Maimonides Medical Middle in Brooklyn is on the verge of economic collapse after dropping $145 million final yr.
Paul Martinka
Life, dying, newborns getting into the world, a CEO raking in thousands and thousands, politicians calling for an investigation: all a part of the drama swirling round Maimonides Medical Middle, which misplaced a staggering $145 million final yr.
It’s Brooklyn’s largest hospital, and newly launched financials present it barely has the money to make it by means of one other yr.
The Maimonides calamity might be seen as a cleaning soap opera, if so many sufferers weren’t affected. Worse, the identical primary story is being repeated at hospitals all over the place that deal with the poor.
Security-net hospitals are bleeding purple ink as a result of Medicaid, the federal government health-insurance program, shortchanges hospitals, paying them solely 67 cents for each greenback of care.
Most hospitals shift the 33% in unmet prices to the privately insured affected person down the corridor. However at safety-net hospitals like Maimonides, fewer than one in 5 sufferers has industrial insurance coverage. These hospitals have nowhere to shift their unmet prices. They lose cash yr after yr. It’s additionally occurring at Atlanta Medical Middle, closing in November.
Admittedly, the issue is extra extreme in New York state as a result of politicians have lavishly expanded Medicaid eligibility, shopping for votes and boasting they’re fixing the issue of the uninsured. A couple of out of each 4 New Yorkers, not simply the indigent, is on Medicaid.
In July, a gaggle referred to as “Save Maimonides” started organizing group conferences and recruiting politicians to push for investigations and a brand new board and CEO. Mendy Reiner, the group’s cochair, claims the hospital is “rife with critical issues.”
The hospital’s defenders declare it’s a “smear marketing campaign,” probably by a nursing-home magnate, Eliezer Scheiner, who some allege wish to management the hospital board.
It’s been reported that two folks related to Scheiner’s firm, TL Administration LLC, contributed $8,000 to New York state Sen. Kevin Parker. Parker subsequently despatched a letter to the state Well being Division demanding an investigation of Maimonides.
Political intrigue apart, the larger questions are: Does this hospital ship excellent care? Who’s in charge for its losses? Ought to or not it's saved open?
CEO Kenneth Gibbs earned a $1.8 million wage in 2019 and noticed his compensation double to $3.2 million in 2020 because of a one-time vesting of his retirement plan.
Multimillion-dollar salaries are widespread for hospital executives in New York. Nonetheless, it seems vulgar. Maimonides relies upon nearly fully on taxpayer dollars, and few taxpayers pull in million-dollar salaries.
What do sufferers say? Maimonides will get one star out of 5 for affected person satisfaction on Medicare’s grading system. The hospital earns two stars total, primarily based on an infection charges, survival charges and outcomes. It’s rated extremely for coronary heart care.
Two stars is nothing to brag about, however Brooklyn residents might do worse. Coney Island Hospital, SUNY Downstate, Brooklyn’s New York Neighborhood Hospital and Brooklyn Hospital Middle earn just one star.
Ought to these low performers be closed? Maimonides’ occupancy charge varies between 81% and 86%, that means it might deal with extra sufferers if lower-performing hospitals within the space had been shuttered, saving taxpayers cash.
However closing hospitals is just like closing fireplace stations: It ignites group opposition. Hospitals present jobs. In New York, hospitals make use of extra folks than Wall Avenue.
Earlier than COVID, the state used a bipartisan fee to shut or shrink financially troubled hospitals. That allowed politicians to evade blame. However throughout COVID, hospitals ran out of beds. Now closing hospitals is a taboo matter, even in areas the place there are too many beds.
What could be carried out to avoid wasting Maimonides? Politicians are calling for investigations. However the reply is already clear: slash the state’s inflated Medicaid enrollment, reserving this system for the really needy, and use the financial savings to pay safety-net hospitals the precise price of the care they supply. No enterprise can keep afloat receiving 67 cents on the greenback. New York has began offering supplemental funding however not sufficient.
Lastly, minimize Gibbs’ wage or hand him strolling papers. Why ought to Gibbs be on the gravy prepare when the hospital is dropping tens of thousands and thousands of our taxpayer dollars a yr?
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York.
Twitter: @Betsy_McCaughey
Post a Comment