Suffolk's health care fund suit dismissed

A state Supreme Court justice on Friday dismissed Suffolk County's lawsuit seeking reimbursement of $15 million in state health care funding.

Still, county officials said they continued to hold out hope that Suffolk will be able to get the funds they say are necessary to avoid painful health care cuts, including the closure of the Elsie Owens Health Center in Coram.

County Attorney Christine Malafi said she disagreed with the decision made on procedural grounds by Judge Henry Zwack, and that the county will appeal.

Zwack did not seek to resolve the dispute but said the county did not satisfy provisions allowing it to sue the state.

State Health Department spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said state and county officials will continue meeting to resolve their differences. He said the state is open to paying Suffolk if the county can show the state is improperly withholding reimbursement for health care the county provided at clinics.

The state Health Department argues that it told the county during past audits that certain services such as prenatal care would not be reimbursed.

Suffolk officials say they were never told definitively that they would no longer be reimbursed for the services. The loss of the reimbursements puts the already cash-strapped county in even more difficult financial straits, the officials say. The county would lose another $5 million if it is not reimbursed for the services next year.