NUMC 90 days away from peril, its leaders tell the state

Daily Point

Letter blames state for loss of aid, seeks $125M

Nassau University Medical Center is “less than 90 days away from not being able to meet our obligations,” the top officials of the hospital wrote in a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders asking for state assistance.

The Feb. 8 letter obtained by The Point asks the state for $125 million that NUMC officials said would restore previous state funding cuts. It was written by Megan Ryan, NUMC’s interim president and chief executive officer, and Matthew Bruderman, the chairman of the board of directors that oversees the hospital.

In making their case, Ryan and Bruderman noted that a specific pot of state aid went from $170 million in 2020 to $40 million in 2023. The letter plays defense and makes it clear that hospital officials will place the blame for NUMC’s shaky financial status on the state.

“As state officials, you have been aware of the dramatic cuts in aid over the last three years. You are well aware of the financial peril these cuts have created,” the letter said. “You cannot deny knowledge that this defunding of the hospital puts it in jeopardy.”

But sources familiar with the hospital’s finances told the Point that Bruderman and Ryan are referring to a pot of money from the state’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment program, or DSRIP, a state effort that provided funds to encourage better health care delivery and outcomes. That program, which distributed money to hospitals across the state, always was meant to be temporary — and every hospital, including NUMC, knew that those funds would wane over time and eventually dry up, sources said.

“They had advance knowledge of this and did not adjust to it,” one source told The Point. “This was not sprung on them.”

The letter from Bruderman and Ryan makes no mention of the hospital’s other financial troubles. Sources told The Point that on its current trajectory, NUMC could have a “serious problem by next month.”

The letter doesn’t mention the nearly $300 million Nassau Health Care Corp. owes in back payments to the New York State Health Insurance Program.

And it doesn’t discuss two recent payments the state made to Nassau University Medical Center that totaled about $50 million. Those payments, sources said, came from federal funds as part of what’s known as an intergovernmental transfer, or IGT.

Hospital officials already have spent the majority of those IGT funds to make a Feb. 5 payment of more than $38 million to the New York State Comptroller’s office. NUMC’s payment covered what it owed for its 2024 contribution to the pension system even though, sources noted, the hospital had the option to hold on to some of those funds and amortize the pension payment over time.

Three days later, Bruderman and Ryan wrote the letter to the state seeking more.

“Health care is not a political football, nor should the people who rely on NHCC’s services be used to close a budget gap,” they wrote. “ … Lives are at stake and our communities will not soon forget your decision in this matter.”

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

You forget!

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Final Point

The CD3 battle for Queens (and Santos’ claim)

Even now, after indictment and expulsion, fabulist George Santos is trying to peddle his own version of reality. He’s been tweeting on social media that leaders of the Nassau County and Queens Republican organizations have begun “fingerpointing” over the loss of Mazi Melesa Pilip to Democrat Tom Suozzi in Tuesday’s special election.

It would be racy dish, if true, but nobody in the know confirms it. GOP leaders in both counties say otherwise about the recent race in the county-crossing 3rd Congressional District.

On the Queens side, an aide to City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said, “Santos is trying to stir controversy where there is none. No finger pointing is happening at all. There’s obviously a post-mortem going on but no acrimony.” Santos said Paladino complained to the Whitestone Club that the Nassau GOP “was not giving her what she wanted.”

On the Nassau side of the border, county GOP chairman Joe Cairo told The Point in a statement: “One of the positive things that came out of the Mazi Pilip campaign for Congress is that I had an opportunity to develop a great relationship with [Paladino]. She is an impressive elected official who worked tirelessly for Mazi, and we collaborated on a host of campaign activities.

“I look forward to continuing our work together, and I will be a resource for Vickie should she ever need me,” Cairo stated.

It was Paladino several years ago who originally supported Santos for the seat until the depth of his truthlessness was revealed.

Despite the GOP rebuff of Santos, the reality stands that Democrats out-hustled them In Queens on Election Day.

The effort started Monday as the National Weather Service was increasing the expected snow totals for Election Day and Democrats were alarmed that the early voting numbers in Queens were underwhelming and that the in-person turnout would disappoint because of the weather. An emergency call took place at 4 p.m.

Rep. Greg Meeks, the Queens County Democratic chairman, and Rep. Grace Meng were the field marshals for the New York City effort. Meeks told The Point that he jumped on Zoom for the pep talk.

Meeks said the group decided not start the door-to-door effort until midday, when the snow stopped falling.

“We went to the big apartment buildings in Bayside Terrace,” he said as they sought locations where large numbers of votes could easily be found.

Meeks said the other focus was on North Shore Towers, which has more than 1,800 condos in three buildings. “There was an official polling station there,” he said. The complex is so huge, it boasts its own ZIP code.

Another Democrat deeply involved in the strategy told The Point that the GOTV team found supporters who lived in those buildings to gain admittance, and went floor-to-floor with them as they knocked on their neighbors' doors. Suozzi snared 797 votes in North Shore Towers, or 82% of the votes cast there.

“We told them they didn’t even have to go outside,” the operative said.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com, Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

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