Demand Fair Reimbursement for Emergency Room Care

Sisto:  Enough is Enough!  No More Cuts!

ALBANY, N.Y. – Nearly 3,000 health care workers, providers, patients and volunteers from every corner of the state converged on the steps of the State Capitol today to oppose Governor Pataki’s devastating proposal to cut health care funding by $1 billion, and to demand fair reimbursement for emergency room care provided by New York’s struggling hospitals. Organized by the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), the rally is the largest demonstration at the Capitol this year.

“For far too long, this Administration has launched its economic assault on the state’s hospitals, nursing homes and health care providers,” Daniel Sisto, President of HANYS, said.  “And year after year, more and more providers are forced to close their doors forever.”

“Today, we are here to say ‘enough is enough! No more health care cuts!’,” Mr. Sisto said.

The Governor’s 2006-2007 Executive Budget plan would cut $431 million from hospitals and another $581 million from nursing homes, for a total of more than $1 billion in health care cuts in just one year.

Over the past seven years, New York’s hospitals have lost $2.3 billion, including nearly $127 million in 2004 alone.  Meanwhile, New York’s health maintenance organizations (HMOs) have seen profits of nearly $4 billion, including almost $1 billion in 2004.  Alarmingly, 19 hospitals across New York have closed since 2000 due almost entirely to financial pressures.

A considerable factor in these closings was New York’s woefully inadequate emergency room Medicaid reimbursement rate, which has not changed since 1991. The rate has failed to keep pace or even acknowledge the skyrocketing cost increases hospitals have endured over the last 15 years for everything from staffing, to supplies, to energy, to pharmaceuticals. 

On average, a single emergency room visit costs a hospital more than $400; however, the state’s reimbursement rate pays hospitals just $95 for that same visit—less than 25 percent of actual cost. That means every time a hospital treats a Medicaid patient in the emergency room, the hospital loses more than $300.

“The fact is, this one antiquated reimbursement rate alone is choking the life out of our emergency rooms and hospitals. We are asking the Legislature and Governor to provide a realistic and responsible rate that is necessary to keep emergency care available to all New Yorkers,” Mr. Sisto said.

Prior to the Capitol rally, participants heard from legislative leaders in the Empire State Plaza Convention Center. Those who addressed the rally participants included: Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, Senate Health Committee Chair Kemp Hannon, and Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried.

“The Governor is again proposing a budget that would simply devastate New York’s health care system. Almost every year, health care providers have looked to the Legislature to correct the Governor’s reckless course, and we are back again asking for their help,” said Mr. Sisto.

“We are here today, thousands strong and united, to resist this assault on our health care system and continue our fight for the millions of patients we treat every year, and it’s on their behalf that we say ‘Enough is enough – stop the cuts!’,” Mr. Sisto concluded.

HANYS, the only statewide hospital and continuing care advocacy association in New York State, represents more than 550 not-for-profit and public hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, and other health care organizations.