Hospitals and healthcare systems are the economic drivers of their communities.
In Rochester, the top two employers are the University of Rochester/UR Medicine and Rochester Regional Health. Rochester’s hospitals generate $6.3 billion in economic activity, $715 million in tax dollars, $524 million in community benefits, and 43,000 jobs. The proposed cuts to healthcare in the state budget would be devastating to our local economy.
Governor Cuomo’s 30-day amendments to the executive budget, along with the loss of federal Medicaid matching grants, would reduce healthcare funding for hospitals and nursing homes by more than $1.1 billion. The cuts would eliminate Medicaid rate increases for hospitals and nursing homes, impose an across-the-board cut to Medicaid rates for all providers, and reduce funding to the Indigent Care Pool, which helps to compensate hospitals that care for uninsured and low-income patients. It would be the largest cut to healthcare in approximately 10 years.
The local impact would be hard to underestimate. Rochester-area hospitals would lose $38.8 million over two years. Specifically, Strong Memorial Hospital would lose $21.4 million; Rochester General Hospital would lose $6 million; Highland Hospital would lose $3.3 million; and Unity Hospital would lose $2.5 million over two years. It would result in the reduction of healthcare services and job losses. In particular, it would have an extremely negative impact on the smaller, rural hospitals outside of Rochester that are already struggling.
Strong Memorial Hospital would suffer an additional loss due to a $4.1 million cut to Graduate Medical Education for Academic Centers of Excellence. This cut unfairly targets safety-net, teaching hospitals. At a time when we are facing a nationwide shortage of physicians, this cut puts residency slots at risk. URMC is the largest source of new physicians for upstate New York, and more than 50% of our physicians stay here after their residency. Cutting funding for teaching hospitals just doesn’t make sense.
On March 5, Pandion Healthcare: Education & Advocacy and HANYS brought 45 representatives from 12 hospitals across the Rochester area to Albany to fight against healthcare cuts in the state budget. Hospital representatives met with 13 members of the NYS Senate and Assembly. Afterwards, they joined hundreds of hospital representatives from across the state for a rally outside the Capitol chanting, “Don’t Cut Healthcare!"
We strongly urge our legislators to restore the funding cuts to support our hospitals, protect the two largest employers in Rochester, and ensure that all patients continue to receive excellent, high-quality healthcare.
About Pandion Healthcare: Education & Advocacy
Pandion Healthcare: Education and Advocacy is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 association whose membership is comprised of 17 hospitals and their related health systems in the nine counties of Monroe, Livingston, Ontario, Wayne, Seneca, Yates, Allegany, Steuben, and Chemung. Pandion Healthcare: Education and Advocacy works closely with the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) and the American Hospital Association (AHA), collaborating on many issues and activities.
