Health-Care Repeal Will Hurt NY Hospitals: Cuomo

RHINEBECK, NY — An analysis of the proposed health-care repeal showed that hospitals in the district represented by one of the authors of an amendment to the bill would be adversely affected by cuts to Medicaid.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said the study by the New York State Department of Health found 13 hospitals in Rep. John Faso’s 19th Congressional District would lose $13.7 million in funds.

Rep. Faso and Rep. Chris Collins, R-NY 27th District, introduced an amendment to Speaker Paul Ryan’s American Health Care Act that would ban federal reimbursement for state Medicaid funds for local governments outside of New York City, cutting Medicaid for those local entities by $2.3 billion.

The health department estimated the total cost to the state would rise from $4.6 billion to $6.9 billion over the next four years.

Cuomo said that the hospitals in the 19th District would lose $13,680,389 in funding, if the AHCA is approved.

Hardest hit would be Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown. It would stand to lose $3.7 million in Medicaid funding.

Northern Dutchess Hospital, located in Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, is part of Health Quest and would lose $854,905 in funding.

Tim Massie, chief public affairs officer for Health Quest, said the AHCA would significantly impact the ability of stable hospitals such as those in the Health Quest system to provide quality care.

“Our continued efforts to improve access and enhance the services we offer get harder when members of our community who depend on us for care lose their health insurance,” he said.

Massie said the impacts would make it more difficult for hospitals to recruit and retain doctors, nurses and other employees.

He said the Faso-Collins amendment, reducing federal Medicaid funding, would hurt the entire community.

“This New York amendment is bad medicine for our state’s health-care system,” Massie said.

“If it passes, hospitals in some of the neediest areas of our state may be forced to close, and access to health care would be dismantled,” he said. “It’s unconscionable to propose cuts that totally disregard our most vulnerable Medicaid patients.”

Efforts to reach Faso for a comment were not successful. Calls made to each of his offices could not go through because the voicemail boxes were full, according to outgoing recorded messages.

Faso spoke Tuesday with Spectrum News, calling Cuomo’s comments “over-the-top rhetoric” and that the amendment fixes a 51-year mistake by shifting the cost of Medicaid from counties to the state.

The 19th District encompasses all or part of 11 counties in the Capital Region, Hudson Valley, Catskills and central New York. The 27th District is in northern New York and includes all or part of Erie, Niagara, Genesee, Wyoming and other counties.

Nursing home facilities would also be affected by the health-care repeal, according to Cuomo.

Again using Faso’s district as an example, the 31 facilities in the 19th District would lose $48.1 million in funding if the AHCA is passed.

The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Pawling in Dutchess County would see a loss of more than $1.6 million. Wingate of Ulster would lose almost $1.4 million.

“This reckless legislation slashes funding from nursing homes and facilities that provide care to seniors, jeopardizing the lives of our most vulnerable New Yorkers,” Cuomo said.

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Photo credit: Health Quest.