The Truth – Protecting NUMC

Dear NHCC Team:

Newsday has launched another attack which coincides with the final $252 billion budget being debated in Albany. That budget again has no gap funds allocated for NUMC, AHP or NHCC – and includes language that would give Governor Kathy Hochul unprecedented power to take control of our hospital. The Newsday editorial again parrots false claims made by Gov. Hochul’s office and Democrat legislative leaders about the need for Albany to takeover the hospital because “management” is doing such a poor job. First, let’s state the obvious. No member of the editorial board at Newsday, including Randi Marshall, has any substantive experience running a medical center let alone one of the size and complexity of NUMC. None of them have set foot in the hospital or have met with our leadership to learn the facts about the progress we’ve made together over the last two years. Like the leadership of NIFA, they have no health care experience, yet are advancing opinions about the future of the hospital.

Second – and not surprisingly – Newsday’s editorial again intentionally ignores basic facts to fit their politically-biased narrative. They are again intentionally misleading the public to help the State and Governor Hochul justify taking over this facility and ultimately dismantling it. As I showed the hundreds of you who showed up to our town hall meetings this week, both NIFA and the State Department of Health have made it clear in their communications to us that they are recommending NUMC be stripped down to a small “behavioral health” facility. A State takeover will allow Governor Hochul to sell off assets, including some or all of our campus for other purposes. NIFA has recommended staff be cut by 90 percent.

They are willing to attack you and me and sully the reputation of our hospital so they can pull off an unprecedented power play for political purposes. The blatant lies make plain that this has nothing to do with health care for the low income and uninsured and everything to do with politics – perhaps most notably, the upcoming local and gubernatorial elections.

Here’s what Newsday, the Governor’s office, and legislators like Senator Bynoe won’t tell you.

1. 8 members of NHCC’s Board of Directors that Newsday and the State rail against are appointed by the Governor. The County has 7 appointees. County Executive Blakeman’s appointees have senior-level financial management and health care experience. They’re not politicians.
2. DOH Leadership has not set foot in the hospital since 2017 and neither has the Governor’s office despite years of invitations.
3. Under the previous Democrat County Executive Laura Curran, there were three chairmen, no CEO, no CFO and no financials, no budget. We have brought leadership and financial reforms and stability to the operation for the first time in decades.
4. NIFA assumed financial oversight during the Curran administration, not the current administration.
5. During Democrat Laura Curran’s administration NHCC failed to pay its NYSHIP payments for over an ENTIRE YEAR – and NYS DID NOT attempt to initiate a state takeover of the hospital. We are now current on our payments under a payment plan negotiated with the State under the last administration.
6. In 2019 NYS was providing $180 million in aid to NUMC. Last year they provided $0. NIFA spent millions on consultants Alvarez and Marsal to evaluate NHCC’s finances and intentionally omitted the decrease in State aid from their reports that were published. That is a material omission and intentionally misleading to the public.
7. As your CEO I’ve never hired leadership or staff because of political connections. That was done on a number of occasions under previous leadership. We are committed hiring quality, qualified personnel to provide the best quality care possible.
8. Newsday carries Governor Hochul’s water even further by defending the Medicaid scheme that has deprived the hospital of aid for years. As I discussed during the town halls, we are litigating because we uncovered what we believe is an illegal shell game perpetrated by the state. As a safety-net hospital, we are not expected to front the money for the State’s share of our DSH funds. That money is pulled from our accounts and then transferred back to fool the feds into thinking NYS actually put up the matching funds. It’s wrong and we believe it’s an injustice.

According to Newsday, Governor Hochul, Senator Bynoe and others, NHCC and NUMC are so dysfunctional they require Albany to step in to run the hospital. They never talk about the tremendous work we have done together because it doesn’t fit their political agenda. Here is a small sample of what we’ve accomplished that Newsday won’t cover and Governor Hochul ignores:

1. Implemented a fiscal sustainability program that has reformed our financial standards and practices,
2. Increased revenue through new billing practices and the updating of our Charge Master,
3. Reducing expenses through auditing of contracts and operational reforms,
4. Increasing cash balances by 650% by the end of 2024,
5. Development of an on-time budget and completion of timely monthly financial audits,
6. Gold Seal recertification by the Joint Commission and other prominent medical certification bodies,
7. Increasing our Leap Frog Rating for the first time in six years,
8. Expansion of services including longer clinic hours and new clinics including Colorectal Screening, Reflux and the design of a new mobile Mammography center,
9. Opening of our new MRI center and construction of our new Cath Lab,
10. Expansion of mental health and addiction services for the first time in 27 years,
11. Advocated directly with the State for funding for new CSEA contracts,
12. NUMC passing numerous DOH inspections

We did all of that without layoffs and without getting our aid from New York State. As you can see, none of this matters to Newsday’s editorial board or the Governor’s Office. They are pushing an agenda that sadly has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with providing quality health care to the most vulnerable in Nassau County. You can’t accomplish what we’ve done in the last 15 months and simultaneously be failing to the point of justifying an Albany takeover. The reality is that we have so much to be proud of and despite that it is very likely, the State will continue to starve this critical institution of aid, and they will likely attempt to take over NUMC in the coming weeks. Please let your voices be heard by sending a message to Governor Hochul and the legislators like Senator Bynoe, who have the power to include our funding in the budget. CLICK HERE to send a message TODAY

Protecting NUMC – Numc

Albany doesn’t have its own fiscal house in order. It’s known across the nation for being a hotbed of political corruption. It has no business running a hospital. Following NIFA and DOH’s downsizing recommendations would undoubtedly create a healthcare crisis in our area. Residents should be concerned.

This shouldn’t be about politics. It should be about healthcare. But please don’t be discouraged. I know it’s hard watching the good work we do be criticized by politicians and media with a political agenda. Know this – I’m not going to stop telling the truth and protecting NUMC and I know that you will continue to comport yourselves with the professionalism and compassion Nassau residents have come to expect from our institution. Please advocate for yourselves and help protect not just your jobs but the wellbeing of the hundreds of thousands of people we serve each year.

Keep up your good work!