SYRACUS, NY – A government error could cost two nursing schools in Syracuse millions of dollars.
The nursing school at St. Joseph’s Hospital Spital Health Center has been asked to repay the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, shortly CMS.5 10.5 million.
Cruz Hospital’s nursing school will have to pay about 4 4 million.
They are two of about 120 hospital-based nursing schools across the country that are being asked to repay higher payments to CMS between 2002 and 2018. More payments were made by CMS due to irregularities.
Hospitals say they shouldn’t pay for the government’s mistake, especially now during the Covid-19 epidemic when they are struggling financially and nursing staff are thin.
Some elected officials have asked the CMS to give hospitals a break. But the federal agency says the law requires that more payments be collected by June 22, 2022.
Meredith Price, St. John’s chief financial officer, said the hospital was talking to elected members of Congress and the Biden administration to “find a way out that would not force hospitals to pay such hefty fines for government wrongdoing.”
“Taking millions of dollars from a nursing school in the midst of a global health crisis hitting the nursing profession is a devastating blow to our community, our college college and future nursing students,” Price said.
Robert Allen, vice president of Cross, said his hospital was shocked when asked to return of of 4 million due to CMS malpractice.
“We have no clue or knowledge that the payment is not accurate,” Ellen said.
Both hospitals say they have no plans to cut their nursing school enrollment as a result of the unexpected payment. “Our focus is on maintaining and hopefully increasing the current enrollment volume,” Ellen said.
Price said St. John’s must address the revenue shortfall “elsewhere in our system.”
Upstate Medical University, which also has a nursing school, has not been asked to return the payment, Upstate spokeswoman Kathleen Froyo said.
The CMSA said in a letter to August Gust that the failure to make annual adjustments to federal payments in physician training programs is due to inadvertently overpaying in nursing programs.
CMSA said in a statement that it was still calculating the total amount owed by the 120-hospital-based nursing school. The health news website, affiliated with the Boston Globe, states that overpayments to affected hospitals could add up to 1 billion.
CMSA said hospitals would be allowed to repay debts over time.
The affected hospitals are members of the trade association’s National League for Nursing.
“These funds were accepted in good faith and were used by hospital-based nursing schools to help educate nursing students who are currently in dire need of overcoming the shortage of nursing.” The group said in a statement. “We need to increase capacity in nursing schools as a whole – don’t reduce it.”
In a recent letter to Congress leaders, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.N.Y., and several other senators said efforts to recover payments through CMS have been weakened.
“Hospital-based nursing schools serve as both employers and teachers, and they provide highly trained nurses in the most affected communities through Covid-1by,” the letter said. “Failure to act when we desperately need them could put these schools at risk of closing or putting them on serious cutbacks.”
James T. Milder covers health and higher education. Any news advice? (315) 470-2245 or contact him [email protected]
