Troubled Brooklyn hospitals are closer to state intervention thanks to a Medicaid waiver deal that will allow New York state to keep $8 billion created by Medicaid reform efforts. While details on how that money will be used are not yet available, public officials pointed to the Brooklyn institutions' distress in applauding the deal.
“With this funding, we can finally turn the page on a decade of reckless hospital closures, and confront the immediate crises facing seven hospitals in Brooklyn alone,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement.
Hospitals will likely be eligible for funds to shift services outside of their four walls into homes and less costly settings and hospital officials are already seeking to position themselves to move as quickly as possible, once the waiver details are finalized, said Kenneth Raske, president and CEO of the Greater New York Hospital Association. “We're wasting no time,” he said. “The need is right upon us.”