Parkway alleges shake down by Seminerio

If Dr. Robert J. Aquino has his way, The New Parkway Hospital in Forest Hills would reopen.
“He is pushing for Parkway to reopen to treat people in Queens,” said Mark Fogel, a spokesperson for Aquino, the Hospital’s President and CEO.
Last week, according to Fogel, they filed an “order to show cause for the State Department of Health (DOH) to come back into court and reexamine the circumstances surrounding the closure of Parkway.”
These circumstances, said Fogel, include the alleged solicitation of bribes by disgraced former Assemblymember Anthony Seminerio, who pleaded guilty in June to one count of honest services mail fraud, which may result in up to 20 years in prison.
Aquino has said he rebuffed Seminerio’s requests.
“Quite some time ago, Seminerio came to Parkway and demanded payment of about $15,000 a month to represent him [the hospital and Aquino] before the State Department of Health,” said Fogel, who noted that Aquino told the politician that it was improper and against the law.
Fogel further alleges that the federal government has wiretaps in which “he [Seminerio] says he hates Parkway,” and that Aquino believes the politician had a hand in the hospital’s closure in November of last year.
“In Seminerio’s indictment, it says he [attempted to extort bribes] from a for-profit hospital,” he said. “Parkway was the only for-profit hospital.”
Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesperson for the State DOH, said that they do not comment on pending litigation, but provided the following statement: “The Berger Commission mandated that Parkway Hospital close in an orderly fashion. The nonpartisan Berger Commission recommendations became legal mandates in New York on January 1, 2007. Using the need criteria developed by the Commission’s staff, and particularly considering this hospital’s past problems with financial and administrative mismanagement, and more importantly, quality of care, Parkway was a prime candidate for closure.”
Citing the health care crisis in the borough with the recent shuttering of Caritas’ St. John’s Queens and Mary Immaculate Hospitals, Fogel said that, “Dr. Aquino and his group have kept Parkway ready to open.”
Noting that the re-hire of employees would be good for the economy, Fogel said that, were Parkway to be given the green light – and a new license to operate, it would take between three and five weeks to reopen.
A call to Seminerio’s attorney was unanswered.