By Rachel Silberstein | Times Union, Albany
Albany, N.Y. — Ahead of the 2024 legislative session, hospital leaders are sounding the alarm over what they describe as a severe health care workforce shortage in upstate New York.
Albany Med Health Network’s Dr. Dennis McKenna, Iroquois Healthcare Alliance President Gary J. Fitzgerald and Sean Fadale, CEO of Nathan Littauer Hospital in Gloversville, joined state legislators Monday at the state Capitol to call for a permanent funding stream to assist hospitals with recruitment and retention, increased investment in workforce training programs and higher Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Upstate Assembly members last year pushed for the 7.5 percent Medicaid boost, which was included in the current state budget. But even with the rate increase, access to care to upstate hospitals remains threatened, officials said. Last year, hospital leaders said a 20 percent rate increase to Medicaid was needed to cover post-pandemic shortfalls.
“Health care workforce shortages and financial issues within our hospital systems are affecting a wide range of health care facilities and services throughout our state. We must do more to recruit the future workforce and retain the current one to ensure that safe, efficient, and quality care can continue to be provided,” Assemblymember John T. McDonald, D-Cohoes, said in a statement.
Iroquois Healthcare Alliance, which represents health care facilities in central and northeastern New York, recently surveyed its members and found 64 percent of respondents have a negative total operating margin.
Of those respondents, half of these hospitals are operating with margins ranging from -2 percent to -6 percent — and the remaining 50 percent are operating with margins below -7 percent, the survey found.
Health care leaders say the facilities have depleted their reserves in order to continue to serve their communities. They said the negative consequences of operating under this pressure are enormous and will include severely diminished quality of care and access to services.
“The health care infrastructure across upstate New York is in danger,” Fitzgerald said. “We need to continue making moves towards improvement, investing in alternative solutions such as pipeline programming and recruitment efforts.”
A state law requiring hospitals to maintain minimum staffing levels went into effect in January. Hospital staff say there have been violations of those standards, which have yet to be enforced by the state Department of Health. Hospital leaders maintain they need more state support to meet these requirements.
According to McKenna of Albany Med Health System, which includes four hospitals and numerous outpatient clinics in the Capital Region, the hospital system has been aggressively recruiting staff, with some success — but has struggled to hire at its more rural locations.
“It remains an uphill battle — and it is particularly steep for our regional campuses,” McKennas said in a statement. “They are the lifelines of our outlying towns and counties. ... The greatest challenge, however, would be if those hospitals were gone. We must work together to protect our hospitals — and our communities — before it is too late.”
Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, highlighted a regional shortage of dentists and dental staff, which has created grim oral health inequities for poor and underserved populations. She has introduced a bill that would allow dental therapists to practice in New York and said she is working on other legislation to expand access to dental care.
“The reasons for this are many and the solutions are multi-dimensional,” Woerner said. “Therefore, I have put together a package of bills designed to address the root causes of this shortage and to help the population that it’s affecting.”
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