Last night, a letter was issued to Governor Cuomo from Iroquois Healthcare Alliance, Pandion Optimization Alliance (Rochester), HANYS, Suburban Alliance and Western NY Hospital Association urging the Governor to mandate commercial health insurers to financially support New York hospitals and health systems in the midst of COVID-19. As you know, New York’s hospitals and health systems are grappling with the financial consequences of coronavirus and are in desperate need of cash in order to remain operational. Text from the letter is provided below.
Dear Governor Cuomo:
Thank you for your leadership protecting the citizens of New York during the COVID-19 emergency and for your partnership with hospitals and health systems and the entire healthcare community in this battle to save lives.
Together we represent over 200 of New York’s not-for-profit hospitals and we are writing to ask you to enlist the one member of the state’s healthcare community that has been slow to join us in the COVID fight.
If there is ever going to be a time when we need all healthcare stakeholders to do their part, now is that time. Commercial health insurers across New York state must pitch in to support hospitals to help ensure they are prepared, fiscally stable and able to support their caregivers who are on the front lines of this crisis. However, despite urgent requests from New York state hospital leaders whose facilities face unprecedented financial peril, many health plans are just not answering the call.
As you know, hospitals are currently facing tremendous cash flow difficulties. They have responded to government calls and their communities’ needs by canceling all elective surgeries and procedures to preserve personal protective equipment and make room for COVID patients. Doing so has exacerbated the cash flow crisis they face. At the same time, commercial health insurers continue to collect premiums while paying few claims since procedures are canceled.
We thank you for your leadership and support for the important managed care reforms included in the recently enacted state budget. However, more help is needed. We ask you to take swift executive action to require health insurance companies doing business in New York state to support hospitals during the COVID emergency.
Hospital pleas to health insurers to provide desperately needed cash flow support have gone unheeded thus far. Health insurers can provide support to hospitals right now by: paying a minimum percentage of hospital accounts receivables, advancing payments on future claims and suspending all administrative denials for the duration of the COVID emergency. Additional information about these recommendations is attached.
Many of these proposals have no fiscal impact to the state, and, as we see it, are simply providing the cash flow that providers throughout the state need and justifiably deserve during this unprecedented time.
We ask that you require commercial health insurers to contribute to the state’s collective COVID fight to support New York’s hospitals and the thousands of doctors, nurses and staff who have never been more essential than they are right now. On behalf of our collective membership, we stand ready to work with you, your leadership team and the health plans and associations that represent them, to find workable and immediate solutions to this growing problem. Thank you for your consideration.
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About Pandion Healthcare: Education & Advocacy
Pandion Healthcare: Education and Advocacy (formerly known as Rochester Regional Healthcare Association) 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. The Association works with various peer groups comprised of representatives from its membership to enhance their organization's ability to meet the healthcare needs of their communities by sharing information and best practices. 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.