get to you each week.

Health care advertising is a very large part of our income and without it, we’d be seriously compromised.

Hospitals have a right and a duty to inform the public about health care alternatives that are available to each of you and we should have the right to continue to bring those ads to you without the interference of the government.

It is just one more attempt to limit the freedom of the press and your right to know.

It should be stopped before it goes any further.

There will be a hearing in Room 11 in the State House in Montpelier. The joint Senate and House committees on Health Care with Steve Maier who is chair of the House committee and Doug Racine, chair of the Senate committee will have the committee members there from 3 to 5:30 p.m. to discuss health care in general but we are assured that there will be a large contingent from the press.

Any of you who may be concerned about eroding first amendment rights should go and have your say on this extremely important matter.

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