‘Poor’ job found in aid to hosps

ALBANY — A state program intended to fund care for the uninsured directed more than $100 million last year to hospitals serving mostly well-off patients, a new report revealed.

The Empire Center for Public Policy’s report found that the state’s $1.1 billion Indigent Care Pool shortchanged hospitals that serve large pools of uninsured patients, giving them only pennies on the dollar for the free care they delivered to poor patients.

Other hospitals with relatively few uninsured patients received substantial grants, the report found. A rep for the state Department of Health said the report is “dead wrong.”