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“During the height of the Ebola crisis, many hospitals in New York took extraordinary emergency preparedness measures to protect the health and safety of all Americans,” said U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Rockland/Westchester), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, who announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will provide a total of $3.63 million in reimbursements to hospitals in New York that served as Ebola treatment centers and prepared to treat ebola patients as the virus spread. “I’m pleased these federal funds will help reimburse medical facilities for their decisive actions in protecting the public. In the wake of the deadly Ebola and Zika outbreaks, we must continue to make strong federal investments in our healthcare infrastructure and ensure we are prepared to prevent and respond to any public health threat.”
Nearly half of all passengers traveling from the most Ebola affected West African countries to the United States arrived at airports in the New York City area.
Lowey said as the cases of Ebola increased, Congress invested in a federal response to contain the epidemic at its epicenter and increase the public health infrastructure within the United States to adequately address domestic Ebola threats. However, many Ebola Treatment Centers in New York were left without reimbursement for improvements made to their facilities.
Under the plan announced Jan. 5, HHS will amend original awards to Ebola Treatment Centers to increase each allocation to a total of $750,000 per facility.
The hospitals in New York that will receive additional funding are listed below:
· Westchester Medical Center (Valhalla, NY) — $480,000
· Erie County Medical Center (Buffalo, NY) — $480,000
· Upstate University Hospital (Syracuse, NY) — $480,000
· University of Rochester Medical Center (Rochester, NY) — $480,000
· Stony Brook University Hospital (Stony Brook, NY) — $480,000
· Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY) — $480,000
· North Shore/LIJ, Glen Cove Hospital (Glen Cove, NY) — $250,000
· Mt. Sinai Hospital (New York, NY) — $250,000
· Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, NY) — $250,000
These funds are in addition to the nearly $18.8 million in original Ebola emergency funding for entities within New York.
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