Board sets date to discuss allegedly improper payments to NUMC CEO, others
Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow has suffered years of rapidly accumulating debt and other issues. Credit: Newsday / J. Conrad Williams Jr.
The board overseeing Nassau University Medical Center has slated a July 9 meeting to discuss issues including the firing of former CEO Megan Ryan for allegedly doling out unauthorized payments to herself and others, officials said Friday.
The allegations are "certainly troubling," said Stuart Rabinowitz, chairman of the Nassau Health Care Corp., or NuHealth, which governs NUMC.
Ryan had been NUMC’s general counsel for about a decade and was named CEO in 2024 when the NuHealth board was controlled by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and county Republicans. But the ground began to shift in May when the State Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul, citing years of rapidly accumulating debt and other issues, passed a new law giving the governor and local Democrats a majority of NuHealth board members.
Ryan announced she’d leave in July; the new board instead put her on administrative leave on June 10, replacing her with interim CEO Dr. Richard Becker.
On Thursday, Newsday reported that Becker sent a letter to Ryan saying she was terminated immediately "for cause" because an ongoing audit showed she authorized payments to herself and 12 others of "at least $1 million" in "excess of amounts that were due to you and other employees."
On Friday, Rabinowitz said: "The board is fully supportive of our interim CEO and is well aware of what happened and we stand by the letter he wrote and what is contained in it."
He added: "We’ve been advised that certain payments were unauthorized and that is certainly troubling and that is why we took the action we took."
Ryan’s attorney, Alex Hartzband said late Friday that he had responded to Becker's letter and, in an email to Newsday, added: "NHCC is attempting to whip up controversy where none exists in order to defame Ms. Ryan’s character and deny employees payments they are owed, all in furtherance of leadership’s political ends. The payments at issue were lawfully and appropriately authorized under hospital policies and over two decades of established practice."
Becker’s letter said that if Ryan could supply a "valid business purpose" for the expenses by Friday, the board might reconsider her termination.
Forensic auditors were "maybe a third of the way done," Rabinowitz said, and the information about payments Ryan authorized was "just the first report we’ve gotten back."
Newsday reported last month that NuHealth reported a deficit of $1.4 billion at the end of last year. NUMC is the county’s safety net hospital, which means it accepts many patients with insufficient or no health insurance.
Blakeman, Ryan and NuHealth have claimed the state shortchanged NUMC $1 billion in aid over the years and, earlier this year, filed a lawsuit, which critics called meritless. Hochul and state legislators approved a new board structure for NuHealth in May, ending Blakeman’s control of the panel.
Seven new board members — appointed by Hochul and Democrats — were installed earlier this month. Blakeman announced he wouldn’t appoint members to the two spots he controls, calling the new board a "charade."
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