Suffolk, state battle over Coram facility

First, state health officials cut funds to Suffolk's health centers. Now, county officials said, the state is blocking their plan to shut the Elsie Owens Health Center in Coram July 1 for lack of money.

State health officials in Albany in a conference call late Monday said the county cannot close the Owens health center until they approve a shutdown plan. The state has 90 days to review and act on the plan, received May 10.

State health officials last Friday also directed the Suffolk Department of Health Services not to send out letters warning the Owens center's 18,000 patients of the shutdown and where to get health care next.

Those letters are supposed to go out 45 days before a shutdown. The orders could delay the closing for two to three months.

"How can they talk about mandate relief while simultaneously cutting our health funding and then telling us we still have to provide the service?" asked Grace Kelly-McGovern, spokeswoman for the Suffolk health department.

Even though the state has authority over the closure plan, Suffolk health department spokeswoman Grace Kelly-McGovern said, "The county has no funds as of July 1 and patients should know that if service is still available . . . it will be extremely diminished."

Jeffrey Gordon, state health spokesman, said the state oversees closures to protect patients. "We're there to insure the patients have options to receive the care they need," he said. Gordon could not say last night the extent the county can trim services without state approval.

The latest twists came to light Tuesday as Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook), Legis. Kate Browning (WFP-Shirley) and budget aides prepare to go to Albany Thursday to meet with state health officials and the attorney general's office. A county suit claims the state improperly clawed back $20 million in aid already paid to the county for services delivered as far back as 2008.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's budget office last weekend maintained Suffolk overbilled the state for the $20 million in optional services. They also say the county improperly received aid for training of emergency medical workers and medical examiners personnel. Cuomo Budget Director Robert Megna says Levy's claims "are fundamentally inaccurate and needlessly frighten the New Yorkers who depend on these services."

But county officials said Suffolk has received aid for those services for 40 years, state health officials approved the services the county delivered beforehand and approved payments for those services.