Roswell Park approved as site for care of 9/11 first responders

 Patients can seek cancer treatment here
By Keith McShea
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
The Western New York first responders who have battled cancer as a result of their service during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are now able to seek treatment at the area's authority on the disease.
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center announced Wednesday morning that it has been named a member of the World Trade Center Health Program provider network, a federal program that provides no-cost treatment for certified WTC-related health conditions.
To this point, local 9/11 first responders who required treatment under the federal program needed to travel to New York City.
"Following the Sept. 11 attack thousands of people stepped up, left their homes and families and answered the call to respond to a nation desperately in need," Rep. Brian Higgins said during a ceremony at Roswell Park's Kaminski Park & Gardens. "Now these heroic first responders
right here in Western New York can receive the world-class cancer care they deserve right in their backyard."
Two years ago, the State Police reached out to Roswell Park to see if the cancer center could be included in the program. Roswell Park had to navigate various guidelines of the federal program, which is run through the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Centers for Disease Control, and did so through the Covid-19 pandemic before becoming part of the provider network.
About 3,000 first responders are enrolled in the WTC Health Program provider network and live in the western portion of the state, from Onondaga County on, according to Ashley Snowden, director of physician and corporate relations at Roswell Park. Those who are cancer patients will now have a more convenient travel option than heading to Manhattan's Mount Sinai Hospital, one of the WTC Health Program's centers.

"They helped us; now it's our turn to help them," said Snowden, who was thanked by name by several representatives of first responder agencies and their unions who spoke at Wednesday's ceremony.
Snowden said there were many "challenges" in Roswell Park's path to the network and lauded Sara Randolph, Roswell Park's executive director of Health Plan Partnerships & Value Based Care, for work on the contracts involved.
"The New York State troopers contacted us because they had so many responders who had to travel to New York for care, and it didn't make sense to them and it didn't make sense to us, either," Snowden said.
Mount Sinai collaborated with Roswell Park so it could join the network, Snowden said.
"This is just to provide a more convenient resource and treatment for patients across the state," she said, before quoting one patient, who told her: "Why should I go to New York when I can drive 20 minutes away?"
Snowden noted that some Western New York 9/11 responders require intensive radiation therapy that involves several days of treatment or requires patients not to travel. Those patients have been
treated at Roswell Park, but they did so through their own insurance, which often involves copays. Now those patients can be treated at Roswell Park through the no-cost federal program.
State Sen. Patrick Gallivan, who was the Erie County sheriff in 2001 and led a contingent of statewide deputies to lower Manhattan after the attacks, remembered how Western New York first responders stepped forward at that time.
"Not once did they have to reach out to people and say we need you or you or you, because people from Western New York were standing in line to go help," Gallivan said. "Help is here for those people who sorely need it. It was shameful that they had to travel across the state. ... We should be extremely grateful for those who recognized the efforts of others and wanted to stand up and help them and bring this program here."