LI Hospitals To Lose Millions After Feds Cut Grant

The federal government is cancelling a grant that awarded billions of dollars to the state's healthcare system, costing Long Island hospitals millions, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday.

In 2014, the state won an $8-billion grant from the federal government to transition healthcare services from being primarily hospital-driven to being more community based. The goal was to decrease healthcare costs, since care at hospitals is more expensive.

The state had already been awarded $7.4 billion of the money, but Cuomo said he learned late last week that the federal government was cutting off the last $600 million of the grant.

"This past Friday we learned of the Trump administration's latest assault on the state of New York — $8 billion in cuts to our healthcare system. Healthcare should be beyond politics and it is unconscionable that the federal administration is politicizing the lives of New Yorkers — primarily senior citizens," Cuomo said in a news release. "Make no mistake: New York will marshal all our allies, including our congressional delegation, to fight these cuts tooth and nail until New York receives the full funding we deserve."

One of the hardest-hit organizations is Nassau University Medical Center, which is losing out on $52,577,847. Robert Detor, the chairman of NuHealth (which runs NUMC) told Newsday the cuts would mean the hospital couldn't continue the expansion of its ambulatory care network as robustly. The network is designed to reduce hospital stays and reduce costs.

Stony Brook University Hospital is also losing out on millions. The cuts are taking $21,289,481 from the hospital, which Newsday reported would go to a project that was planned, but had not yet begun.