'Drastic' measures may be needed to keep NUMC afloat, top official says

The chairman of the public benefit corporation that runs Nassau University Medical Center said "drastic" measures may be needed to prevent the financially troubled public hospital from going "belly up.

The corporation, NuHealth, lost $28 million in the first half of the year, finance director Richard Rank reported at a board meeting last Thursday.

Budget officials had projected a $41 million loss for January through June. NUMC received more money than expected in part because of reimbursements for procedures related to COVID-19 that pay higher fees than routine care, NuHealth chairman Robert Detor said.

At the board meeting, Detor repeated prior warnings that NuHealth could run out of money by March, and said the corporation and NUMC faced increasingly poor financial prospects.

Detor, who began as board chairman in January, noted that the 2020 budget, passed by the NuHealth board last year, had an $86.1 million deficit built in. Also, the board agreed to a four-year labor pact in November that provided raises totaling 8% to more than 3,000 unionized hospital employees.

"There was never any real explanation as to how this was going to be paid for by the board," Detor said.

"I came to the determination that there is a possibility that this hospital could close if we don't change how we're functioning and modify this business platform," Detor said.

He said he's been trying to bring attention to the idea, "that unless we do something, unless we change how we operate, we are going to go belly up."

Community and labor leaders on Thursday spoke out in support of the hospital.

Hempstead Senior Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, a Democrat, said at the meeting that the hospital played a key role during the coronavirus pandemic. 

"If we had not had those extra floors, what would we have done?" she said. "It's the only public hospital we have at Nassau County … We have people who truly need care."

"NIFA shouldn't be running the hospital anyway, they're not qualified to do that," she said. "We need to know what you're doing, we don't know, you have to let us know because you can't keep it secret from us."

Former state Deputy Assembly Speaker Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead) argued, "Close this hospital, you lose economic development, you lose health care … We're going to stop this once and for all."

Detor defended his warnings.

"I've been ringing that bell and making those statements, because that has to get out into the public, the board has to understand that, and the state has to understand that, because I don't want to [find out] one day, we simply just can't make payroll," he said.

"That's not because I want to close the hospital — it's not because I don't believe all these services are extremely important to the community," he said.

Adam Barsky, chairman of the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state board that oversees Nassau County's and NuHealth's finances, said Detor's "comments echo and confirm what NIFA has been saying all along which is the hospital's problems are severe, and more severe than ever in the past, and needs to be addressed with a sense of urgency."

NIFA hired consultants Alvarez & Marsal in May to review NUMC operations

Detor said the Manhattan firm, which is working under an $845,000 contract, is expected to complete a report in the fall detailing its review and strategies for helping the hospital.

The consultants are scheduled to present their fiscal recovery strategies in an executive session with NuHealth board members Thursday night, according to Detor.

Detor defended the decision to hear Thursday from Alvarez & Marsal in executive session.

"We have a sense of where they're going, and I have a sense of what they were going to report," he said. "They did not want to put it in writing, and I understand why. It's a very sensitive issue."

Nu Health trustee Steve Cohn said: "We're not coming to a conclusion, we're discussing it … If it goes to a public meeting, it's just going to be misunderstood. If "something that we totally reject is brought up, it's going to be said that the board endorsed this or something, so I don't think we need that. It's just for a discussion."

By Scott Eidler

scott.eidler@newsday.com@ScottEidler

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.