A group of bipartisan lawmakers is throwing its weight behind an effort to obtain more state funding for Nassau University Medical Center, a beleaguered safety-net hospital that has teetered on the edge of financial ruin in recent years.
A dozen state lawmakers, representing Nassau and Suffolk Counties, wrote a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul and the legislature’s majority and minority leaders urging them to include funding for the ailing East Meadow-based institution in the next state budget. As budget negotiations unfold ahead of the April 1 start of the fiscal year, the lawmakers argue that the facility hasn’t received state aid in two years, despite running deficits over $100 million in recent years.
The hospital’s finances have been in shambles owing to what its current leaders have described as mismanagement under past administrators and poor oversight from government authorities. Its books have improved slightly under new leadership, with its annual deficit dropping from $164 million in 2022 to $142 million in 2023. But the hospital continues to struggle and has been locked in a fight with the state over funding it says it is owed.
The letter comes as the medical center is suing the state for allegedly withholding more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding over the last two decades.
The hospital is seeking that funding plus $40 million in direct aid to cover employee contracts and other needs, said spokesman Bob Driscoll. That is down significantly from the close to $180 million the facility received from the state in 2019.
The bipartisan group, which includes Assembly Veterans’ Affairs chair Steve Stern, a Democrat who represents parts of Huntington and Babylon, wrote in its letter that the facility did not receive state aid in 2024 or 2025 “despite applying for every funding opportunity available.”
“NUMC cannot survive without a dedicated line item in the final budget, and we will not stand by while the state ignores its responsibility,” the letter reads.
As the largest safety-net facility on Long Island, the loss of the hospital could be devastating to low-income residents throughout the region. More than 80% of its patients are either on Medicaid or Medicare or are uninsured.
Gordon Tepper, a spokesman for Hochul, disputed the assertion that the state had not provided aid to the hospital and said its troubles were of its own making. He pointed to $117 million in Medicaid payments for hospitals with a large number of underinsured patients in fiscal 2024 and $38 million so far in fiscal 2025. That money has been halted while the hospital’s lawsuit is pending, Tepper said. Other money has been held up because the facility failed to file a viable financial transformation plan, a requirement to unlock certain state funds, he said. The facility also owes the state $400 million to cover the premium payments of its employees’ health insurance.
“Gov. Hochul is committed to supporting safety-net hospitals, but NUMC’s biggest obstacle to receiving state aid is its own leadership,” he said.
Launched in 1935 as Meadowbrook Hospital, Nassau University Medical Center sees about 80,000 patients in its emergency department each year and serves an additional 178,000 patients in its clinics, according to its website.
