City, state truce lets hosps rehire

ALBANY — The city public hospital system will again begin filling vacancies after a funding dispute with the state was resolved last week.

“With our mutually agreeable resolution between the state and NYC Health and Hospitals, we are now able to resume filling vacancies at a rate of 50% of the number of staff members who separate from our health care system each month,” Stan Brezenoff, interim president and CEO of New York City Health and Hospitals, wrote in a message to staff.

Brezenoff had threatened to sue the state for withholding $380 million in Medicaid funds it says it is owed for uncompensated care provided to uninsured patients that the state administers for the federal government.

But on Friday afternoon, Jason Helgerson, Gov. Cuomo’s Medicaid director, sent a letter to Health and Hospitals Interim President and CEO Stanley Brezenoff saying the state would release the bulk of the money in three installments by the end of the year.