By Joyce Kryszak
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Buffalo, NY – The county is still working, as officials say, to "get out of the hospital business." But the economy might have set back those plans.
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Even before the planned merger with Kaleida, the Erie County Medical Center was in pretty good health. So good, in fact, that hospital officials agreed to waive the county's subsidy this year and its obligation to pay the hospital's debt service. But ECMC Senior Vice President of Marketing and Planning Thomas Quatroche said, due to severe state budget cuts, that might not be the case in the future.
He said a subsidy could be needed again as soon as 2010. ECMC's pending merger with Kaleida had given county officials renewed hope that they could cut financial ties with the hospital. But Quatroche said, even without a subsidy, the county will always have an obligation to help cover medicaid patients at the hospital, as long as it is a public benefit corporation.
That county medicaid payment, or Inter Governmental Transfer, was $7.6 million this year. But beyond those payments, Quatroche said ECMC is working to become more autonomous and less dependent on county taxpayer dollars. The hospital and ECMC are currently negotiating a long-term agreement.