Medical community meets on hospital crisis

Members of the medical community and other concerned individuals gathered to discuss the possible ramifications of the Health Care Commission and threats to the health care system in Queens during a recent educational program held by The Academy of Medicine of Queens County.
The program, entitled &#8220The Hospital Closure Commission, Hospital Bankruptcies, and the Impact on the Provider Community,” was held on Thursday, October 19, at Caff on the Green Restaurant.
Many issues were addressed during the meeting, including the Berger Commission, its lack of transparency and what more hospital closings could mean for Queens. Relevant laws and regulations, hospital bankruptcies, and physician and provider rights, the burden placed on hospitals when others close and the amount of beds in Queens were also among the topics discussed.
Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, Councilmember Helen Sears, chair of the council’s Health Committee, and Assemblymember Mark Weprin also attended the meeting. The elected officials also spoke about the importance of the meeting and the state of health care in Queens.
Marshall described health care as being her administration’s top priority and said that she hopes to improve the system in Queens as a result of the analysis currently going on.
&#8220My ultimate goal in this process is to develop a comprehensible and sustainable health care system for Queens,” said Marshall, who suggested that Queens should be made into its own health district.
Sears said, &#8220We need to have a long range plan of how we can begin to implement the stages that need to be done to get us back on track. Everybody deserves quality health care.”
Presentations were made by Donald Moy, Esq., Vice President and General Counsel, Medical Society of the State of New York; Patrick Brown, Esq., a partner at Brown, McMahon & Weinraub, LLC; David N. Wynn, Esq., partner of Litigation Group Arent Fox PLLC; Patricia J. Wang, Esq., senior vice president, Finance and Managed Care, Greater New York Hospital Association; Andrew Silfen, Esq., partner and co-chair, Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Group Arent Fox PLLC; Clifford Zucker, CPA, partner, Business Investigation Services J.H. Cohn LLP; and Jeffrey R. Ruggiero, Esq., Partner, Health Care Group Arent Fox PLLC.