City Hospitals Most Affected Under Proposed Medicaid Cuts

New York City hospitals would bear the brunt of Medicaid cuts proposed by Governor Paterson, losing more than $663 million over the next two years, according to an analysis by hospital groups.

Overall, hospitals around the state are projected to lose $974.1 million over two years if legislators enact Mr. Paterson's proposal to slash Medicaid spending by more than $500 million this year and $1 billion next year, according to the groups, the Healthcare Association of New York State and the Greater New York Hospital Association. To help close the state's $6.4 billion estimated budget gap, Mr. Paterson has proposed cutting Medicaid reimbursement rates to hospitals by 7% this year and 3.6% next year.

"Every hospital loses under this plan," the president of the Healthcare Association, Daniel Sisto, said in a statement accompanying an analysis of how the cuts would affect individual hospitals. "Taking funding away from health care providers puts critical services in jeopardy."

In New York City, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, which includes four hospital campuses, stands to lose the most, $64.3 million over the next two years. Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, which serves a large population of Medicaid patients, would lose $36.8 million.

New York City's network of 11 public hospitals, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which is often described as a "safety net" for patients, would lose nearly $187 million, with Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan projected to lose $11 million this year and $17.9 million next year.

Such losses would have a "disastrous impact on hospitals and the communities they serve," the president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, Kenneth Raske, said in a statement released jointly with 1199SEIU, which called on legislators to reject Mr. Paterson's proposal. "These are extremely damaging cuts, particularly on the heels of recent downsizing," the union's president, George Gresham, said, referring to a series of hospital closings recommended last year by a state health care commission.