Potential Medicaid cuts: Long Island nonprofit leaders, advocates air concerns
Advocates and leaders of Long Island nonprofits met in East Meadow on Monday evening to discuss the potential affect on those who depend on Medicaid if cuts are made to the federal program. Credit: Howard Simmons
Potential cuts to Medicaid funding — and the loss of health services for thousands of Long Islanders — have local nonprofits on edge and looking for ways to survive amid tumultuous and unpredictable times, according to participants at a Monday evening forum in East Meadow.
Many leaders are feeling "frightened," said Lisa Burch, CEO of the EPIC Family of Human Service Agencies, which hosted the forum at its headquarters.
"We have a strategic session coming up ... this week to talk about what it would look like if we lost Medicaid funding, if we lost grants," Burch said.
Burch and about 30 other leaders from various nonprofits at the forum discussed how cuts to Medicaid could impact the services they provide to some of the Island’s most vulnerable populations.
In Burch’s case, that means "what, if any programs would we need to cut," and determining new revenue streams to pay the salaries for about 800 employees working for the EPIC agencies. She would like to "redeploy" workers rather than let them go, she said.
The open-forum discussion provided an opportunity for various nonprofit heads to go over advocacy efforts, including instruction on how to call on elected leaders to act, and brainstorming "different ideas for diversified funding," according to Alison La Ferlita, executive director of the Bohemia-based Nonprofit Resource Hub, which organized the forum.
Their concerns center on potential Medicaid cuts in the Republican-majority Congress, including in the House, which passed a resolution to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, Newsday previously reported.
More than a fifth of Long Island’s population — some 680,000 residents in Nassau and Suffolk — has limited income and relies on Medicaid to help cover health care costs, Newsday reported.
Republicans in the House have instructed a committee with jurisdiction over Medicaid to cut spending by $880 billion over the next decade as part of efforts to extend the tax cuts, according to Newsday reporting.
Ken Cerini of the Bohemia-based accounting firm Cerini and Associates, which works with nonprofits, told the leaders gathered Monday that he has been encouraging clients to establish "contingency budgets" should they lose federal funds. He said that now is also the time to begin determining what staffers they could let go if they are left without other options.
"I know that’s unfortunate, but if you do the leg work today ... it makes the process quicker when you ... have to react," Cerini said.
None of the nonprofit leaders reported employees leaving yet.
"The buzz is happening and I wouldn’t be surprised" if folks fled their jobs before funding and staffing cuts hit, said Yolanda Robano-Gross, CEO of the Hempstead-based Options for Community Living. Robano-Gross added that many of her entry-level employees rely on the federal safety net, and are currently feeling economic strain and worry about their future.
"The fear is very real," she said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the employer for about 800 nonprofit workers.
Potential cuts to Medicaid funding — and the loss of health services for thousands of Long Islanders — have local nonprofits on edge and looking for ways to survive amid tumultuous and unpredictable times, according to participants at a Monday evening forum in East Meadow.
Many leaders are feeling "frightened," said Lisa Burch, CEO of the EPIC Family of Human Service Agencies, which hosted the forum at its headquarters.
"We have a strategic session coming up ... this week to talk about what it would look like if we lost Medicaid funding, if we lost grants," Burch said.
Burch and about 30 other leaders from various nonprofits at the forum discussed how cuts to Medicaid could impact the services they provide to some of the Island’s most vulnerable populations.
In Burch’s case, that means "what, if any programs would we need to cut," and determining new revenue streams to pay the salaries for about 800 employees working for the EPIC agencies. She would like to "redeploy" workers rather than let them go, she said.
The open-forum discussion provided an opportunity for various nonprofit heads to go over advocacy efforts, including instruction on how to call on elected leaders to act, and brainstorming "different ideas for diversified funding," according to Alison La Ferlita, executive director of the Bohemia-based Nonprofit Resource Hub, which organized the forum.
Their concerns center on potential Medicaid cuts in the Republican-majority Congress, including in the House, which passed a resolution to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year, Newsday previously reported.
More than a fifth of Long Island’s population — some 680,000 residents in Nassau and Suffolk — has limited income and relies on Medicaid to help cover health care costs, Newsday reported.
Republicans in the House have instructed a committee with jurisdiction over Medicaid to cut spending by $880 billion over the next decade as part of efforts to extend the tax cuts, according to Newsday reporting.
Ken Cerini of the Bohemia-based accounting firm Cerini and Associates, which works with nonprofits, told the leaders gathered Monday that he has been encouraging clients to establish "contingency budgets" should they lose federal funds. He said that now is also the time to begin determining what staffers they could let go if they are left without other options.
"I know that’s unfortunate, but if you do the leg work today ... it makes the process quicker when you ... have to react," Cerini said.
None of the nonprofit leaders reported employees leaving yet.
"The buzz is happening and I wouldn’t be surprised" if folks fled their jobs before funding and staffing cuts hit, said Yolanda Robano-Gross, CEO of the Hempstead-based Options for Community Living. Robano-Gross added that many of her entry-level employees rely on the federal safety net, and are currently feeling economic strain and worry about their future.
"The fear is very real," she said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the employer for about 800 nonprofit workers.
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