WNY hospitals would lose $11 million

under Governor Pataki’s budget  

     A new hospital-specific analysis of Governor George Pataki’s 2006-07 Executive Budget proposal shows that every one of Western New York’s 32 not-for-profit hospitals would lose critically needed funding under the governor’s budget plan. All told, the budget would cost hospitals in Western New York State $11,183,000 in just one year alone.

     “Our hospitals cannot withstand these cuts,” said Mary LaRowe, president of the Western New York Healthcare Association. “The governor’s cuts would pull the rug out from under facilities that are struggling to continue their important mission of service to their communities.”

     Due generally to artificially low government and private insurance reimbursement rates and skyrocketing operating costs, the collective financial health of New York’s not-for-profit hospitals has grown increasingly poor over the last decade. In 2004 alone, hospitals statewide lost $127 million, increasing their cumulative losses to $2.3 billion since 1998. Meanwhile, in 2004, New York health maintenance organization (HMO) profits totaled $847 million, bringing their total profits to $3.7 billion over the past six years.

     The analysis, conducted by the Healthcare Association of New York State, used state Division of Budget’s 2006-07 Executive Budget allocation estimates and the Department of Health’s Medicaid payment methodology. This analysis is provided to hospitals each year and is universally recognized by government agencies and health care organizations as accurate and reliable.