[As nurses from two New York hospitals fight for better treatment,
the executives in charge have been boosting their own pay and slashing
charity care.]
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AS NURSES STRIKE, HOSPITAL CEOS POCKET MILLIONS  
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Matthew Cunningham-Cook
January 10, 2023
The Lever
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_ As nurses from two New York hospitals fight for better treatment,
the executives in charge have been boosting their own pay and slashing
charity care. _

Nurses stage a strike in front of Mt. Sinai Hospital on Monday, Jan.
9, 2023., AP Photo/Craig Ruttle

 

On Monday, 7,000 New York nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the
Bronx and Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan went on strike over
massive short staffing.

While a Montefiore spokesperson said
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“the union leadership’s decision will spark fear” in the public,
and a Mount Sinai representative called
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the strike “reckless,” the hospitals have understaffed while
boosting executive pay and slashing charity care.

Nurses have faced extreme staff shortages since the COVID-19 pandemic
began, with nurses in the emergency departments in New York City
sometimes handling 20 patients at a time. That’s more than five
times what is allowed by law in California, the only state with
nurse-to patient-ratios enshrined in law. Such short staffing, say
nurses, translates into poorer care for hospital patients.

“We’re not out here for ourselves, we are out here for our
patients,” said Matt Allen, a union member-leader at Mount Sinai at
a press conference [[link removed]] Monday. “Our
bosses created the understaffing crisis,” New York State Nurses
Association President Nancy Hagans told
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_Politico_.

Hospitals received $175 billion in COVID-related aid during the
pandemic, helping to boost profit margins — but little
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of that money trickled down to employees. At the end of September
2022, Montefiore was sitting on
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in cash and investments, while Mount Sinai had $2.6 billion
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at the end of 2020.

The nurses’ union contracts with the hospitals expired at the end of
last year. Labor negotiations for a new contract broke down due to the
ongoing staffing crisis in the hospitals, as well as over demands for
language mandating that minimum staffing levels are actually enforced.

Left out of all of corporate media’s current coverage of the strike
is the enormous profits and hefty executive compensation packages
enjoyed by the hospitals in question. While Montefiore and Mount Sinai
are technically nonprofits, they frequently act like large
corporations — with massive investments on Wall Street and overseas,
and providers sidelined from essential care decision-making.

Montefiore reported $199 million
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invested in “limited partnerships” like hedge funds and private
equity in 2020, according to tax filings reviewed by _The Lever.
_Mount Sinai reported
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$68 million in investments in “Central America and the Caribbean.”
Typically, investments in this region are in tax shelters like the
Cayman Islands.

These nonprofit hospitals also boast huge executive salaries. Mount
Sinai CEO Kenneth Davis made
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$5.6 million in 2019, the last year for which complete tax records are
available.  Montefiore CEO Philip Ozuah made
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$7.4 million in 2020. Montefiore disclosed providing
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an unnamed executive (or executives) with a chauffeur and first-class
airfare in 2020.

In filings with the IRS, Mount Sinai disclosed that 15 executives made
more than $1 million annually in 2019. Montefiore disclosed ten in
2020, with all making more than $1.5 million.

The 2017 Trump tax law mandated
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a 21 percent
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excise tax on all nonprofit compensation over $1 million annually,
paid by the nonprofit themselves, which meant that these outsize
salaries come with significant tax expenses, taking away essential
resources from patient care.

In 2010, Montefiore paid
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$4 million to its then-CEO, meaning that the CEO of Montefiore has
received an annualized increase in compensation of 8.5 percent from
2010 to 2020. Mount Sinai CEO Kenneth Davis made just $2.6 million in
2010
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meaning that he received annualized raises of 12.8 percent from 2010
to 2019. In comparison, the wage increases that most nurses in the
city have agreed to is 7 percent, 6 percent, and 5 percent for the
three years of the new contract.

Meanwhile, Mount Sinai’s allocation to charity care as a percentage
of its total expenses cratered by nearly 50 percent from 2010
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until 2020
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dropping from nearly 2 percent of total expenses to just over 1
percent, according to tax filings. Charity care provides free or
discounted care to those in poverty, a key justification for the
massive tax breaks nonprofit hospitals receive. Montefiore saw a less
stark but still jarring 23 percent decline in charity care spending as
a percentage of expenses from 2010
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until 2020
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from 1.4 percent to just over 1 percent.

Montefiore’s generosity towards its executives and stinginess with
charity care is ironic in light of the fact that it depends far more
on public dollars from Medicaid and Medicare than the average
hospital, due to it being located in one of the poorest urban counties
in America, the Bronx. For the nine months ending September 2022, more
than two thirds
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system’s revenue came from Medicaid and Medicare, as opposed to one
third [[link removed]] for
the average hospital. Mount Sinai earns a similar
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portion of its revenue from government programs because of systemic,
ongoing poverty in New York City.

On Sunday, Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul called for labor
and management to enter binding arbitration, rather than backing the
nurses. The New York State Nurses Association stated
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in a press release that “Hochul should listen to frontline COVID
nurse heroes and respect our federally-protected labor and collective
bargaining rights.”

To fill an opening for Chief Judge of the New York State Court of
Appeals, the state’s highest court, Hochul is currently seeking to
install
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Hector LaSalle, who has backed rulings allowing bosses
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sue union leaders. New York Attorney General Letitia James, a rival
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of Hochul’s who explored a primary challenge to the governor in
2022, joined
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nurses on the picket line at Mount Sinai in Manhattan Monday.

Some reports have indicated
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replacement nurses are being offered as much as $9,800 per week to
work at the hospitals during the strike.

==

* New York Nurses' Strike; Strike at Montefiore and Mount Sinai
Hospitals;
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