By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- In the wake of the Town Council deciding to take another look at possibly making Massena Memorial Hospital a public benefit corporation, MMH’s CEO says going that route wouldn’t be a smart move.

“Public benefit corporation, for a small hospital like us, doesn’t solve the basic problem,” MMH CEO Robert Wolleben said. “There is no public benefit corporation set in New York state that does what we need to do.”

On Jan. 20, Town Councilman Samuel Carbone said he wants the board to take another look at that avenue. The board voted in December to allow MMH to start the process of severing municipal ties and becoming a private, non-profit organization.

The board informally decided to meet in the future with the MMH board and administrators, plus Assemblywoman Addie Russell, D-Theresa. After more than two years of discussion on whether or not MMH should privatize, she appeared at the December town board meeting where they voted to allow MMH to start the process and offered to sponsor special public benefit corporation legislation for the hospital.

Wolleben said they looked at public benefit legislation for several hospitals in New York.

He said they are large institutes with affiliates under them and are under control of their respective counties. That included Erie County Medical Center, Westchester Medical Center and Nassau University Medical Center.

“They’re going out and signing up hospitals to be part of their networks … they’re at the top of the food chain,” Wolleben said. “We’re on the other side of the fence. We need to be in a system.”

The state Department of Health is pushing more and more hospitals statewide to either affiliate or merge, Wolleben said.

“Every week, there’s a hospital that affiliates into the system,” he said.

That’s where MMH is challenged - they need to be affiliated to get vital state funding to stay afloat.

Since they are part of the state pension system, they have to make annual payments which have gone up by about 2,000 percent over the last 13 years, Wolleben said. In 2002, they paid $190,000. Last year, they paid over $3 million and anticipate owing the same in December.

“The pension payment is significant. We just cut a check for $3.2 million,” he said.

That bill is covered by a state grant that Wolleben says will be available for another year, and that’s it.

“The grant we’ve applied for, as a criteria their awarding it, you have to be in a system,” Wolleben said. “The application is very specific - ‘Describe the nature of your affiliation or merger in a system,’” he said.

Even if MMH switched to public benefit status, Wolleben said the town would still be liable for their debts if they couldn’t get state aid.

“As a public benefit corporation, the town is still responsible for any debt,” Wolleben said. “This is a business that requires a lot of money. If we can’t make money, we’re going to go to the town for a bond.”

Go to http://bit.ly/1S9YTsQ to read more about the Town Council’s Jan. 20 discussion about the public benefit corporation route.

More about Assemblywoman Addie Russell’s comments on the town board’s decision is at http://bit.ly/1K1y4pv.