Cuomo: Four Brooklyn Hospitals May Close Without Fed Aid

ALBANY

Four Brooklyn hospitals are in danger of closing within a year unless the federal government allows the state to access a certain Medicaid fund, Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned.

In a letter Cuomo sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, he said that unless the feds give permission for the state to use $10 billion of the $17.5 billion it expects to save through restructuring Medicaid, nearly 1,000 beds and hundreds of thousands of annual visits will be lost, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The facilities are Long Island College Hospital, Interfaith Medical Center, Brookdale Medical Center and SUNY Downstate Brooklyn.

“Due to a rapid deterioration in the financial status of essential components of the health-care services system in Brooklyn,” Cuomo wrote, “if nothing is done within the next 12 months, the outcome will be disastrous.”

Cuomo said that it has been months since the application and the Obama administration has yet to respond. An HHS official said they approved part of it and “will continue to work with the state on any other elements … they remain interested in pursuing.”

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