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Bill Hammond Profile picture
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17 Apr, 5 tweets, 4 min read
.@GannettAlbany and @JonCampbellGAN report that Victoria Derbyshire, acting director of Wadsworth Labs at the NYS Health Department, is preparing to retire -- the latest in a string of high-level staff departures at DOH.
democratandchronicle.com/story/news/pol…
Even before the pandemic, the state's public health budget and staffing were in a decade-long decline. empirecenter.org/publications/n…
In the just-passed state budget, publicly reported funding for Wadsworth was sliced by another third. empirecenter.org/publications/n…
The governor's public schedules for February, March and April 2020 - covering the peak of New York's pandemic - show that DOH Commissioner Howard Zucker was the only person with public health training with whom Cuomo was regularly meeting. empirecenter.org/publications/c…
Per SeeThroughNY.net, the 2020 salary for Wadsworth acting director Victoria Derbyshire is listed as $163,281.

The salary shown for her predecessor, Jill Taylor, was $174,338 in 2019, her last full year. seethroughny.net/payrolls

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More from @NYHammond

Bill Hammond Profile picture
9 Apr
A head-scratcher:

Even as Cuomo & the Legislature ramped up overall spending by 10%, they *cut* the operating allocation for NY's public health lab, the Wadsworth Center, by 1/3.
empirecenter.org/publications/n…
Wadsworth played a key role in the state's pandemic response, including quickly developing an alternative COVID test last February when the CDC's test failed. lohud.com/story/news/hea…
The budget reported includes $750 million in capital funding for a new Wadsworth facility in Albany. bizjournals.com/albany/news/20…
Read 4 tweets
Bill Hammond Profile picture
6 Apr
The Health and Mental Hygiene budget bill has now passed both houses.

It isn't the last word, because more health-related stuff could and probably will pop up in the "big ugly," which is still to come.

Here are some highlights of what is public so far: (1/?)
Global cap: Despite repeal proposals, Gov. Cuomo's "global cap," limiting a portion of state Medicaid spending to medical inflation, is extended through March 2023. Monthly progress reports, which DOH has often skipped, are replaced by quarterly reports.
'Excess' malpractice coverage: State-funded supplemental malpractice insurance for physicians and dentists, which Cuomo had proposed to cut in half, is to continue without changes – effectively subsidizing a generally high-income group.
Read 10 tweets
Bill Hammond Profile picture
6 Apr
Another ridiculous feature of Albany's budget "process" is voting in the middle of the night.

Not only is it an affront to transparency and calm deliberation, it's humiliating and unhealthy for the legislators themselves. There's a reason sleep deprivation is form of torture.
Some years back, one senator died of a heart attack not long after an all-night session. Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (who is now also deceased) made a point of banning late-night voting for that reason.

I'm not sure he always complied, but it was good rule.
A favorite war story from 1998, my first year in the LCA.

In a lame-duck session, the Legislature was voting on an ugly amalgam of raises for themselves, authorization for charter schools and a pricing scheme for milk. ...
Read 4 tweets
Bill Hammond Profile picture
5 Apr
Saying that Cuomo "cut" Medicaid over and over again doesn't make it true.

On his watch, total Medicaid spending is up $26.1B or 49%, and this year he's proposing to increase it by another $6.6B or 8%.
nytimes.com/2021/04/04/opi… Image
As of 2019, eight years into Cuomo's term, New York's per capita Medicaid spending was more than double the national average and 29% higher than any other state.
empirecenter.org/publications/n… Image
"Cuomo cut Medicaid" is the "Stop the Steal" of the left.
Read 4 tweets
Bill Hammond Profile picture
25 Mar
Gov Cuomo is pushing for a late addition to the state budget at the behest of the Greater NY Hospital Association.

GNYHA was also behind two of the Cuomo administration's most controversial pandemic policies: legal immunity & the 3/25 nursing home order
empirecenter.org/publications/c…
The proposal is a technical change in insurance law that would compel plans to pay hospital claims first and ask questions later.

Insurers, employers and labor unions say it would enable waste and drive up health premiums.
Cuomo didn't include this item in his original budget proposal from January or his 30-day amendments in February.

The details have not yet been made public.

Yet his aides are telling the Legislature it's a priority for inclusion in the final budget, which is due in six days.
Read 5 tweets
Bill Hammond Profile picture
16 Mar
This is no exaggeration. ASC was elected to the Senate in the fall of 2006. Since then, Albany has seen the resignation of a comptroller, a governor and an attorney general. Party control of the Senate has changed three times (five if you count the coup of '09). ...
Too many lawmakers have been arrested to count, including five of the six majority leaders who preceded her, four of which were convicted. Cuomo created an anti-corruption commission to go after the Legislature, then disbanded it when it went after him. ...
The U.S. attorney indicted half a dozen people over Cuomo's marquee economic development operation, including one of the governor's closest aids and his high-tech guru. And don't forget Shelly Silver. ...
Read 4 tweets

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