Suozzi, King, Engel Join Senators Schumer and Gillibrand in Leading Unanimous Support from Bipartisan New York Delegations to Demand Fair Federal Funding Formula for NY Hospitals

Today, Congressman Tom Suozzi (D–Long Island, Queens), Congressman Peter King (R–NY-02), Congressman Eliot Engel (D–NY-16), Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and every Member of the New York Congressional Delegation sent a bipartisan letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma expressing their concern that New York’s hospitals have not been prioritized for funding appropriated by Congress in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

New York is the epicenter of the pandemic. Roughly 34% of the nation’s confirmed cases and 43% of the nation’s deaths have occurred in New York. Despite the disproportionate burden that New York’s hospitals and health care workers have faced in addressing COVID-19, HHS has distributed funding to hospitals across the country based on Medicare payment data from last year that does not account for the pandemic. In the first $30 billion tranche, New York only received 6% of funding, less than multiple states that have far fewer confirmed cases. This decision threatens the financial standing of our state’s hospitals and threatens the lives of our state’s heroic front-line health care workers.

The letter, which was signed by both Senators as well as every Democrat and Republican in the New York Congressional Delegation, asked that future hospital relief funding be distributed to states based on their share of national COVID-19 infections.

In the letter, the Delegation wrote:

“Across the state of New York, hospitals and health systems report that they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars per month because of cancelled elective procedures, increased staffing and overtime costs, expanded bed capacity, and increased spending on supplies and equipment to meet the surge in COVID-19 patients. The strain on hospitals and health systems is felt even more acutely in regions like the New York metropolitan area where the bulk of COVID-19 patients are being treated at this time. These costs obviously do not exist evenly across the country, and it is, therefore, crucial that subsequent rounds of funding provide an adjustment for hot spots like New York.”

In addition to Suozzi, King, Engel, Schumer, and Gillibrand, the bipartisan group of Members who signed the letter includes: Kathleen Rice, Lee Zeldin, Gregory Meeks, Grace Meng, Nydia Velázquez, Hakeem Jeffries, Yvette Clarke, Jerry Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, Adriano Espaillat, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, José Serrano, Nita Lowey, Sean Patrick Maloney, Antonio Delgado, Paul Tonko, Elise Stefanik, Anthony Brindisi, Tom Reed, John Katko, Joe Morelle, and Brian Higgins.

Text of the full letter can be seen attached and below:

Dear Secretary Azar and Administrator Verma:

As bipartisan Members of the New York Congressional Delegation who represent the state most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are concerned that the initial $30 billion tranche of emergency funding for hospitals announced on April 10th did not address the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on New York. We urge you to prioritize hospitals and health care providers in New York and other hot spots in future allocations by distributing funds to the States based on their share of national COVID-19 infections.

As you know, the CARES Act provided $100 billion for hospitals and health care providers to defray the costs of the COVID-19 response and to compensate them for lost revenue. Unfortunately, the initial tranche of $30 billion, announced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on April 10th, was allocated to facilities and providers based on their share of 2019 Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) reimbursements. While we understand this decision was meant to distribute funding quickly, it did not address the enormous and disproportionate strain on COVID-19 hot spots like New York.

Across the state of New York, hospitals and health systems report that they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars per month because of cancelled elective procedures, increased staffing and overtime costs, expanded bed capacity, and increased spending on supplies and equipment to meet the surge in COVID-19 patients. The strain on hospitals and health systems is felt even more acutely in regions like the New York metropolitan area where the bulk of COVID-19 patients are being treated at this time. These costs obviously do not exist evenly across the country, and it is therefore crucial that subsequent rounds of funding provide an adjustment for hot spots like New York.

New York is shouldering a disproportionate share of this pandemic with roughly 43% of deaths and 34% of the nation’s cases. In fact, New York’s caseload alone accounts for more than any other country in the world. Therefore, we urge you, in the strongest possible terms, to prioritize funding for New York and other hot spots in future funding distributions by allocating funds to the States based on their share of national COVID-19 infections.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

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