Debate heats up among NY pols over Brooklyn hospitals in limbo
In his budget address on Tuesday, January 21, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo waded into the heated debate over Brooklyn’s struggling hospitals by pinning their financial woes on the federal government’s 18-month delay in approving—or denying—New York’s request to spend $10 billion in Medicaid reform savings.
Cuomo’s budget plan allocates $1.2 billion for infrastructure improvements to hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and health care providers, but needs the waiver to be approved in order to provide a large portion of those funds. He claimed that “we need [Department of Health and Human Services] to act on our waiver now as we have no alternative.”
He was referring to the ongoing financial struggles of Interfaith Medical Center, Long Island College Hospital (LICH), and Brookdale Hospital. SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s fate is also in limbo as its fortunes and finances are in part influenced by what happens to LICH, which it owns and operates.