By Richard Tedesco
The shortfall would result from a decrease in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates to hospitals nationwide from the current rate of 3.4 percent to 3.2 percent. "This will put patients in danger," said McCarthy at a news conference in Winthrop University Hospital earlier this week. "This will cause hospitals to stop giving care to medicare and medicaid patients."
Reducing the reimbursement rate to 3.2 percent would not keep pace with the rate of inflation, McCarthy said, estimating that Nassau County hospitals would witness a $380 million shortfall over a five-year period.
McCarthy, a registered nurse, also said President George Bush is trying to "circumvent" Congress by exercising his executive discretion to eliminate $3 billion in graduate medical education funding over the next five years. That could have a dire impact on four teaching hospitals in Nassau County.
Daniel Walsh, president and CEO of Winthrop, said the hospital currently has 230 residents in training and would have to make cuts in other areas to maintain its residential staff if federal funding was dramatically reduced. "We obviously have to honor our commitment to them," Walsh said.
Nassau County's teaching hospitals currently include Winthrop, North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital, Nassau University Medical Center and South Nassau Hospital.
Statewide, the lowered reimbursement rate would translate to an estimated loss of $2.76 billion in Medicare over five years, according to Kevin Dahill, executive vice president of the Healthcare Association of New York. New York State health care facilities would lose an estimated $356 million annually if the proposed budget numbers remain the same.
Dahill said at least three Nassau County hospitals would be "pushed over the edge" financially and would likely close in the face of the federal financial cuts. he declined to identify those facilities. "These cuts, as proposed, are devastating in nature," Dahill said.
McCarthy expects it won't be easy to restore the health care cuts to the budget. "It's going to be a really tough grind. There's only so much money," she said, noting Congress was facing an outlay of $100 billion for the war in Iraq in the current budget.
McCarthy plans to meet with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Sunday to enlist his help in the budget fight. She said Congressional Democrats are also counting on getting governors into the fight as well.
The White House press office could not be reached for comment.
In a prepared statement this week, Rep. Pete King said, "I am oppposed to these hospital cuts, and as I have always done in the past, I will do all that I can to strengthen the medicare program for seniors and to protect access to hospitals for all Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries."
Comments about this story?
Rtedesco@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000, ext. 204
