Consumer Law

Huff Post Repost: Rich New York Hospital Execs To Use Brain-Damaged Babies As Political Bargaining Chip

By Joe Consumer

Whatever has been going on behind the closed doors of Governor Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team, loaded with self-dealing lobbyists and hospital executives who make Wall Street level salaries, it's time for New Yorkers to say - enough.

Many have already complained about how this Team has been dominated by hospital and industry lobbyists, with consumer or patient advocates essentially excluded. Now we find out that these lobbyists are using this process not to save Medicaid money, but to execute a backroom deal that will create a financial windfall for negligent hospitals, incompetent health care providers and their insurance companies.

Essentially, their proposal (known a Proposal #131), which they intend to push through the budget process with no public airing, would severely limit hospitals' liability for killing or injuring patients. Yet we know that many New York hospitals have notoriously bad safety records, especially in low-income communities, and too many babies suffer brain damage at birth as the result of poor medical care. These children, who are often on Medicaid, are able to get off Medicaid because settlements or verdicts pay for their needs.

Keep reading.

Full post as published by ThePopTort on February 22, 2011 (boomark / email).