Schumer, Torres push for FEMA money for hospitals
BY JASON COHEN
With the Bronx considered
the epicenter of COVID-19 at
one point last year, hospitals
were forced to dip into their
own funds to purchase equipment
and supplies needed to
save lives. Those same hospitals
are still waiting for FEMA
to reimburse the money, with
some elected offi cials now
calling on the federal agency
to rectify the situation immediately.
With a shortage of ventilators,
medication, PPE, masks
and much more, the NYC
Health + Hospitals (H+H) system
spent $860 million of its
own funds, assuming FEMA
would reimburse them. H+H,
which includes 11 public hospitals,
has been waiting to
receive that assistance from
FEMA since October 2020.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres
and U.S. Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer, both
Democrats, were joined by
Lincoln Hospital staff, on July
23, to demand FEMA reimburse
the city’s public hospital
system for expenses related to
the pandemic.
Hospitals, 911 and emergency
medical services agencies
— including fi re service,
third government service and
certain private nonprofi t services
— are eligible to apply
for a 75% federal cost share
reimbursement from FEMA
for certain costs related to the
COVID-19 response.
“FEMA is debating
whether H+H is eligible,” Torres
told the Bronx Times. “If
H+H doesn’t qualify for the refund
then no hospital should.”
In a letter dated July 9, Torres
was joined by the NYC
Congressional Delegation
urging FEMA Administrator
Deanne Criswell to reimburse
H+H by July 23. FEMA, however,
has not responded to the
letter and has not indicated if
it will fulfi ll the reimbursement
request.
According to Torres,
FEMA representatives are
claiming the money can only
go to hospitals that expanded
their facilities during the pandemic.
Yet for places like Lincoln
Hospital, the entire hospital
was dedicated to fi ghting
COVID-19 for 16 months. “H+H
was the epicenter of the COVID
19 public health emergency,”
he said. “If there’s any
health system in America that
deserves a FEMA reimbursement
Taquilla V.
Class of 2021
B.A. in Social Science
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, J 20 ULY 30-AUG. 5, 2021 BTR
it’s H+H.”
Schumer could not fathom
how a place like Lincoln Hospital,
which was the busiest
emergency room prior to COVID
19, has not yet received
money from FEMA.
During the pandemic, Lincoln’s
emergency room bed capacity
was expanded by 120%
and its Intensive Care Unit by
316%, according to Schumer.
As the man who FEMA often
comes to for help, Schumer
said if he scratches their back,
they better scratch his.
“All of these workers risked
their lives and went above
and beyond to save lives,” he
said. “They (H+H) shelled out
a whole lot of money thinking
FEMA would reimburse
them. Ritchie Torres and I
will not stop fi ghting until we
get all of those dollars.”
Among the people who witnessed
the staff at H+H battle
the pandemic was Dr. Mitchell
Katz, H+H president and CEO.
He said that when an infl ux of
people were admitted to the
ER during COVID-19 “no one
said ‘can the hospital afford
this,’ but rather people’s lives
were at risk.”
“Were we thinking go to
the special FEMA ward we
built, no we just said everybody
is going to be taken care
of,” he said. “Now, we need
FEMA to help make good on
that promise.”
One person who was on
the front lines of the pandemic
was Marsha Wilson,
an ER nurse at Lincoln Hospital,
who never witnessed anything
like COVID-19 in her 20-
plus years in the fi eld.
There were days when 10
patients needed to be intubated,
but there were only 10
ventilators. She and her colleagues
worked long days,
were short on PPE, barely ate,
were the last people to see patients
before they died and
were emotionally drained.
“I remember during this
COVID season I dreaded coming
to work, but I came anyway,”
Wilson said. “We still
did what we had to do because
we knew lives were at stake. It
took a toll on all of us.”
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres and U.S Sen. Chuck Schumer with Lincoln Hospital
staff as they ask FEMA to reimburse $860 million spent by the hospital
during the pandemic. Photo Jason Cohen
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