By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

COBBLE HILL – In the wake of the controversial plan by Continuum Health Partners to downsize its financially troubled affiliate Long Island College Hospital (LICH), members of the hospital’s medical staff, who have been increasingly at odds with Continuum, announced their own reorganization plan Thursday.

At a press conference at the Brooklyn Historical Society Thursday, several of the doctors and a financial adviser outlined their own reorganization plan, which they have submitted to the state Department of Health for consideration.

One thing both the hospital and its doctors are in agreement on – Long Island College Hospital is losing money, with a loss estimated at $33 million this year. Continuum is seeking to close the hospital’s maternity unit and to sell two historic buildings – 97 Amity St., the hospital’s original core building; and the Polhemus Building, once a hospital-affiliated medical school.

Dr. Arnold Licht, a psychiatrist and the president of the LICH medical staff, and Nancy Gaeta of Strategic Programs LLC, one of the firms that prepared the proposal that was submitted to the state, addressed the group.

Before going into the plan per se, he briefly talked about LICH’s relationship to Continuum, which it entered into in the 1990s in response to LICH’s financial problems.

At first, he said, it was a loose affiliation agreement. But little by little, LICH’s board became a “shadow board� of Continuum’s own, with only a decreasing minority of members from Brooklyn. Many of the hospital’s back-office departments were moved to Manhattan, and increasingly, many of the decisions were made there. LICH’s five outreach clinics in other areas of the borough were all sold.

Gaeta gave the ins and outs of the new reorganization plan, which would sever connections to Continuum but wouldn’t rule out a new affiliation agreement with another large institution. First on the agenda would be to reduce the amount of “bad debt� expenses by better collection procedures, better follow-up of paperwork, and better controls.

Currently, said Gaeta, the amount of “bad debt� written off is approximately $126 million a year. “In most hospitals,� said Gaeta, “ this loss comes from people who can’t pay, from the uninsured. In LICH, that only makes up about 2 to 3 percent of the patients.�

The doctors’ plan would also, by replacing money paid to Continuum executives with a home-grown LICH executive team, slash in half the current $6 million allocated to executive pay.

In addition, the plan would renegotiate the hospital’s contracts with “third-party payers,� meaning insurance companies. Currently, the contracts are negotiated by Continuum in Manhattan.

Dr. Licht remembered the pre-Continuum days when, as a psychiatrist, he would negotiate his own deals with the insurance firms. But now, he said, with the lack of informed and authorized personnel at the LICH campus itself, there is often confusion about insurance claims.

In many cases, he said, the insurers have refused to pay for procedures that were already performed.

The doctors’ plan would also restructure the hospital’s medical insurance, and would also save money by returning back-office departments to now-unused offices in Brooklyn rather than paying costly Manhattan office rent.

All in all, the doctors say their plan – which would not only keep the two buildings that are threatened with sale but also re-establish the satellite clinics -- could boost revenues while reducing operating expenses.

A spokesperson for Continuum replied, "We are confident that the restructuring plan we have put forward to the Department of Health is the best course of action for the future of Long Island College Hospital as it is based on pragmatic means of reorganization. We encourage the leadership of the medical staff to join us in moving ahead with a plan that is financially realistic for LICH."

Both plans are currently being considered by the Department of Health.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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