Pam Fisher, the director of community relations for Hudson Headwaters — or HHHN — told the News in an email Thursday, July 6 that the Queensbury-based health network has submitted an application with the state to open a primary care office in Lake Placid. The application is still pending approval, Fisher said.

It’s unclear where in the village HHHN would open the primary care office if the application is approved. However, at a North Elba Town Council meeting last month, Essex County Public Health Director Linda Beers said she’d fielded a “letter of support” from Hudson Headwaters CEO Tucker Slingerland expressing interest in repurposing Adirondack Health’s ER in Lake Placid as an HHHN-operated primary care center. This past October, Adirondack Health submitted a proposed closure plan for the ER to the state Department of Health. As of July 6, the state DOH hadn’t yet made a determination on the proposed closure plan.

In October 2020, HHHN merged with Adirondack Internal Medicine & Pediatrics to establish a primary care presence in the Redfield Building of Adirondack Health’s Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake and in Tupper Lake. Fisher said HHHN’s Saranac Lake practice has been growing, signaling the demand for health care in the area.

“The growth of our Saranac Lake Family Health practice has helped highlight the demand for primary care needs in the Tri-Lakes region,” she wrote.

The town council has expressed interest in the past in opening up an urgent care center in place of the ER, but Beers said HHHN believed an urgent care office could be a challenge to staff with fluctuating patient loads. Beers said the primary care office would likely offer same-day services for anybody — whether they are a preexisting HHHN patient with insurance or not. Hudson Headwaters is a Federally Qualified Health Center, meaning it’s subsidized by the federal government and accepts the Medicaid insurance used by many moderate- to low-income North Country residents. And for people without insurance, HHHN offers a sliding fee program and other options for financial assistance.

“Hudson Headwaters’ mission is to ensure access to high-quality health care, regardless of a patient’s income or insurance status,” Fisher wrote.

North Elba town Supervisor Derek Doty said he and village Mayor Art Devlin met with Adirondack Health CEO Aaron Kramer earlier this summer about the Lake Placid ER’s proposed closure. Though Doty didn’t disclose details of their discussion, he said he saw the meeting as the beginning of better communication between Adirondack Health and local officials after months of closed-door decisions by Adirondack Health — including its decision to propose closure plans for the Lake Placid ER and its dental care facility on Barn Road. Last month, Adirondack Health quietly shuttered the dental facility’s doors — despite the state DOH’s pending approval of its closure plan — due to staff resignations.

When asked if Kramer seemed receptive to allowing HHHN to open a primary care center in the Lake Placid ER should it close, Doty told the News that Adirondack Health and HHHN had established a good relationship.