Governor Kathy Hochul announced more than $300 million in new state funding to support health care transformation projects across New York. The awards, made through the Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program IV and V, will support 22 projects aimed at improving health information technology by expanding patient electronic medical records, strengthening cybersecurity and patient information security, and expanding telehealth services.
“By modernizing our hospitals’ IT infrastructure and protecting patients’ information, we’re strengthening the foundation of health care in New York State,” Governor Hochul said. “These investments will help ensure that hospitals have the tools they need to safeguard patient data, expand telehealth services and deliver a healthier future for all New Yorkers.”
New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “With these investments, we are focused on developing safe, reliable and connected patient-centered care. By expanding data capabilities and improving cybersecurity defenses, we’re enhancing clinical decision making across the state’s health care network.”
This funding prioritizes projects that:
Support financially distressed providers;
Modernize critical health information technology infrastructure;
Strengthen cybersecurity and patient information security; and
Expand telehealth services.
Awardees include hospitals in every region of the State.
A full list of awardees, project descriptions, and award amounts is available here. Funds are administered by the New York State Department of Health and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY).
This investment builds on Governor Hochul’s continued efforts to strengthen New York’s health care delivery system. The Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program has awarded more than $1.75 billion to providers working to improve access, equity, and quality of care across New York. These awards are part of a broader, long-term commitment that has directed more than $4.7 billion in health care capital funding statewide since 2016.
Under Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State enacted nation-leading cybersecurity regulations for hospitals, establishing a robust blueprint to protect critical systems and enhance the resilience of the state’s health care network against cyber threats.
Amidst Uncertainty at the CDC, Governor Takes Action To Protect Access to Life-Saving Vaccines
Department of Financial Services Guidance Strongly Encourages Commercial Insurers To Continue Covering 100 Percent of the Costs of Recommended Vaccines
In light of continued attacks on science and health care from the federal government, Governor Kathy Hochul today announced new action to protect vaccine access across New York State. The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) is issuing guidance to insurers encouraging them to continue covering all vaccines recommended by The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) as of today’s date. ACIP has long been responsible for issuing recommendations on vaccine use to control disease in the United States, and insurers typically provide coverage of vaccines based on ACIP recommendations. Today’s publication also reminds insurers of previously issued guidance requiring insurers to cover COVID vaccines for children. In addition, the guidance urges insurers to encourage employers and other entities who provide self-funded health care coverage to continue covering the cost of vaccines. Today’s action builds upon Governor Hochul’s Executive Order allowing pharmacists to administer COVID vaccines to ensure New Yorkers can receive the updated 2025-26 COVID shot.
“New Yorkers deserve to have the resources available to get vaccinated if they choose to, and Republicans in Washington should not be able to take that from them,” Governor Hochul said.“Vaccines not only prevent people from getting sick — they can save lives and prevent the spread of infectious diseases, especially as we approach our colder seasons and our children are back in schools.”
New York State Superintendent of Financial Services Adrienne A. Harris said,“Public health experts have been clear that vaccines are an essential tool in combating the spread of infectious diseases and lowering the cost of health care. The cost of a vaccine should not be a barrier to this critical care. DFS strongly encourages insurers to continue to provide comprehensive vaccine coverage for all New Yorkers.”
“In 2024, we lost 2,775 New Yorkers related to COVID, that is enough to fill 7 jumbo jets,” said New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald. “Vaccines are the best protection from serious illness and hospitalization. I want to thank Governor Hochul for her leadership in taking swift action to ensure that vaccines remain accessible and affordable for families across our state. By safeguarding coverage and availability, we can prevent illness, save lives and keep our communities healthy as we head into the colder months.”
New York is also working in coordination with — and helping to lead — a regional multi-state public health collaboration among Northeast states, which brings together public health leaders across the region to develop evidence-based recommendations and approaches on vaccination, disease surveillance, and emergency preparedness. The collaborative also supports state public health laboratories in sharing resources and expertise to strengthen regional readiness.
450,000 New Yorkers At Risk of Losing Healthcare Due to GOP Cuts
Meanwhile, Governor Hochul is raising alarms that 450,000 New Yorkers are in jeopardy of losing health care. Cuts imposed by Washington Republicans are expected to have a significant impact, with an anticipated nearly $13 billion affecting New Yorkers healthcare system. Additionally, approximately 1.5 million New Yorkers are projected to lose their health insurance coverage, while over 300,000 households are expected to lose some or all of their SNAP benefits.
“For months, I’ve warned that Washington Republicans’ devastating cuts would rip health care away from New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul stated. “Today, we have no choice but to confront that reality.
“Nearly 1.7 million New Yorkers rely on the [state’s] Essential Plan for health care – working moms and dads, families living paycheck to paycheck, people doing everything right and still struggling to get by. The Big Ugly Bill forced through by Donald Trump and Republicans puts every single one of them at risk of losing their care. I refuse to stand by while Washington punishes vulnerable New Yorkers. That’s why today, I’m taking action to preserve health care for 1.3 million people by shifting their coverage to our state’s Basic Health Program, allowing us to access emergency funds that would otherwise not be available.”
But, she added, even with these steps, 450,000 New Yorkers are at risk of losing their care.
“That includes 127,000 people represented by New York’s seven Republican Members of Congress, who are abandoning their own constituents to hand out tax breaks for the wealthy,” Hochul declared. “It doesn’t have to be this way. If Republicans give a damn about protecting health care for their constituents, they can act right now to pass a three-year delay of HR1’s cuts to health care eligibility and keep every New Yorker on the Essential Plan covered. And in the meantime, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services needs to work with us to identify more low-cost health insurance options for New Yorkers.
“There is still work to do here in New York. Many of the 1.7 million people on the Essential Plan are working part time, including at big retailers and other companies that deliberately limit hours to avoid covering health care. It’s time for these employers to stop passing the cost on to taxpayers and start providing coverage for their workers.
“The message from across our state is clear: we can act together and stop these devastating impacts before it’s too late.”
Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie stated, ‘”Losing the Essential Plan is a devastating blow to hard working New Yorkers brought on due to the draconian measures implemented by the federal government in their Big Terrible Bill. Representatives Elise Stefanik, Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Nicole Malliotakis, Andrew Garbarino, Claudia Tenney and Nick Langworthy voted to give their billionaire donors the gift of tax breaks and tax cuts, and now hardworking New Yorkers will have to bear the fallout because of their actions.
“This will have ripples across our healthcare system, putting more stress on already overburdened emergency rooms and causing almost half a million people to lose access to healthcare. Make no mistake, this will affect every single New Yorker, and no amount of obfuscating and gaslighting by our Republican members of Congress can change that. I will continue to work with my partners at all levels of government to try and find solutions to protect New Yorkers from the cruelty that the administration in Washington continues to push.”
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the formation of a new
hospital network Central Coordinating Team to facilitate a more coordinated and
strategic approach among the state’s healthcare system in combating the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The program could become a model for other states, indeed, a model for a national approach to providing necessary personnel and equipment to address coronavirus hotspots as they emerge around the country as Cuomo called for unity.
The coordinating team will help implement the statewide
public-private hospital plan, which the Governor announced yesterday,
to share information, supplies, staff and patients among hospitals across the
State. The team will be responsible for organizing upstate to downstate
staffing; assisting Elmhurst Hospital and other stressed hospitals; setting
patient thresholds for hospitals; organizing patient transfers to other
hospitals and the USNS Comfort; coordinating State-City stockpiles
and individual hospital stockpiles; and facilitating staffing recruitment.
The team will be led by the State Department of Health and
includes the Westchester, New York City and Long Island healthcare systems, the
Greater New York Hospital Association and the Healthcare Association of New
York State. The team will also work with FEMA and the federal government.
Governor Cuomo also announced the State is launching
an online portal that will help connect hospitals and healthcare fasciitis
across the state with the nearly 80,000 healthcare workers who have volunteered
to work on a temporary basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The portal will
prioritize the deployment of workers to hospitals with the greatest need;
volunteers are expected to be deployed as early as this Thursday.
“As we continue to battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we
have two missions – preparing our hospital system so it is not overwhelmed when
the apex of the curve hits and ensuring people stay home so they don’t get the
virus in the first place,” Governor Cuomo said. “We are
following the mathematical projections of the experts and preparing for the
main battle at the apex by procuring as much equipment as we can, increasing
our hospital capacity and supporting hospital staff. We met with the entire
state hospital system for the first time ever and established an unprecedented
new approach to work cooperatively as one unified, statewide healthcare
system to defeat this virus. This virus does not discriminate — no one is
immune to it — and people must continue to be cautious, think of others and not
leave their homes unless absolutely necessary.”
The governor soberly gave “the blunt truth of this situation”
saying: “Total number of people tested, 200,000. Population of 19 million,
is not going to give you a random sample, but it’s been helping us track down
on the positive cases. Number of positive cases, 9,298. Total cases 75,000
cases. You see the predominance in New York City, then Westchester, then
Nassau, then Suffolk, then Rockland. So you can see it’s that area of density.
It spreads out from that area of density. The march of coronavirus across the
State of New York continues. We’re down to just two counties that don’t have a
case. The overall numbers, 75,000 have tested positive. Ten thousand people in
our hospitals, 2,700 ICU patients. Good news, 4,900 – almost 5,000 –
discharged. That’s up 771. So people come in, they get treated, they go home.
“New York is at 75,000 cases. Next state is 16,000. California is
at 7,000. So you can see New York, there’s a magnitude of difference more than
any other state. Fifteen-hundred fifty deaths. That’s up from 1,218 yesterday.
Again, we’re studying the charts. We’re trying to study the data, follow the
data. The data is uneven. It bounces. Numbers often bounce in any model. There
are variables in this model. The hospitals are reporting it, so what every
hospital reported, were they busy, are they combining a couple of days in one?
It’s an imperfect reporting mechanism.
“You see the basic line is still up. What the statisticians will
tell you is you basically draw the straight line that columns indicate and you
see that we’re still going up which is what we see on the overall trajectory,
that we’re still going up. Number of intubations was down, not much, but it was
down and that’s a good sign. You also see the number of discharges going up and
that’s consistent. The longer people are in, they either get treated and leave
or they get put on a ventilator and the longer you’re on a ventilator, the less
likelihood you will come off the ventilator. That is the blunt truth of this
situation.”
With the realization that New York is still 14 to 30 days from
reaching the apex – that is, the peak of number of cases on a given day – after
which there would still be the descent before the crisis is ended, Cuomo said, “In
general, I am tired of being behind this virus. We’ve been behind this virus
from day one. The virus was in China. We knew it was in China. Unless we assume
there’s some immune system variation with Asian people, it was coming here and
we have been behind it from day one since it got here and we’ve been playing
catch-up. You don’t win playing catch-up. We have to get ahead of it. The
second rule is never underestimate your opponent, and we underestimated this
virus. It’s more powerful, it’s more dangerous than we expected, and the third
point is plan forward. Get ahead of it. Get ahead of it, fight the fight today,
yes, but anticipate the next battle and plan for the next battle.
“And the main battle is at the apex. We’re still going up the
mountain. The main battle is on the top of the mountain. That’s where the main
battle is going to be. The apex of the curve and then we come down the other
side of the mountain. We are planning now for the battle at the top of the
mountain. That’s what we are doing. Get a staffing plan ready now for the
battle at the top of the mountain. Equipment stockpile now – we’re gathering
equipment that we don’t need today because today is not the day of the battle.
The battle is when we hit the apex, depending on who you believe, 14 days to 30
days from today.
“And also we need a social acceptance of the time expectation.
We’re all anxious. We’re all tired, we’re all fatigued. It’s been all bad news
for a long time. Our whole lifestyle has been disrupted. Everybody knows wants
to know one thing, when is it over, nobody knows. Well, President said by
Easter; this one said by this – nobody knows. You can have a hypothesis, you
can have a projection, you can have an opinion but nobody knows, but I can say
this, it is not going to be soon. If our apex is 14 to 21 days, that’s our
apex. You then have to come down the other side of the mountain once you hit
the apex, so calibrate yourself and your expectations so you’re not
disappointed every morning you get up.”
Cuomo described the “balkanization” and “fragmentation” of the
state’s health care system – private hospital chains, public hospitals,
downstate and upstate, city and suburbs and rural communities, rich and needy
and now federal hospitals – and said that he was creating a network where
staff, supplies and patients would be allocated as needed.
“That has to be our mentality. We laid out a full plan on how to
do facility development, how to move people among hospitals so nobody gets
overloaded, shifting patients, shifting staff, shifting supplies. None of us
have enough supplies. Okay, then let’s pool our supplies and let’s put them out
for the people who need them. Just because one hospital happened to have found
a vendor from China who delivered 5 million masks, let’s share those masks.”
Getting ahead of the virus means gearing up for the projected apex
and stockpiling vital equipment like ventilators for the day when they will be
needed – a remark intended to blunt Trump’s veiled accusation that Cuomo was warehousing
4,000 ventilators while complaining that he needed 30,000.
And he continued to appeal for mass testing as critical to not
only determining who is sick, but who has the antibodies and therefore no
longer at risk.
The crisis ends, he said, “when we get a fast track test, an at
home test, 15-minute test, and people can find out when they can go back to
work because they’re negative. We’re working on additional testing. As I said,
the department of health has a new test, but that’s when this ends
“We’re also working on the new medications. We’re leading the
country in many of these developments. We have saliva testing. We’re working on
the antibody testing and plasma testing at the same time.”
Cuomo added, “We know what to do. We just have to do it. It is
individual discipline to stay at home. That’s what it
is, it’s discipline. No social distancing. It’s discipline. Well, I’m
bored. I know. I’m bored. It’s discipline. Making this healthcare system work,
that’s government skill, that’s government performance. That’s saying to that
healthcare system, I don’t care how it worked yesterday, I don’t care whose
turf this is, I don’t care whose ego is involved, I’m sorry, we have to find a
way to work, a better way. Time to say to that federal government and to FEMA
and HHS, you have to learn how to do your job, and you have to learn how to do
it quickly. Because time is not our friend. It’s about a social stamina. This
is not one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, six
weeks, okay? This is not going to be an Easter surprise. Understand that
and have the stamina to deal with it.
The coordination of the state’s health care system is but one step
in what Cuomo called for as “unity” – coordination and cooperation among
states.
“Let’s help one another. New York needs help now. Yesterday I
asked for healthcare workers from across the country to come here because we
need help. We will pay you, and more importantly, we will return the favor.
This is going to be a rolling wave across the country. New York, then it’ll be
Detroit, then it’ll be New Orleans, then it will be California. If we were
smart as a nation, come help us in New York. Get the equipment. Get the
training. Get the experience. And then let’s all go help the next place, and
then the next place, and then the next place. That would be a smart national
way of doing this. And showing that unity. And, unity meaning, we’re not, I
know this is a political year, and everything is a political backdrop, and
Democrats want to criticize Republicans, Republicans want to criticize Democrats.
Not now. Not now. There are no red states, there are no blue states. The virus
doesn’t attack and kill red Americans or blue Americans. It attacks all
Americans. And keep that in mind, because there is, there is a unifying wisdom
in that.”
The Governor confirmed 9,298 additional cases of novel
coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 75,795 confirmed cases in New York
State – among them, the governor’s own brother, Chris Cuomo, who anchors a news
program on CNN. Of the 75,795 total individuals who tested positive for the
virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
