Hundreds of health care workers, employees, retirees and community members rallied along Hempstead Turnpike on April 30 in support of Nassau University Medical Center, demanding it maintains local control of its operations. A New York state takeover, according to the hospital and state representatives, was tacked onto the state’s budget, which has yet to be approved for the upcoming fiscal year.
The Nassau Health Care Corporation, the public benefit corporation in charge of NUMC and the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale, are in the middle of a legal battle with the state, following the alleged discovery that the state engaged in a decades-long Medicaid scam to deprive the largest safety-net hospital on Long Island of as much as $1 billion in aid. It filed further litigation in December, accusing the Nassau Interim Finance Authority which assumed financial oversight of the hospital in 2020, of gross negligence and abuses of power.
In an op-ed published on April 24 in the Herald, State Sen. Steve Rhoads, a Republican and longtime advocate for NUMC who represents parts of East Meadow, said the “deliberate and calculated withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars” from NUMC was not an “unfortunate budgeting decision.” He called it “a setup designed to justify a hostile state takeover of our county hospital.”
Proposals by the state include a potential restructure of the hospital system’s board, which would allow the governor and to appoint six of NUMC’s board members.
On various Facebook pages, including “NUMC Needs U,” among others, supporters wrote: “NUMC Needs U… Now more than ever. Gov. Hochul is changing her tactics and has found another way to take over NUMC! She wants to take over the NUMC Board now. Then they will dismantle the hospital, until it is only a mental health facility with affordable housing.”
“NUMC leadership continues its bizarre PR campaign based on ridiculous lies and scare tactics,” Gordon Tepper, the Long Island spokesman for Hochul said. “The time and resources they have devoted to this foolishness is absurd. The state’s focus at NUMC remains squarely on patient care and the hospital’s long-term financial stability. That’s what really matters; everything else is just noise.”
The current medical board of NUMC sent a nearly 1,500-word letter to Hochul and the state legislature the same day as the rally in opposition to the proposed takeover of the hospital’s board of directors, which would “strip the hospital of its autonomy and replace its leadership with political appointees,” according to a news release.
“The long-term consequences of the current chessboard maneuvering cannot be ignored,” the letter, which can be read on NUMC’s website, states. “We are compelled to raise our voices not in defiance, but in defense of our lifelong mission, one that is now under the greatest threat it has ever faced.”
In a news release, Rhoads referred to the governor’s proposal as a “hostile takeover,” calling for the full plan to be made public. He said the plan would shift control to Albany while excluding Nassau County residents from having a voice in decisions about their local hospital.
“This is an egregious abuse of power and a slap in the face to every hardworking family in our county,” Rhoads stated in a news release. “We will not stand by while Governor Hochul and her cronies treat Nassau residents like a blank check to bankroll their political takeover. If the Governor wants control of the hospital, then she must take full responsibility—including every cent of its debt. Our taxpayers will not be her piggy bank.”
