Sunday, October 11, 2026
The Nassau Health Care Corporation and Nassau University Medical Center said they intend to file legal claims against New York state, in the amount of $1.06 billion, plus prejudgment interest.
According to notice of claim documents, distributed to reporters at a Nov. 20 news conference held in the lobby of the East Meadow-based hospital, a disproportionally large share of patients served by NUMC are eligible for Medicaid. NUMC is one of three public hospitals in New York that serves all patients, regardless of their ability to pay for medical care.
Because of NUMC’s large number of Medicaid patients, the hospital is entitled to receive federal funding through the Disproportionate Share Hospital program and Upper Payment Limit program — both Medicaid programs authorized under the United State’s Social Security Act. In order to receive these payments from the federal government, states — in NUMC’s case, New York — must contribute their assigned shared, which is commonly referred to as the “state share” or “non-federal share.”
Typically, the state’s share matches the federal distribution.
The notice of claims documents state that in 2024, NUMC was due to receive a DSH payment, totaling approximately $102.2 million.
The federal share of the DSH payment was one-half of that total, around $50.1 million, which was transferred to the State Department of Health for distribution. The state was required to provide the other $50.1 million — the non-federal share — either from state funds or local contributions. The state was then required to combine the federal share and non-federal share, and wire the total, about $100.2 million, to NUMC.
The documents allege that the state orchestrated a ruse to mislead the federal government by requiring NUMC to front the state’s contractual share of the DSH funds from its own operating account. Because of this, NUMC received only half of the DSH payment it was entitled to receive, because the state required the hospital to fund its own non-federal share.
The hospital is alleging that is has been a victim of similar schemes since at least 2001. During the last 23 years, NUMC received approximately $1.08 billion from the federal government in DSH payments, but did not receive the non-federal shares, totaling approximately $1.06 billion form 2001 through toady.
Steve Cohen, a partner at Pollock and Cohen, a firm representing the hospital as a co-counsel with Suman Godfrey L.L.P., said “What New York State did is not just deliberate financial deception, it risked the future of a hospital that is dedicated to our area’s most at-risk people. It should shock every taxpayer.”
Cohen told reporters after the news conference on Wednesday that by law, the hospital is required to notify the state’s Attorney General’s office of its intentions, so the state has time to prepare for future legal proceedings. When additional litigation is filed, information regarding the case will be available publicly, Cohen said, and all legal proceedings will take place in New York’s Court of Claims.
"We are continuing to work with Nassau County on an appropriate solution for the future of NUMC," Gordon Tepper, the Long Island press secretary for Gov. Kathy Hochul emailed in a statement to the Herald. "Our concerns are the fiscal health of the hospital and patient care. Everything else is just noise."
At a special meeting held on Nov. 18 by the Nassau Health Care Corporation board, which oversees the operations of NUMC and the A. Holly Paterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale, the board authorized a contract with Susman Godfrey L.L.P. and Pollock and Cohen to provide legal services to the health care corporation, beginning Nov. 25, 2024.
The contract amount, in a contingency rate based upon collections and additional funds, is not to exceed $325,000, according to the meeting’s agenda posted on NUMC’s website.
According to Richard Kessel, the chairman and director of the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, which is a public-benefit corporation that monitors and oversees Nassau County’s finances, NIFA has to approve hospital contracts over $50,000.
“We’re required to approve the law firm contracts that they voted on a few days ago,” Kessel told the Herald. “We put them on notice that those contracts should be submitted to NIFA, and that no money should be spent until we’ve reviewed and approved them. We have yet to receive them at this point.”
According to the state, if NIFA does not approve these contracts, the law firms that filed the notice of claim cannot be paid for their services to the hospital.
Regarding the possibility that NIFA could potentially not approve the contract, Cohen told reporters that he hopes the finance authority “does the right thing.”
“You shouldn’t be retaliating against the people who are trying to uncover the wrongdoing,” Cohen said.
“As we prepare to initiate litigation, the facts will reveal that the State of New York deliberately violated federal law, depriving this hospital of the resources it needs to be financially sustainable,” Megan Ryan, the interim president and chief executive of NUMC said. “NUMC is a lifeline for Nassau County’s most vulnerable residents. The state’s financial misconduct has hurt this institution and the people it serves. Today marks the beginning of holding the state accountable and ensuring this community gets the resources it deserves.”
To view the hospital claim filing, visit NUMC.edu.
