- Ted, welcome back.

It's nice to see you.

We have been talking a lot here on 'Weekly Insight' about issues within the Rhode Island healthcare sector.

This time, it's a major medical practice in the news and not a hospital.

- Yes, Michelle.

Anchor Medical Associates, which is a significant primary care practice in Rhode Island, they've announced they'll be shutting down by June 30th.

They've about 25,000 patients, it's estimated.

Children in the pediatric side of things and adults as well.

And in their message to patients, they echoed what we've been hearing from others, which is they argue that rates paid to providers in Rhode Island are just too low to make these practices financially viable.

- We've been discussing a lot the shortage of primary care physicians.

And so the obvious question is, if you're one of these 25,000 patients, who do you go see?

- Well, and they're asking that very question.

I've been getting emails from patients since I broke this story that saying, well, we're calling around.

Some are being quoted 18 to 24 month waits at other practices.

Some patients hope that if their doctor is sort of mid-career, they might move to a new practice, take them with them, but there's no clarity yet on that.

So, there's a lot of angst.

Governor McKee has said that his administration's working to see if some other practice would take over Anchor.

But, Attorney General Neronha has said he already looked at that and there just was no viable solutions, so it's a difficult problem.

- And the broader context here is how financially squeezed the state's healthcare providers have been saying they're feeling this.

And we've been hearing it from hospitals and now a major medical practice.

And unfortunately, there does not appear to be an easy fix.

- No, because it's seems to be really about money, Michelle.

And people saying there needs to be more money in the healthcare system, higher rates, but the state is currently running a deficit, or projecting a deficit, I should say, so it's hard for them to substantially increase Medicaid rates.

There's also been talk about building a state medical school that would train primary care physicians, but that's a very long-term plan.

The pipeline, it would take years before they'd be seeing patients, so it's just a very thorny problem.

- And, of course, it's an issue that we'll continue monitoring.

Let's turn now to one of the state's most prominent institutions, and that is the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, Pope Francis recently named Baltimore Bishop Bruce Lewandowski as the new bishop here in Rhode Island.

At a news conference, Bishop Bruce, as he wants to be known, was asked about how he plans to handle political controversy.

Let's take a listen to what he said.

- I've worked many years in the immigrant community.

And apart from prayer; education, advocacy and accompaniment.

Education, we need to know issues before we jump to quick judgments about things.

So, government acts, it does things, and right away our emotions might flare.

I always say, "Calm down, Bruce.

Stop.

Wait a minute.

Let's think this through.

Let's study it.

Let's try to get underneath what's going on and really find out what's happening."

And sometimes we're surprised.

Our first perceptions or ideas about things might not be correct or they might be off a little bit.

Or, they might be correct.

But you don't know that until you study things and get in, delve into them a little bit.

- And Ted, we know from surveys that religious practice has fallen, especially over the last generation.

And yet, you and I both know this position still remains very high-profile in Rhode Island.

- Yes, historically, Michelle, Rhode Island was ranked as the most Catholic state in the country.

The church is still a very prominent part of civic life, in politics at times as well.

And this is also a job that's seen an unusual amount of turnover in recent years.

Bishop Tobin had served for almost two decades.

He was appointed by Pope John Paul II.

He was their in the waning days of his pontificate.

Then Pope Francis named Bishop Henning to replace Bishop Tobin.

But then quickly decided, actually, I'm gonna move Henning to Boston, where he is now the Archbishop, leaving Providence open again.

And now we have Bishop Lewandowski.

He's 57.

Born and raised on a farm in Ohio.

And one of the notable things about him, I think, Michelle, he speaks fluent Spanish and Portuguese.

And he referenced his work with Hispanics and the immigrant community in his remarks, so it'll be interesting to see if he weighs in on those issues.

- Especially, because we know there are so many Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking Catholics in this state, so I'm sure they're very happy to see that - There's a high percentage of people speaking Spanish going to mass right now, for sure.

- [Michelle] Yeah.

Always good to see you.

Thank you, Ted.

- Good to be here.