NUMC is deep in debt. Its nonprofit arm spent over $150,000 on parties.

The party seemed to have everything.

The guests at the 2024 Power Women of Grace Gala, a benefit for the Gracie Mansion Conservancy at the Upper East Side mansion, came from New York City’s high society: then-Mayor Eric Adams, city commissioners, nonprofit leaders and broadcast journalist Geraldo Rivera, according to published reports. Awards were given out. A Metropolitan Opera soprano sang.

The event also had a Long Island-based sponsor: the parent company of Nassau University Medical Center, the public safety-net hospital in East Meadow.

The Nassau Health Care Foundation — a nonprofit part of that parent corporation — spent $10,000 to sponsor the 2024 gala, according to records obtained by Newsday via a public records request.

The foundation also paid nearly $2,000 to "Long Island Party Limo Corp" for transportation to the function, according to the records. It’s not clear who from NUMC actually rode in the company’s vehicles, but the hospital’s then-CEO Megan Ryan attended the event, according to media reports.

It was not the only time the foundation had paid thousands for a celebration.

Records obtained by Newsday show, in 2024 and 2025, the foundation spent over $150,000 on parties — including staff events at wine bars, resident graduation ceremonies and sponsorships at events where Ryan received honors. Ryan was a foundation board member at the time.

The foundation’s mission, according to its own records, was to provide support to NUMC and the affiliated A. Holly Patterson nursing home.

But its spending came as the facility was losing tens of millions of dollars annually — and as administrators were pleading for state money to keep it afloat.

Newsday reported last month the state attorney general’s office was investigating the hospital’s past leadership over alleged misuse of funds. It’s not clear whether that investigation involves anything related to the foundation.

But Richard Kessel, the former chair of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, which oversees the county’s finances, said in an interview earlier this year,  "A number of the activities by the foundation, and the relationship between the foundation and the hospital, raise concerns that should be — and maybe are — being investigated by the hospital and by law enforcement."

Kessel was tapped to lead the hospital’s board of directors last month.

‘Support, maintain and otherwise benefit’

Newsday is publishing a series of stories examining how NUMC came to be in such dire financial straits. Newsday reported last year that NUMC had one of the worst financial positions of any New York state hospital, due in large part to its disproportionate share of Medicaid and Medicare patients, and has struggled with rapid leadership turnover and questionable management decisions. Last year, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation enabling a state takeover of the facility. Ryan and other executives left the hospital a year ago, a departure that led to a flurry of lawsuits between the hospital's new and old leadership.

The role of the Nassau Health Care Foundation is also a revealing piece of the hospital's story.

To be sure, NHCF’s spending on parties in 2024 and 2025 was minuscule compared with the hospital’s total debts, which reached $1.4 billion in 2025.

But it highlights how the nonprofit, a vehicle intended to support the facility’s operations, instead used much-needed funding for parties.

The mission of NHCF "is to support, maintain and otherwise benefit and be responsive to the needs and objectives of the hospital, skilled nursing facility and related facilities operated by (the parent company)," according to the corporation’s financial records.

In 2024, the last year for which tax records are available, the nonprofit reported roughly $2 million in operating revenue, and had about $5 million in assets.

According to financial records, the organization was funded primarily by federal grants and the hospital’s parent company itself. Financial records show the organization received roughly $1 million annually in federal grants, the bulk of which appeared to be "HIV Emergency Relief Project Grants."

It was unclear whether the foundation used any federal grant money for parties.

The dysfunction that predates and outlasted her tenure makes clear that she was not the cause.

—Ken Abell, an attorney for former NUMC CEO Megan Ryan

That year, the chair of the foundation was Matthew Bruderman, who chaired the hospital’s board of directors at the time. Ryan, who led the hospital from January 2024 to last summer, was also a board member, as was former NUMC CFO Perry Sham. Bruderman and Sham, both of whom have since left their positions, did not respond to requests for comment.

Ken Abell, an attorney for Ryan, said in an emailed statement Ryan was on the board for only a brief time due to her role as CEO.

"During the limited time she was on the board, she worked tirelessly to scale back costs and cut down excessive spending, which had been rampant for many years before she was involved," Abell said. "The dysfunction that predates and outlasted her tenure makes clear that she was not the cause."

Patricia Veneziano, the nonprofit’s longtime CFO, could not be reached for comment. From 2020 through 2024, Veneziano was the only full-time employee of the foundation, according to tax records.

Tom Stokes, who took over as the hospital's CEO in January, said in a statement  the foundation operates separately from the hospital but should be held to the same standard of financial discipline. Stokes also joined the board of NHCF earlier this year, according to a NUMC spokesperson.

"The expenditures being reported did not reflect the values of this institution or the trust our community places in us," Stokes said. "Going forward, we will be applying the same rigorous oversight to foundation spending that we have brought to hospital operations."

‘Should be watching every dime’

Newsday obtained a list of hundreds of checks written by NHCF in 2024 and 2025 via a public records request. Most of those checks appeared to be for unremarkable business-related reasons, such as office supplies, medical equipment and training.

The organization also spent thousands on pizza, bagels and frozen yogurt for meetings, workshops and events; T-shirts for a rally and a cricket match; and parking passes.

It also spent tens of thousands of dollars on parties during that period, including nearly $40,000 for two staff events at wine bars in December 2024 and March 2025; around $75,000 for residents’ graduation parties in 2024 and 2025; and over $30,000 to sponsor functions where Ryan received honors.

NUMC lost nearly $150 million in 2024 and projected similar losses for last year, according to financial records.

Randle Pollard, a law professor at Albany Law School, said a nonprofit’s spending must be directly related to its mission, and the organization should be able to justify how those expenditures further that mission.

But any such expenditures "have to be reasonable and not lavish and extravagant — so that's one factor — and then it can't be to the private benefit of any particular individual," he said.

Given the financial state of NUMC, inquiries about the celebration expenditures are "fair questions," said Pollard, who teaches a course on nonprofit organizations.

"The hospital is having some financial difficulties, you know, and you're spending this amount of money — what is the return on this quote unquote ‘expenditure?’  " he said. "Does it really support the tax-exempt purpose of this organization, which is to help an exempt hospital?"

Anytime there's a limousine associated with a safety-net hospital, you have to flag it.

—Bill Hammond, Senior Fellow for Health Policy at the Empire Center

Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Center, an Albany-based nonprofit focused on fiscal responsibility, said parties may not be in and of themselves an improper use of funds.

Still, "when an organization is in such financial trouble, they really should be watching every dime," he said.

"If an event is really just about schmoozing with the rich and famous or getting your name in the paper — like, there might be a value to those things for the organization, but it's probably the first thing you should cut when you're cutting expenses," he said.

As for the Gracie Mansion Conservancy event, and the roughly $2,000 limousine company bill, Hammond said, "Anytime there's a limousine associated with a safety-net hospital, you have to flag it."

‘Health Care Heroes’

According to the records, the nonprofit spent $18,000 on a Dec. 12, 2024, holiday event at the City Cellar wine bar, and, three months later, $21,295 for a "staff event" at Spuntino Wine Bar, both with locations in Westbury.

The organization dropped around $50,000 on a 2024 ceremony celebrating graduating residents at The Lannin, a high-end venue in nearby Eisenhower Park and frequent gathering place for the Nassau GOP.

The event drew former chair of the  Nassau Health Care Corp. board of directors Bruderman, Ryan and County Executive Bruce Blakeman, as well as Nassau County Civil Service Commissioner Steven Markowitz, who "shared the story of his wife’s exceptional inpatient care at the medical center," according to published reports. Another graduation ceremony in 2025 cost about $25,000.

The foundation also paid thousands of dollars to sponsor a series of 2024 events — mostly events put on by Schneps Media publications — at which Ryan, then the CEO and a board member of the foundation, received honors.

One such expenditure of $4,995, went to Schneps Media to sponsor their May 1, 2024, Health Care Heroes event.

The event was held at a banquet hall in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, where "honorees were treated to an exclusive VIP cocktail reception, where they donned their best attire and networked before heading to the main ballroom," according to a Schneps publication.

Ryan was one of the over 40 "Health Care Heroes" named on the list.

Over the next six months, the Nassau Health Care Foundation paid roughly $18,000 for multiple media events celebrating newly published lists: the Long Island Press’ "Power List," "Dan’s Power List of the East End," "Power Women of the East End" and Long Island Business News’ "Top 50 Women in Business."

Ryan appeared on all those lists.

The expenditures took place around the same time the hospital’s leaders were seeking money from Albany. In February 2024, Ryan and Bruderman, the board chair, wrote a letter to the state asking for $125 million in one-time funding and an annual expenditure in the budget. The next year, hospital staff held a rally in Albany for funding.

Abell, Ryan’s attorney, said in a statement Ryan was one of the few people seeking to instill financial discipline at the foundation.

"Any allegation to the contrary — without considering the broader historical context — is yet another unfortunate example of politicians trying to avoid their own responsibility by attempting to pin long-standing dysfunction on Meg," Abell said.

It’s unclear how long the practice of using foundation money to pay for parties had gone on, although at least one previous hospital leader, former CEO Anthony Boutin, received a similar honor from a publication. Boutin declined to comment.

But the nonprofit has been at the center of questionable spending before. In 2019, former NUMC board chair George Tsunis made significant cuts to the nonprofit, saying it had been used to house a "patronage pit."

Before those reforms, the nonprofit had paid six-figure salaries to roughly a half dozen staffers, and had received millions annually from NUMC’s parent company, Newsday reported at the time.

Last year, Newsday reported that executives at NUMC, including Ryan, spent thousands of dollars on travel, hotels and a lobster dinner in Manhattan.

Two foundations

NHCF is not the only nonprofit segment of the Nassau Health Care Corp. The parent company also oversees the NuHealth Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the company, whose mission is to raise money for the hospital and A. Holly Patterson.

The NuHealth Foundation also used to sponsor events at which hospital employees received awards, according to Syed Zaki Hossain, the chair of the NuHealth Foundation. Hossain, who became chairman in 2015, according to tax records, said he halted that practice years ago because he didn’t believe it was an appropriate expense.

The two foundations operate separately, he said. But according to the records obtained by Newsday, money from NHCF has flowed to the philanthropic organization.

According to the records, NHCF spent thousands on fundraisers held by the NuHealth Foundation.

NHCF holds "discretionary funds" that can be used by the chairs of hospital departments "for educational and mission-related purposes," according to financial records. But check records obtained by Newsday appear to show those funds instead were used to purchase tickets and tables at fundraiser galas and golf events.

The Nassau Health Care Foundation paid roughly $30,000 to book tables and tickets for a 2023 gala to support the hospital. It paid $5,600 to the NuHealth Foundation for a golf event that same year.

In other words, NHCF — itself largely funded by the hospital’s parent company — was sending money to the NuHealth Foundation, which was reinvesting those funds back in NUMC and A. Holly Patterson.

"It certainly just seems kind of a waste of time for one nonprofit to donate to the other when they're both part of one organization," Hammond, of the Empire Center, said.

The NuHealth Foundation had about $1.5 million in assets as of 2024. Since then, however, the organization has effectively gone dormant, Hossain, the chair, said in an interview.

The organization had been without an executive director for about two years, he said. Linda Walsh, the former executive director, confirmed her departure but declined to comment further.

The hospital received a $1 million anonymous donation last fall. But Hossain said the organization has by and large stopped soliciting donations, and has not held its usual fundraising events.

He blamed the leadership turnover and negative press surrounding the hospital, and said he hoped to resume next year, once the turmoil has calmed.

"Then I think we have to come back to people like you guys at Newsday, [to] tell the good story of the hospital, and [how] it has a future," he said.