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Presentation to the Medicaid Redesign Team Presentation to the Medicaid Redesign TeamMr. Jeffrey Menkes, President and CEO of New York Downtown Hospital Delivered February 4, 2023 Baruch College New York Downtown Hospital is located just four blocks from the site of the World Trade Center. Ten years ago, we participated in the largest disaster response that any New York hospital had ever experienced. Today, we remain the Safety Net Hospital for all of Lower Manhattan and we are also the dominant provider of inpatient care for the large, and growing, Chinatown community. There is no question that the closing of St. Vincent's Hospital has impacted New York Downtown. We have experienced an increase in Emergency Room volume and an increase in our average daily inpatient census. Since 9/11, our Hospital has had a history of losses. Had St. Vincent's not closed, New York Downtown would have been in difficult straits. Why? Because 72% of our patients are either Medicaid, Medicaid Managed Care or Medicare. I urge you to exempt “Safety Net Hospitals,” like New York Downtown, from another round of Medicaid cuts. The impact of new and continued Medicaid cuts on New York Downtown will have an extraordinary, negative impact on the only hospital remaining in Lower Manhattan. There is a real risk of having no hospital in Lower Manhattan, and I do not think that Lower Manhattan can assume that New York Downtown Hospital's inpatient volume can be absorbed as recently happened with the closure of St. Vincent's. We also care for four to seven undocumented patients with no health insurance each and every day. This costs several million dollars a year, and no one wants to talk about that! I urge you to consider a new environment for Managed Care for Medicaid recipients, which will improve the coordination of care, reduce unnecessary medical expenses and readmissions to our hospitals. We need a new environment where physicians and hospitals will work together to make this happen. Six percent of Downtown Hospital's revenue base goes to paying medical malpractice insurance premiums. Of the 3,000 women who have their babies at our Hospital, a little over two-thirds of them are Medicaid recipients. I am urging you to consider creating either a No-Fault Fund or a Fault-Based Medical Indemnity Fund, which will reduce malpractice costs to hospitals like ours, with a large number of obstetrical deliveries. I would hope this would be a centerpiece for your recommendations to Governor Cuomo. |
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