NY Has Until June 15 to Weigh a $457 Million Plan for Brooklyn Medical Center

A New York law gives the state’s government until June 15 to consider a four-year plan that would cost at least $457 million to sustain Brooklyn hospitals.

The State University of New York submitted the plan to stabilize its Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn on June 1 under the law, which was passed earlier this year after the center asked the state legislature for a bailout.

In February SUNY Downstate Medical Center said it might run out of money by May. Since then it has taken some measures to keep from running out until early fall, according to Downstate spokesman Bob Bellafiore.  Downstate Medical Center sought to close Long Island College Hospital in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, one of its three hospitals, because it was losing money. In March in response to a union and doctor suit, a state court judge stayed the closing.

The plan calls for state spending over the course of the center’s next four fiscal years, including at least $132 million in the university system’s fiscal year 2014, which starts on July 1, 2013. The state Assembly and Senate are not in session.

If the state government can find the money by transferring it from other allocations, then no Assembly and Senate action would be needed immediately, Bellafiore said. However, if more state spending is required in the next few months, the assembly and senate would have to be brought back into session to approve the sum.

The plan calls for Downstate to eventually cease running the Long Island College Hospital, one of three hospitals it currently operates. Downstate is currently considering proposals by other medical groups to run an acute care hospital using at least some of LICH’s facilities.

Downstate suffers financially because many Brooklyn residents who have health insurance get their health care in Manhattan, where many of them work, the plan says, adding that many of those who use Downstate’s facilities are poor and do not have insurance.

Downstate Medical Center is the only academic medical center in Brooklyn providing research, patient care, and medical education to doctors and nurses in training.

The SUNY plan says that many of Brooklyn’s healthcare centers are facing the same problems as Downstate. The plan calls for the formation of a Brooklyn Health Improvement public benefit corporation among several Brooklyn centers. Among other things, BHI would have joint managed care contracting, joint risk contracts, shared network goals, and an information technology redesign.

Downstate could start parts of the plan without government funding. However, it will run out of money within a few months without help from either the state or SUNY. SUNY does not have the funds to sustain Downstate, New York Assemblyman Joseph Lentol said.

The sustainability plan is excellent, he said, adding that he hoped that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will approve it.

“I think it is vital to not allow the crown jewel of the SUNY system to fail,” Lentol said. Lentol’s Brooklyn district encompasses parts of the Fort Greene, Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods.

As of the end of 2012 Downstate had $154 million in outstanding debt.

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Healthcare industry New York
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