Senator Montgomery and 19 colleagues urge Governor to include $4 million in funds for School Based Health Centers in the 2018-19 proposed State Executive Budget.
January 18, 2018
Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Senator Jamaal Bailey, Senator Leroy Comrie, Senator Martin Dilan, Senator Jesse Hamilton, Senator Brad Hoylman, Senator Brian P. Kavanaugh, Senator Timothy Kennedy, Senator Kevin Parker, Senator Roxanne Persaud, Senator Gustavo Rivera, Senator Diane Savino, Senator Jose Serrano, Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, Assemblyman Charles Barron, Assemblywoman Inez Dickens, Assemblywoman Kimberly Jean-Pierre, Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, Assemblywoman Tremaine Wright and Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda urge Governor to include $4 million in funds for School Based Health Centers in the 2018-19 proposed State Executive Budget.
We the undersigned legislators are writing to you on behalf of School Based Health Centers (SBHCs) and the children they serve across the State to respectfully request that you include $4,018,874 in funds for SBHCs in the 2018-19 proposed State Executive Budget. This amount would restore revenue to 16 SBHC sponsors whose non-Medicaid grant funds were severely reduced this year by a combination of a 20% State Budget cut and an administrative action taken by the State Health Department to change the methodology for the distribution of these funds.
We are happy to see that you have not included cuts to SBHCs in your proposed budget for the 2018-2019 State Fiscal Year, however School-Based Health Centers are in financial crisis. On July 1, 2017 the State Health Department announced a new redistribution of non-Medicaid funding which results in extraordinary and unsustainable cuts to SBHCs in some of the most medically underserved and low-income areas of the State such as Buffalo, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and other high-need neighborhoods. The new allocation methodology results in cuts ranging from 26% to 70%, with many in the 45% to 66% range. It severely negatively impacts 13 New York City SBHCs with total reductions of $3,603, 030, and three Upstate providers with a total loss of $415,844.
The State’s 252 SBHCs provide services to over 200,000 children including primary, dental, mental, and reproductive health care services, as well as preventative, chronic and other types of care to underserved populations on-site in schools.
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