Cancer group scrambles after Suffolk cuts

A group providing cancer screening support to uninsured Suffolk residents is scrambling to maintain services after saying it received no advance notice that the county had cut its 2012 funding.

The Eastern and Western Suffolk Cancer Services programs each lost $56,605 in county aid that paid for bilingual nurses to assist patients after they receive abnormal screening results for breast, cervical or colorectal cancers.

Program representatives lobbied the legislature's budget and finance committee Tuesday to restore at least six months of funding for the nurses, who provide services including personal counseling, transportation and day care for patients.

They said they didn't learn that lawmakers had cut the $113,210 in the "patient navigation" funding until Jan. 13, about two months after the 2012 operating budget was approved. Ninety percent of program referrals come from the county's eight health centers, officials said.

"We're being shortsighted by not looking to keep this funded," said Maureen O'Connor, coordinator for the Eastern Suffolk Cancer Services Program, which operates out of Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead.

Legis. Wayne Horsley (D-Babylon) responded by proposing a resolution to restore $28,300 each -- six months in aid -- for the programs' two Suffolk branches. He said the money would at least give the groups time to find alternate funding sources to keep "patient navigation" services.

"We've killed a program that's an absolute necessity," said Horsley, the legislature's new deputy presiding officer.

But Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) warned that finding a budget offset to allow restoration of this contract could open the floodgates for requests from similar groups.

"We cut $16 million from hundreds of worthy contract agencies. You're not being singled out," Lindsay said, noting he was "torn apart" over what to do. "If we crack the door in the budget, it'll be a deluge."

O'Connor acknowledged that she was "75-percent confident" she'd be able to find other funds for patient navigation services, but added that she needed more time.

Horsley's bill will be introduced at the next full legislature meeting Feb. 7, and -- unless supported by an emergency resolution by the county executive -- won't be eligible for approval until March 13.