Too bad HHC didn't backstop LICH's restructuring plan

From the Demand a Hospital Listserv :

Begin forwarded message:

From: Demand A Hospital
Subject: Too bad HHC didn't backstop LICH's restructuring plan
Date: 7 mai 2014 11:42:47 UTC-04:00
To: Demand A Hospital
Bcc: lflores22@gmail.com
Reply-To: demandahospital@gmail.com

Dear All :

The latest in-depth news about the end of full-service hospital care at Long Island College Hospital comes from Capital New York :

Officials from the de Blasio administration, including Emma Wolfe, were concerned that the winning bid to buy LICH from SUNY was not commercially feasible. Brooklyn Health Partners was the sole bidder for LICH to submit a plan to continue full-service hospital care at LICH, said to be a major concern to the community and to Mayor Bill de Blasio, but Brooklyn Health Partners has lacked a state license to operate a hospital, an area where the city's network of hospitals, the Health and Hospitals Corporation, could have provided valuable, non-financial assistance by proposing an HHC affiliation with Brooklyn Health Partners. However, the city never proposed any such affiliation, in spite of it being in the best interest to public health. Meanwhile, time may have run out on Brooklyn Health Partners's bid for LICH, even as Brooklyn Health Partners continues its search for a partnering hospital system, which could, amongst other things, sponsor an operating license.

City and state officials expressed outrage after it was revealed that Brooklyn Health Partners had planned to use a secret plan for massive real estate development on LICH's footprint to subsidize full-service hospital care at LICH, somewhat reminiscent of Rudin Management Company's original plan for St. Vincent's Hospital. The community's painful experience with what Rudin's reckless plans did to St. Vincent's still weighs heavily on the minds of New Yorkers, and that experience may have influenced the city's sudden opposition to Brooklyn Health Partners' plans for LICH. But government officials never sought to provide a combination of restrictions and assistance to the winning bidder for LICH to prevent such drastic real estate speculation in the first place.

Recall how the city rejected the community's demand to "land-lock" the zoning on the property of St. Vincent's Hospital after its final bankruptcy filing. Community activists even organized a sit-in protest over this very issue.

Watch : 4 Community Activists arrested In HANDS OFF ST. VINCENT's protest (YouTube) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcToWCh5VhU

Read more : The end of the full-service hospital in Cobble Hill (Capital New York) : http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/05/8544898/end-full-service-hospital-cobble-hill

Adding hospital-only restrictions to the deed(s) of LICH's property, coupled with critical support, like extending HHC's operating license to Brooklyn Health Partners, would have been one way for the city to have responsibly supported its intention to continue full-service hospital care at LICH. Some hold out hope that SUNY will sell LICH to the second-place bidder, Peebles Corporation. But SUNY's governance board, which has been on a months-long scorched earth campaign to sabotage LICH, has no motivation to save the hospital it's been desperately trying to close in a move to appease hospital closing czar Stephen Berger and Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

If by small chance Peebles Corporation is awarded its second-place bid for LICH, it may mark another instance when North Shore-LIJ stands to make financial gains from the closure of another full-service hospital in New York. North Shore-LIJ is a partner in Peebles Corporation' plan to build an urgent care center complex at LICH. As part of the Berger Commission's drive to close St. John's Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital, both in Queens, the state Department of Health made a $3.5 million grant to North Shore-LIJ to expand emergency room services at its Forest Hill and Franklin sites. A year later, North Shore-LIJ received another state grant of $5.3 million to open an urgent care center in Rego Park, Queens, following the closures of St. John's and Mary Immaculate. After the closing of St. Vincent's, North Shore-LIJ received yet another $9.4 million grant to open a failed urgent care center in Chelsea. North Shore-LIJ also received for free its use of the old O'Toole Building, which is being redeveloped into a glorified urgent care center in the West Village. Now, North Shore-LIJ may again stand to gain from its venture deal for LICH. The Peebles Corporation plan for LICH involves plans for the development of some luxury housing, providing a financial windfall to the next owners of LICH's valuable real estate. LICH's medical campus sits on land said to be worth as much as $500 million. North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling served on Gov. Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, which has pushed for further hospital closings on top of the closures made under the previous Berger Commission. There is further appearance of cronyism in ties between Peebles and SUNY. Peebles Corporation is headed by Don Peebles, who has political ties to SUNY chairman H. Carl McCall, Crain's New York Business has reported.

SUNY's disposition of LICH is expected to be made final on May 22.

Read more : SUNY Nixes Deal With Winning Bidder to Run Long Island College Hospital (DNAinfo) : http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20140505/cobble-hill/suny-ends-lich-talks-with-brooklyn-health-partners

Read more : Top LICH pitch implodes, leaving luxury developer up next (The Brooklyn Paper) : http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/37/19/dtg-lich-plan-implosion-2014-05-09-bk_37_19.html

Read more : LICH bidder Peebles has ties to SUNY board chair McCall (Crain's New York Business) : http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20140402/REAL_ESTATE/140409967/lich-bidder-has-ties-to-suny-board-chair

Thank you for all that you do.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Demand A Hospital
Date: Mon, Dec 23, 2013 at 8:42 PM
Subject: Can / Should HHC Save LICH and Interfaith ?
To: Demand A Hospital

Dear All :

Last week, SUNY Board of Trustees chairman Carl McCall offered to hand over Long Island College Hospital (LICH) to New York City once mayor-elect Bill de Blasio takes office, telling The New York Times that “I would love to meet with him and give him the keys to the hospital.” Mr. McCall said of his offer to transfer LICH to the next mayor.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/nyregion/suny-withdraws-development-plan-for-troubled-brooklyn-hospital.html

In a separate report last week, another SUNY board member was quoted as saying that talks should be explored about possibly transferring LICH to the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC).

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303949504579264803802600962

Given recent reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leaving the city with a municipal budget surplus of approximately $2.4 billion, should consideration be given to transferring both LICH and Interfaith Medical Center, both located in Brooklyn, to HHC ?

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/de-blasio-inherits-2-4b-surplus-challenges-article-1.1553616

Just today, Interfaith won a reprieve of a few more months.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/23/state-steps-in-to-keep-brooklyns-interfaith-medical-center-open/

Perhaps now is the time for the city to consider this stop-gap measure in order to guarantee full-service hospital care for Brooklyn, an option that was never made available for St. Vincent's Hospital by the Bloomberg-Quinn administration ?

If Gov. Andrew Cuomo won't fully fund healthcare in New York State, should we look to municipal resources ? For now, the resources exist at the city level. Since Albany seems intent on abdicating leadership on healthcare, should City Hall take action to finally stabilize city hospitals, so that our hospitals can adequately meet the expanded needs anticipated by new waves of insured patients under Obamacare ? Share your opinions with the mayor-elect at : info@billdeblasio.com

Thank you for all that you do.

P.S. Update on mysterious medical facility. The Lenox Hill urgent care center, which took millions in state money and then closed, was not the medical facility implicated by the Moreland Commission. The questionable facility, which took millions in state funding but failed to provide healthcare, was reportedly revealed to be Relief Resources Inc., and this facility is said to be tied to powerful Albany lobbyists.

http://nypost.com/2013/12/08/brooklyn-agency-fits-description-of-mystery-nonprofit/

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Tell Gov. Andrew Cuomo to stop closing our hospitals : 1 (518) 474-8390

You can also tweet your concerns to Gov. Cuomo at : @NYGovCuomo

North Shore-LIJ : Making Money Through State Grants From Hospital Closings

PUBLISHED : MON, 14 APR 2014, 08:59 PM
UPDATED : TUES, 15 APR 2014, 11:15 AM

Before and after some New York hospital closings, North Shore-LIJ successfully lobbied for state grants to fund its expansion plans.

Here's some intrigue, which the corrupt Moreland Commission should have investigated, about the granting of state money and an anti-trust loophole to a politically-connected ally of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's.

After three hospitals closed in New York City, North Shore-LIJ scored almost $20 million in state grants to help it make further inroads into the Manhattan and Queens hospital markets. The grants were backdoor funding that the state Department of Health provided existing healthcare facilities to temporarily expand their capacity in order for the state to facilitate wholesale hospital closures sought first by the Berger Commission and later by the Medicaid Redesign Team.

North Shore-LIJ received another $10 million grant after Hurricane Sandy, further demonstrating how politically astute the Long Island hospital chain has become in raking in grant money from hospital closings and natural disasters.

• RELATED : As part of the Berger Commission drive to close St. John's Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital, the state Department of Health made a $3.5 million grant to North Shore-LIJ to "expand inpatient capacity and emergency room services at its Forest Hills and Franklin sites." (NYS Department of Health)
• RELATED : North Shore-LIJ opened an urgent care center in Rego Park, Queens, in 2010, following the 2009 Berger Commission bankruptcy and closures of St. John’s Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital. The expansion of North Shore-LIJ into New York City was paid for by a $5.3 million grant from the state Department of Health. (The New York Post)
• RELATED : The state awarded a $9.4 million grant last spring to Lenox Hill Hospital/North Shore-LIJ to operate an urgent care center in Greenwich Village. (North Shore-LIJ will open an urgent care-center on West 20th Street * The Wall Street Journal)
• RELATED : Sixteen months after the North Shore-LIJ opened an urgent care center in Manhattan after St. Vincent’s Hospital closed, the system has closed the urgent center due to a lack of use, pocketing the $9.4 million grant. (North Shore-LIJ closes NYC urgent care center near St. Vincent's Hospital * Long Island Business News)
• RELATED : State officials are sparring over a bill that would allow Nassau Health Care Corp. join with North Shore-LIJ with blanket immunity from antitrust laws. (Schneiderman raises antitrust concerns over NuHealth/North Shore-LIJ partnership * Newsday)
• RELATED : Despite antitrust objections by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law a bill that allows Nassau Health Care Corp. to collaborate with North Shore-LIJ with blanket antitrust immunity. (Despite antitrust objections, Cuomo approves NuHealth/North Shore-LIJ partnership * Newsday)

Whether it wants to either receive grant money to help fuel its expansion plans, lobby for blanket antitrust immunity to provide cover for its expansion plans, or to get a cut from grant money related to Hurricane Sandy as new funding streams, North Shore-LIJ gets exactly what it wants.

Helping North Shore-LIJ navigate through the sleazy swamp of corrupt Albany grant-making politics is North Shore-LIJ CEO Michael Dowling, who served as a co-chair on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team effort to close hospitals and make scorched earth austerity cuts to healthcare. In 2010, North Shore-LIJ CEO Dowling was paid an astronomical $2.9 million in compensation, even though the hospital system is set up as a non-profit, yeah right.

In the above YouTube video recorded in 2011, Mr. Dowling described to community activist Jim Fouratt how the bankruptcy estate of St. Vincent's Hospital donated for free valuable property that North Shore-LIJ plans to use for an urgent care center on Seventh Avenue South. No word yet on how many millions in state grants were received by North Shore-LIJ in respect of this new iteration of an urgent care center, which is set to open this year.

WNYC Is Looking For Help To Crack a Case of Albany Corruption

The $3 Million Mystery Medical Care Center

Are you http://t.co/zTynyQx7MW looking for this ? http://t.co/t03yRz2HJj @WNYC @NorthShoreLIJ @lenoxhill @AndreaWNYC @jkeefe

— StopNYMRT (@StopNYMRT) December 4, 2013

The WNYC reporters John Keefe and Andrea Bernstein are asking for the public's help to identify a medical care center in New York City, which has received $3 million in taxpayer money, but, which, according to the Moreland Commission's report on corruption, has few, if any, patients.

One may recall that the urgent care center operated by North Shore-LIJ/Lenox Hill Hospital in Chelsea was supposed to have received taxpayer money. But according to YELP, that urgent care center appears to now be closed.

Could this be the mysterious facility that has received millions in taxpayer money in exchange for providing nonexistent medical care services to the community ?

Stay tuned.

North Shore LIJ Medical Group - CLOSED - Chelsea - Manhattan, NY

Intentionally Deceptive Advertising ?

North Shore LIJ/Lenox Hill fraudulently labeling urgent care center as a "hospital." Do you agree ? @nycHealthy pic.twitter.com/FRyvAMvh9D

— StopNYMRT (@StopNYMRT) December 4, 2013

Another urgent care center, which North Shore-LIJ/Lenox Hill Hospital plan to operate near the $1 billion Rudin luxury condominium complex, is now being labeled as a "hospital," even though it does not have the facilities, medical specializations, or certifications to treat heart attack patients, according to New York City EMS Chief Abdo Nahmod.

Hurricane Sandy Hospital Crisis Grows

From True News From Change NYC :

Closing of NYU and Bellevue Hospitals Because of Sandy Should Have Been A Wakeup Call That NYC Has A Hospital Crisis.

New Yorkers are Getting Sicker and Even Dying (esp. the poor) Because of A Hospital Crisis Made Worse by the Floods . . . Where is the Pols, Media and Activist Outrage?

Nobody Notices Hospital Crisis Or Sandy's Wake Up Call

With Some Hospitals Closed After Hurricane, E.R.’s at Others Overflow (NYT) Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn had 1,100 more emergency patients last month than in November 2011; the increase was mostly attributed to a hospital shut by the storm. * Hospital in Brooklyn Files for Bankruptcy Protection (NYT) Some New York medical centers are adding extra shifts and converting offices and lobbies into space for patients as emergency room visits surge. * Half of Brooklyn hospitals on life support | Crain's New York Business

The Angry New Yorker's Who Demanded Their Rights is Gone

Where are the Mayoral Candidates on the Hospital Crisis?

Why Is There No Movement To Save These Hospitals Like There Was in 1980 Against the Closing of Sydenham Hospital? 3 hospitals closed in Queens, St Vincent's murdered for a Co-op in Manhattan, 5 hospitals in trouble in Brooklyn. The activist and progressives are all over Facebook and twitter demanding pay for fasttfood workers because it is being pushed by unions looking for membership. It is very stranged that these same activists are silent on the health care needs of many of these workers who depend on the hospital system for all their health care needs. Could it be that the help unions provide the reason the activist are supporting their issues?

NYC Hurricane Sandy - Hospital Evacuations and Berger Commission - FAIL

Why is it acceptable for us to allow hospitals go through such desperate attempts to equally and adequately fund the healthcare needs of patients ? Look at the consequences of the blackouts of New York City hospitals in Lower Manhattan.

The issue before us is whether the rebuilding of our hospitals will continue to favour wealthy institutions, which primarily serve the well-insured, or will we use this opportunity to examine and fix the unequal distribution of healthcare in New York created by the Berger Commission ?

As it is, we are on a path that will continue to force us to accept less and less. Look at how nursing homes were instructed by health officials not to evacuate, and then they are criticised by the Department of Health for unacceptable conditions compounded precisely because they were instructed not to evacuate. Is this acceptable ?

If we believe in the dignity and equality of all people, then our healthcare system must be reformed to provide patient care-centered healthcare, to equally meet the needs of all patients. Please support a truly universal, single-payer healthcare system.

Michael Dowling Andrew Cuomo Medicaid Cuts

The New York Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) is a 27-member body charged with cutting $2.85 billion from the state's Medicaid budget, so that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would not look like the bad guy.

In 2011, the MRT was scheduled to meet for 2 full days and have 4 days for consumers, advocates and other stakeholders to review proposals and offer feedback.

The team, however, decided that they could skip this process and push forward a vote to approve the package 4 days early. Effectively ignoring the voices and opinions of all those not on the team.

Bill Rudin Robber Baron

Bill Rudin is just another modern-day “Robber Baron.”

Updated (24-Dec-2011 - New York) ! Join us for a special Christmas Eve protest outside St. Vincent's Hospital tonight at 7 p.m.

The Rudin family head a lobbying group that calls itself the Association for a Bitter New York. They use it as political cover to portray their billion-dollar real estate deals as “civic-minded” projects. There’s nothing “civic” about closing a hospital in order to convert it to luxury condos.

In fact, St. Vincent's Hospital is under investigation by the Manhattan DA's office for allegations that the Rudin Management Company has been planning a real estate harvesting/luxury condo conversion plan of the shuttered hospital. In place of a Level 1 Trauma Center and full-service hospital, the Rudin family and their lobbyists and political enablers are pushing an urgent care center in place of St. Vincent's. Taking away from the 99 per cent. to enrich himself makes Bill Rudin just another modern-day “Robber Baron.”

2011-12-25 Bill Rudin Robber Baron Band-Aid Flyer

Jason Mansfield #OccupyCB2

You are invited to participate in the enactment of a mass civilian trauma exercise on the sidewalk outside St. Vincent's Hospital.

Watch this YouTube documentary for background information about the controversial Rudin condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital :

Join community members as they plan to organise a field hospital on the sidewalks, form into make-shift blood donation lines, visualise what it would look like to set up alternative decontamination showers, help each other to tie on surgical masks to protect each other from air-bourne particles, and finally to think through what steps would need to be taken to request provisional mass casualty tents.

Some of the participants will ''not make it,'' because there is no Level 1 Trauma Center below 14th Street. And it probably takes ambulances over 30 minutes to respond to the Lower West Side of Manhattan, and then it would probably take another 30 minutes for ambulances to drive through busy cross-town traffic to any of the hospitals on the East Side. The ''survivors'' will have to figure out what to do with the “injured” participants.

Then, a team of survivors will walk over to Grace Church, 86 Fourth Ave., Tuttle Hall, to ask for help from Jason Mansfield, the chair of Manhattan Community Board 2's Environment, Public Safety & Public Health Committee. Community Board 2 is about to approve the rezoning of St. Vincent's to allow the billionaire Rudin Family to convert the hospital into luxury condos. Community residents hope that this civilian trauma exercise will educate and mobilise the public to stop CB2 from approving the dangerous Rudin condo conversion plan for St. Vincent's Hospital.

The community's goal is to keep the real estate zoning intact, to attract new hospital investors to restore a full-service hospital at the former site of St. Vincent's.

2011 10 17 RE ACT OccupyCB2 Flyer
2011-10-17 Stop the Rezoning of St. Vincent's Hospital Flyer #OccupyCB2