Hospitals' tax status, Propel NY

So, Stony Brook Medicine plans to take over a building in Farmingdale, while Northwell Health, NYU Langone Health, and Mount Sinai Health System have been expanding outpatient facilities across the region [“Hospital plan moving forward,” Our Towns, Oct. 5]. Meanwhile, only NYU Langone is planning to build a new inpatient hospital on Long Island in Melville to facilitate patient care [“Healthcare growth adds to burden on LI taxpayers,” News, Oct. 4].

By allowing outpatient facilities to call themselves hospitals, because they are hospital-owned, the system unfairly shifts a huge tax burden that must be made up by other taxpayers.

The law should be either reinterpreted or rewritten so that exemptions include only include actual hospitals, not outpatient facilities that compete with private practices. As these entities buy medical practices with the help of these tax savings, it is unfair to taxpayers who must make up the shortfall while healthcare giants spend heavily on lobbying.

These moves must be addressed to adapt to new financial realities.

— Edward Stroh, Rockville Centre

There would be major consequences for communities and hospitals if hospitals were to lose their exemptions from property taxes. Hospitals are facing financial shortfalls because of the 2025 federal tax-and-spending law signed by President Donald Trump. Reimbursements to hospitals from Medicaid are expected to fall. Approximately 3 million to 4 million people nationwide have dropped out of Affordable Care Act coverage this year. Hospitals must care for these uninsured people, often without receiving reimbursement.

Because hospitals would face property taxes on top of their existing shortfalls, they would be forced to limit the services that provide that community’s health and well-being.

I have lived in Merrick for the past 50 years. During that time, NYU Langone, formerly Winthrop-University Hospital, has provided me with optimal, accessible healthcare. My children were born there, and I am now part of a hospital-sponsored blood cancer support group.

I would not want to lose these and other caring services or would want anyone to be unable to use them. If hospitals are required to pay property taxes, these programs could be at risk.

— Patricia DeAngelis Fife, Merrick

The writer is a former director of patient services for the Visiting Nurse Association of Long Island.

Hospitals benefit from, not detract from, the economy, including the tax base. They purchase goods and services, stimulate nearby businesses and support 129,000 jobs. They generated an estimated $29.4 billion in economic activity and $4.8 billion in tax dollars for the region in 2025, an increase of 60% over a decade.

More care is being provided in outpatient settings because it’s not possible to expand hospital campuses to meet growing patient needs. It’s also more efficient to shift care to outpatient settings because advances in treatment and technology have made it safe to do so. Nonhospital providers at the same sites would not have hospitals’ obligations to treat all patients or provide the services most needed.

I particularly take issue with the unsupported statement that there is “a lot of evidence” that charity care spending is insufficient to justify nonprofit status. Providing financial assistance is required by law and is a foundation of hospitals’ missions. Hospitals also invest in research, train clinicians, subsidize Medicare and Medicaid underpayments, and sponsor community programs. Their community benefit spending has doubled since 2015.

Hospitals take seriously their obligations to provide cutting-edge care, expand access, and treat the uninsured, while serving as a bedrock of Long Island’s economy.

— Wendy Darwell, Hauppauge

The writer is the president and CEO of the Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State.

Power lines belong safely underground

I applaud the state Public Service Commission for conditionally greenlighting the Propel NY Energy project, but some opponents of the project chiefly worry about electromagnetic fields from the project’s buried cables [“LI school districts criticize ‘conditional’ OK of Propel,” News, Oct. 1].

Consider that people living in Manhattan get electricity from underground cables. Should they worry, too? Should Con Ed dig up all of its cables as a public health hazard? Underground electric lines are an accepted fact of modern life, until people think a new one will be running under their street.

— Karen C. Higgins, Massapequa Park