At Golisano Children's Hospital, leaders of pediatric practices and societies pleaded for financial help to help kids with their medical care now and down the road.

What You Need To Know

  • Pediatric practice leaders made a plea for financial help on Thursday

  • Due to the pandemic, pediatric specialty clinics have been hit hard financially

  • In March, pediatric specialty visits were down 70 percent. They're still down 40 percent

“I’m here to tell you the whole foundation of pediatric care, the backbone, the infrastructure that we have for caring for children is crumbling," said Dr. Vito Losito, an East Syracuse Child Health Care Associates physician.

In his 32 years of being in practice, Dr. Losito has never been more worried about being able to care for children.

“I want the government to know, the insurance companies to know, the public to know, that the pediatric infrastructure, the people that care for your children are struggling to stay afloat and we need help," Losito said.

From March to April, Upstate’s pediatric specialist clinic visits were down by about 70 percent. Even now, they’re still down by 40 percent. That means routine visits for immunizations for many kids just aren’t happening.

“The CDC showed that from March to April there was a decline in vaccine ordering by 3 million doses just in their pipeline," Dr. Steven Blatt, the president of the Pediatric Society of CNY said.

“That means were losing herd immunity. Everybody is becoming vulnerable to these things," Losito said.

It’s not just missing out on shots that’s concerning: when kids don’t come to the office they don’t get the other pediatric care that they need.

“We play a big role along with early intervention along with all the child therapists out there. We’re often the ones that help make that initial referral," Dr. Blatt said.

The issue is with a lack of relief, practices may have to reduce hours, staff fewer physicians, or even close.

“This fall when COVID is going to come back more and we’re going to have additional viral illnesses. Are those pediatric offices going to be there to take care of those kids?" Dr. Blatt asked.

A way to get that relief would be for health insurers to make supplemental or advance payments to their practices.

“The money is there in reserves. Our practices before COVID from Excellus were about $1 million a week, and then it bottomed out. It’s not recovered to baseline. So that money had to be collected in premiums and had to be reserved for them to be prepared to pay that out," Dr. Scott Schurman, the Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital vice president chair of pediatrics said.