Attorney general weighs in on hospital battle: ECMC ad inaccurate
The state attorney general's office Tuesday weighed in on the battle between Erie County Medical Center and Kaleida Health, complaining that an ECMC advertisement about the consolidation in The Buffalo News is inaccurate.
The medical center stated in the ad that the attorney general agrees "that there is no binding agreement" between the hospitals about how to proceed with the consolidation.
That is not accurate and misleading, the office of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said in a letter to State Supreme Court Justice John M. Curran, who is presiding over a legal action filed by ECMC against the state Health Department's handling of the hospital combination.
Any suggestion that the attorney general has asserted a position on this issue inconsistent with the Health Department is wrong, according to a letter the attorney general sent the judge.
In a related matted, Erie County on Tuesday initiated a legal action over the consolidation, seeking to force the state to close a hospital unless there's an agreement on how to combine them.
The Berger Commission, officially known as the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, in 2006 made recommendations, now law, for restructuring hospitals. The law ordered ECMC and Kaleida to form a unified, nonpublic entity that includes the University at Buffalo. It also ordered Kaleida to close Millard Fillmore Hospital at Gates Circle.
Collins' Article 78 proceeding refers to a key section of the commission law: If Kaleida or ECMC failed to reach a binding agreement by Dec. 31, 2007, the law says, the health commissioner was to close ECMC or Kaleida's Buffalo General Hospital on High Street.
His legal action seeks to require the state to follow his interpretation of the Berger law.
"Berger is clear. Unless a memorandum of understanding was signed by the end of 2007, [ECMC] or Buffalo General would be closed," Collins said. "Berger included this serious provision to help ensure that a sound and solid long-term compromise would be reached about how to best restructure health care in Western New York."
At the time, officials seemed to be making progress, and the health commissioner let the deadline pass.
The state-appointed board handling the consolidation originally planned to change state law to eliminate the public status of ECMC and allow ECMC to merge fully with Kaleida. But faced with the prospect of union opposition at ECMC, the board plans to keep the hospitals separate under a parent corporation while giving itself authority over major decisions. This change also requires legislation but is believed to have a better chance of passage.
Collins wants the state to eliminate the public corporation, a move that would pave the way for a true merger and allow the county to use the hospital's stockpile of cash to help resolve the issues of the hospital's debt and its cost of benefits.
Collins is worried about the county's financial connection to ECMC.
Then-County Executive Joel A. Giambra in 2004 converted ECMC into a public-benefit corporation to give it more management flexibility but also used the conversion to raise cash to delay a budget crisis.
The county agreed to repay the debt of about $101 million, not including interest. It also agreed that starting in 2010, the county would give ECMC a subsidy equal to however much the hospital loses each year. In addition, employees got retiree health care coverage, a cost expected to rise significantly.
ECMC is busy and has done well in recent years, but Collins fears that the subsidy will grow substantially larger.
