By Nick Buglione
Health-care cuts in Gov. George Pataki's proposed executive budget, including a $1.3 billion slashing of state Medicaid, could cost NUMC $9 million if the state Legislature OKs them. Meanwhile, the medical center says it has already spent $3 million to $4 million ensuring patient safety and its ability to handle any future chemical, biological or nuclear catastrophe.
The hospital simply needs more aid on the state and federal levels to defray these costs, said Richard Turan, president and CEO of the Nassau Health Care Corporation, which oversees NUMC, the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility and seven community health centers.
"We're really looking for all levels of government to do their fair share," Turan said. "The position we have to take is that health services are an absolute necessity for the people. If anything, we should be looking to improve health services, not make it more difficult for the people."
Turan fears that the governor's proposed cuts to health care, and the millions it will cost his hospital, could seriously impede the Nassau Health Care Corporation's road to financial recovery.
Coming into the 2002 fiscal year, the corporation was staring at an $82 million deficit. Through staff reductions, controlled spending and improved billing collections, the corporation took a $65 million bite out of that gap, reducing its deficit to $17 million. Turan has said he hopes to break even by the end of this year.
Concerned about the potential health-care cuts, he has already pleaded with local legislators to rework the governor's budget. The Legislature and governor had until April 1 to agree on the state's budget, but for the 19th straight year they missed that deadline.
"We cannot sustain these cuts and continue to provide the scope of care our patients and our communities deserve," said John Spicer, chairman of the Healthcare Association of New York State, which held a rally in Albany March 12 opposing the governor's health-care cuts.
Joined by state elected officials, including Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Garden City), Spicer and his colleagues charged that New York's health-care providers were already "on the brink," owing to years of cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and the like.
"[We're working] to ensure that the health-care safety net in this state is intact," said Hannon to the more than 3,000 hospital and health-care executives, employees and volunteers who attended the rally.
"Health care has already taken the cuts," said Hannon, chairman of the Senate Health Committee. "I think we can't afford any more."
Hannon said he has worked hard on this issue, looking "toward whatever moneys are available to restore to those proposed cuts to try to ensure the health-care safety net will be preserved."
Still, considering the state's massive deficit, Turan believes that at least some cuts are coming. "[Legislators] all understand that this is probably not the right place to cut. The problem is, where do you cut?" he said. "I make the assumption that there will be some cuts."
Turan is hoping those reductions, however, will be on a smaller scale than the ones already proposed, especially considering that NUMC has spent millions on heightened security and ensuring its staff's ability to handle any potential terrorist attack.
About two weeks ago, the hospital activated a domestic-preparedness committee, which would serve as its nerve center in the event of an attack. In the wake of Sept. 11, NUMC also took a number of steps to prepare, including installing decontamination tents and trailers and stocking antidote crash carts to combat the effects of nerve gas or cyanide poisoning.
To date, the hospital has received no additional funding for equipment and training. "It's costing us a lot of money, and the federal government is not stepping up to the plate," Turan said.
As the number of American casualties in Iraq rises, there's also the possibility that injured troops could be transferred to the hospital's renowned burn unit for treatment, he added.
