![]() A 1987 federal law shifted the incentives: When hospitals paid more, middlemen now made more. Lobbyists convinced Congress that hospitals would save more if middlemen were paid through administrative fees charged to the vendors, rather than hospital savings. His plan, meanwhile, is like “going to the moon in a spacecraft.” And if Greater New York’s track record is any indication, his multibillion-dollar moonshot could land. Hochul’s budget proposal “stinks,” Raske said. According to Raske, 75 hospitals are currently in such dire fiscal condition that they are on a “financial respirator.” His four-year plan would “eliminate the disparities in health care” outcomes in communities of color served by “safety net” hospitals that disproportionately serve Medicaid patients. In late January, Raske testified in Albany that the state’s Medicaid program pays hospitals 30 percent less than the cost of care, and it would cost $2.7 billion to close the gap this year. ![]() “And that’s a very powerful combination: to be ostensibly representing the poor and disenfranchised and, at the same time, having just boatloads of money to distribute your message.” It feels like they are speaking on behalf of the sick and the downtrodden,” Hammond said. “When they ask for money, it doesn’t feel like they’re being greedy. A decade later, that had jumped to $211 million - an 86,000 percent increase. In 2012, the group’s main nonprofit branch held $243,000 in net assets. ![]() Between 20, the sale of for-profit assets caused the lobbying arm’s bottom line to explode. Greater New York’s reserves, meanwhile, are at historic highs. Raske contends that, instead, the state could tap $23 billion in reserves to spend more. Hochul has argued that with Medicaid spending having climbed 40 percent over three years, she wants to cut costs and save the state $1 billion. With this year’s budget now in the works, Greater New York is again seeking to influence the governor. (The legislature declined to include the measure in last year’s budget.) ![]() A version of the measure appeared in Hochul’s budget proposal, with some passages that were highly similar or identical to Greater New York’s draft. The proposal, “Pay and Resolve,” would have required health insurers to pay a hospital’s claims before determining their medical necessity. Last year, for instance, Greater New York lobbyist David Rich proposed a state budget measure to Governor Kathy Hochul’s office, sending several pages of draft legislative language. The money is used to “convince the world, and to convince the legislature, that they don’t have enough money,” said Bill Hammond, senior fellow for health policy at the fiscally conservative Empire Center for Public Policy.Īccording to OpenSecrets, between 20, the association spent vastly more on lobbying than any other organization in New York, and it has doled out tens of millions in campaign donations.Įmails obtained by New York Focus through a public records request offer a glimpse into the organization’s influence. When state spending on hospitals has gone up, a chunk has gone back to Greater New York. The most lucrative of Greater New York’s for-profit businesses have been middleman companies that negotiate between hospitals and the vendors that supply them. In 2016, he made $12.8 million - just a bit more than Raske. In the past decade, the for-profit arm has sold off many of its businesses, bringing in over $1 billion by the estimate of its decades-long leader, Lee Perlman. In 2016, Raske made $12.3 million from the association’s for-profit arm. Two officers have a chauffeured vehicle at their disposal. That value, in turn, has bolstered the nonprofit’s lobbying prowess.Īccording to tax records, Greater New York officers are permitted to fly first class on commercial airplanes and, on occasion, use private jets. Aided by the nonprofit’s lobbying prowess, the state’s record-setting hospital spending helped the for-profit businesses to grow valuable. New York has spent more per resident on health care than any state in the country, which spends more than any high-income country on earth.Īt the same time, from its office in Midtown Manhattan, the organization has operated up to eight for-profit companies. Its demands for more hospital funding have been highly effective. As a nonprofit, Greater New York lobbies on behalf of 280 hospitals, health systems, and continuing care facilities in New York and three nearby states.
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