Leaders of 1199SEIU, URMC Urge Restoration of Cuts to Teaching Hospitals

• What: Press Conference with Bruce Popper, Area Vice President, 1199 SEIU & Mark B. Taubman, M.D., CEO, University of Rochester Medical Center
• Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2019 – 10 a.m.
• Location: Anderson Room, G8534, UR School of Medicine and Dentistry
• (Room is off the Flaum atrium near the SMD main entrance, 415 Elmwood Ave.)

Leaders of the 1199SEIU Healthcare Workers East, which represents nearly 1,500 employees at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), will join the medical center’s CEO in urging state leaders to restore a proposed budget cut that would cost URMC $4.1 million next year.

At the news conference, leaders of URMC and 1199SEIU will describe potential impact of the proposed GME cut and their lobbying effort to restore it, including a bus trip the union organized to bring members to Albany on Tuesday (March 19).  Mark B. Taubman, M.D., CEO of URMC and dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry,  will send a message to employees Wednesday in the URMC This Week newsletter, encouraging them to tell elected officials not to hurt our hospitals via the website:  https://campaigns.rocketlobby.com/some-cuts-never-heal

Budget proposals from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Senate would eliminate $24.5 million in Medicaid funding that supports Graduate Medical Education (GME) at five academic medical centers of excellence across New York. These funds support physician training and other costs associated with academic medical centers like URMC, which is the leading source of new physicians in the Finger Lakes region and the Southern Tier.

The Governor’s original budget proposed reducing payments to health care providers by $1.1 billion statewide, which would have cost UR Medicine hospitals, nursing homes and home-care agencies $15.5 million next year. Across-the-board cuts were not included in budget proposals approved by the Assembly and State Senate, which would restore $11.4 million in the final State budget scheduled for approval April 1. The GME cut that targets five medical centers, which would cost URMC $4.1 million, remains in the Senate and Executive budget proposals.