New York City officials are proposing an overhaul of the city's cash-strapped public hospital system, which includes a restructuring and an infusion of $2 billion in subsidies, according to The New York Times.
Here are eight things to know about the issue.
1. Plans for the public hospital system, New York City Health + Hospitals, will be proposed in a report Tuesday as part of Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio's budget.
2. The goal with the overhaul is to improve the hospital system's financial picture, the report states. Health + Hospitals faces a projected $600 million operating gap in fiscal year 2016, which is expected to increase to $1.8 billion by FY 2020.
3. The city attributed the system's financial struggles to multiple factors, such as declines in usage and federal funding.
4. The overhaul is expected to turn inpatient centers into outpatient centers and focus less on emergency rooms, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Specifically, the city proposes building more community care clinics while closing some underused and vacant portions of Health + Hospitals campuses.
5. The overhaul will include retraining some employees and adding billions to Health + Hospital's budget as changes are made, The Wall Street Journal reports.
6. City officials are also proposing relocating social services help into hospitals, with the hope of getting patients linked to services after they leave the hospital so they won't return as often, according to The Wall Street Journal.
7. Mayor de Blasio said the overhaul will not close hospitals or include layoffs, but "expand comprehensive healthcare, especially in high-need communities."
8. Still, the city acknowledged a decrease in hospital-based jobs is likely as existing hospital staff move to community-based health centers and clinics.
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