New York City's public hospital system plans to lay off 200 medical workers and cut programs that serve some of the most vulnerable patients, including the poor and the uninsured.
The city's Health and Hospitals Corp. blamed the reductions on the state's cuts to Medicaid reimbursements, mushrooming expenses related to treating a growing number of uninsured patients and spiking drug and medical supply prices. Wages and fringe benefit costs also are up.
"I'm losing a lot of sleep over it. I'm sure I'm not the only one," Health and Hospitals Corp. President Alan Aviles told the New York Daily News. "You cannot provide the services that we provide... without the funding to support it. It's not done through magical thinking, it's done through hard dollars."
Health and Hospitals Corp. President Alan Aviles said more reductions will likely be necessary. The system faces a $316 million budget gap for the coming fiscal year. The cuts announced on Thursday could save the agency $105 million.
The city's public hospital system says it serves 1.3 million New Yorkers.
