Hospital Paid for First-Class Travel Of Doctors’ Wives

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Top executives at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have traveled in recent years to China, Italy, and Switzerland, and have taken their wives along on first-class trips — all at the hospital’s expense, according to documents released in connection with a Senate hearing yesterday.

The records indicate that the hospital’s former director, Dr. Michael Berman, was its most frequent flyer. In April 2003, Dr. Berman and his wife, Susan Swift, flew to Palm Springs, Calif., for a health management conference. Each first-class ticket cost the hospital $3,989.50.

In February 2002, Dr. Berman’s trip to Tucson, Ariz., for a hospital-related speaking engagement cost the hospital more than $8,000, including first-class airfare for him and his wife, as well as accommodations at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.

Ms. Swift is a health care consultant who has taught health policy classes at New York University. It is unclear whether she has performed work for NewYork-Presbyterian.

A November 2003 trip to Beijing taken by Dr. Berman and two others cost the hospital more than $31,000 for airfare alone.

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Grassley of Iowa, posted the documents on the Internet yesterday to coincide with a hearing on whether nonprofit hospitals are meeting their charitable purposes and deserve the tax benefits they receive.

“Some non-profit hospital executives enjoy the best hotels and great meals, all subsidized by the taxpayer,” Mr. Grassley said in a statement, which did not single out NewYork-Presbyterian or any other hospital. “Non-profit hospitals receive billions in tax breaks at the federal, state and local level.The public has a right to expect significant, measurable benefits in return.”

A spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian defended the travel and the reimbursements. “Each and every one of the receipts was a legitimate hospital-related business expense fully documented and approved in accordance with our policies and procedures,” the spokeswoman, Kathleen Robinson, said in a statement e-mailed to The New York Sun. “NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is an international institution with patients, donors, and visitors coming to us from all over the world and across the country.”

Dr. Berman, a pediatric cardiologist, took over as director of the newly merged hospital in 1999. He earned about $3.4 million in 2004 before resigning abruptly in January 2005, in what Crain’s New York Business described as “an acrimonious parting.” He was replaced by Dr. Steven Corwin, who had been the hospital’s chief medical officer.

Dr. Corwin’s name also makes several appearances in the newly released records. In October 2002, Dr. Corwin took his wife to a hospital management conference in Park City, Utah. The bill for first-class airfare came in at $5,283 and lodging at the Stein Eriksen lodge was more than $1,000, all picked up by NewYork-Presbyterian.

Dr. Corwin made about $1.6 million in 2004, the last year for which records are available.

The hospital’s CEO and president, Dr. Herbert Pardes, traveled to Davos for the World Economic Forum in 2001. The hospital picked up the $4,943 tab for his business-class ticket, according to the vouchers released by the Senate.

The hospital has also paid Dr.Pardes’s dues for private clubs. In 2001, it paid his semi-annual membership fee for the Century Association on West 43rd Street. More recently, NewYork-Presbyterian has paid its CEO’s dues of about $4,300 a year for the River Club on East 52nd Street. The hospital told the Senate that Dr. Pardes, who made about $4.6 million in 2004, “used the club for business-related meetings and events.”

The explanation from NewYork-Presbyterian and other hospitals providing similar perks did not satisfy Mr. Grassley. “The tax code doesn’t allow publicly traded corporations to deduct these expenses for country clubs; It’s outrageous that tax-exempt hospitals are providing this benefit,” he said in a statement.


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