NIFA board votes 6-0 in favor of consultant to improve NUMC finances
A consultant firm will work to shore up finances at Nassau University Medical Center if the NIFA board approves their contract Tuesday night. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The Nassau Interim Finance Authority on Tuesday night approved the hiring of a consultant to improve finances and operations at the struggling Nassau University Medical Center.
The $845,000 contract with Alvarez & Marsal of Manhattan covers "Phase I" of the consultant's assignment at NuHealth, the public benefit corporation that runs NUMC in East Meadow.
The NIFA board passed the contract with a 6-0 vote.
The firm, according to NIFA documents, has authority to assess operational and financial improvements at NuHealth; identify and evaluate structural options to address NuHealth's "financial deterioration" and propose solutions; and develop "alternatives to the current situation."
The company will work with the NUMC Forward Task Force, chaired by Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.
The contract also allows Alvarez & Marsal disbursements of up to $65,000 and a 3% administrative fee.
Last month, NuHealth approved a separate $1.16 million contract with Alvarez & Marsal, which was hired to prepare the corporation's application for federal reimbursement for coronavirus expenses.
NIFA took over NUMC's finances in February but held off on hiring Alvarez & Marsal as a turnaround consultant until pressure on the hospital cooled.
NIFA chairman Adam Barsky said in an interview Tuesday: “Time has been of the essence. They've been under stress, they're going to continue to be under stress."
NIFA will pay the costs of the contract, Barsky said.
Asked about the potential for downsizing, Barsky said he would "wait for the consultant to do their work.”
"It's pretty simple, they're running out of cash," Barsky added of NuHealth's problems.
Last month, NuHealth chairman Robert Detor said the hospital faced a "looming" fiscal crisis that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re looking forward to it. We’re anxious to get started," Detor said of hiring the company, in an interview. “I think that they're going to help us get a good sense of what the market is," and "most importantly, what the needs of the community are and where we can reasonably fit in."
Ron Gurrieri, president of Nassau CSEA Local 830, which represents more than 3,000 hospital employees at NUMC, said he had no issue with Alvarez & Marsal working on the FEMA reimbursement application.
Gurrieri said it was “premature” for a consultant to make recommendations about NUMC and should wait for Curran’s task force to assess the situation.
By having the bed capacity during the coronavirus pandemic that other hospitals could need, Gurrieri said, NUMC may have “found its niche being able to survive in this market.”
But Gurrieri, who serves on the NUMC Forward Task Force, noted that the committee hadn't begun meeting.
"I think we should concentrate on where we're going first," Gurrieri said, "before we have a transition company come in where they've been known to close places rather than see them prosper."
Scott Eidler is a deputy editor for the towns department at Newsday. Scott has worked at Newsday since 2012 and previously covered municipal government and education.
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