New York City hospitals have not seen a dime of the millions in grant money promised to them as part of a sweeping restructuring process designed to remake the health-care system.
A total of $550 million in federal and state dollars was to go to hospitals and nursing homes statewide that were ordered to close, downsize or otherwise change.
The money was intended to assist with expenses such as legal fees, worker-retraining costs and severance packages. But two city hospitals have already shut their doors without getting the help.
Cabrini Medical Center in Gramercy Park failed to make severance payments to ousted nurses and to pay health insurance for others before it closed in March.
The union representing the Cabrini nurses is hoping that a promised $14 million grant materializes and the hospital, which still exists as a corporation, will pay the workers.
“We’re worried about them getting the money and just not using it properly,” said Mary Lou Cahill, a nursing representative with the New York State Nurses Association.
The state Department of Health blamed the delay in distributing the funds on the time-consuming process of drafting contracts for each hospital promised the money.
Bankruptcy proceedings involving Victory Memorial Hospital in Brooklyn, which is slated to close, are holding up its $25 million grant, said Claire Pospisil, a DOH spokeswoman.