WENDY Z. GOLDSTEIN RESPONDS TO NAUH’S STUDY ON FUTURE MEDICARE CUTS AND HOSPITAL JOB LOSSES
Monday, November 21, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LUTHERAN CEO/PRESIDENT WENDY Z. GOLDSTEIN RESPONDS TO NAUH'S STUDY ON FUTURE MEDICARE CUTS AND HOSPITAL JOB LOSSES
9,000 hospital jobs in New York City are at stake
November 21, 2011, Brooklyn, NY…The National Association of Urban Hospitals (NAUH) recently released a study on the potential job loss associated with implementation of the Affordable Care Act and other Medicare cuts currently under consideration by Congress. Wendy Z. Goldstein, president and CEO, Lutheran HealthCare, is reaching out to community leaders and elected officials to draw attention to the results of this study, and the affect that thousands of job cuts will have on hospitals and the community.
The study, "Future Medicare Cuts and Hospital Job Losses," analyzed the potential impact of proposed Medicare cuts on hospital employment and concluded that between the proposed cuts in Medicare payments through the Affordable Health Care Act, and further cuts currently under consideration by the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that more than 130,000 jobs could be at stake – over 9,000 of them right here in the New York metropolitan region. Additionally and even more compelling, NAUH's study found that private, non-profit urban safety net hospitals could bear more than 40 percent of this potential job loss – a highly disproportionate burden placed on safety net hospitals such as Lutheran Medical Center.
"As one of the largest non-profit safety net hospitals in New York City, not only would Lutheran's employees be directly impacted by these cuts, but our community would suffer by limiting access to quality care – already a scarce resource for many we serve," said Wendy Z. Goldstein, president and CEO, Lutheran HealthCare. "While unemployment is reaching its highest levels in years, now is not the time to take away jobs, let alone create an even greater problem of impacting the already fragile quality of life for New York's vulnerable populations."
Many hospitals in New York, and across the nation, are in financial jeopardy, and the odds against safety net hospitals are stacked even higher. Lutheran has already endured $20 million in cuts in just the past three years, and has trimmed an additional $8.5 million in 2011 – so far.
Click here for more information and to view the study.
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