Hospital agency teetering on the brink

Newsday reports:

Nassau County's public hospital agency appears headed for a financial meltdown, with losses mounting, cash running dangerously low and high-level talks about a leadership shake-up under way, officials say.

The problems have become so severe at the Nassau Health Care Corp. -- which serves the county's poorest residents -- that the $490-million-a-year agency could be left with only enough money to operate for 12 days if it makes a $17.1-million payment due to the state pension system today.


"We are very, very alarmed," said Richard Kessel, a board member with the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state board formed to oversee the county's own financial recovery six years ago. "NIFA is deeply concerned about the future of the hospital."

This is just the beginning of major financial problems in the collectivist sector in New York state.