The Nassau Interim Finance Authority (NIFA) has taken control over the finances of a public benefit corporation that runs the Nassau University Medical Center.
A resolution to take control was approved on Feb. 4 by the NIFA Board of Directors with a 6-0 vote. According to the resolution, the medical center’s public benefit corporation, NuHealth, has lost $193.9 million from 2015 to 2018 and has seen job turnover from the chairman and CEO of the medical center since Oct. 15.
According to Newsday, the county currently backs $188 million in the medical center’s debt.
NIFA has controlled the county’s finances since 2011 and had previously exempted NuHealth from “strict controls” that were previously implemented, based on the fact that NIFA did not believe the organization “posed a material risk to the overall financial condition of the county,” according to the resolution.
“The challenges facing the hospital are tremendous, and I think it’s definitely within our responsibility,” NIFA Chairman Adam Barsky said at the meeting, according to Newsday. “It’s our obligation to provide as much oversight.”
“It’s not just the losses, the financial losses that the hospital has experienced,” NIFA Director Chris Wright said, according to Newsday. “But either of equal or greater gravity is the rather erratic governance process that we’ve seen played out. We need to put spending and borrowing under some oversight on our part in order to keep that under control.”
The resolution gives Nassau County Executive Laura Curran and NuHealth’s president 30 days to present NIFA with proposed guidelines for contracts NUMC should submit for approval.
Until then, NIFA is required to approve all personal service contracts with law firms, consultants and others exceeding $50,000, all employee agreements, and all revenue contracts including billing and collection, according to the resolution.
Additionally, NuHealth CFO John P. Maher is required to provide “accurate and timely reporting” on the center’s payroll, billings activity, grant-dependable programs, annual budgets, multiyear plans, monthly financial statements, interagency activity, monthly cash analysis, board meeting agendas and minutes, and applications for all borrowing requests, according to the resolution.
“By reviewing NUMC’s procurements and contracts, NIFA will get a clearer picture of the hospital’s finances,” Curran spokeswoman Christine Geed said, according to Newsday, “We want to see the hospital stabilized.”
