Atzrott

TOWN OF NEWBURGH – St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital, with campuses in the City of Newburgh and Cornwall, continues to make great strides with new technologies, facilities and its staff, but “the perfect storm is brewing,” hospital President Allan Atzrott told business leaders Friday.

Speaking at his seventh annual president’s breakfast, Atzrott pointed to the hospital’s advances in joint replacement, cardiac care, pending angioplasty approval, patient room renovations and the start of construction of a comprehensive cancer treatment center in Cornwall and a non-urgent care facility in Fishkill.

But, he warned of federal Medicare reimbursement rates remaining low, $21 million in charity care, the lack of state regulation of the health insurance industry and the inequities of reimbursement rates and malpractice insurance placed on SLCH and its doctors.

“My automobile insurance, my life insurance, my homeowner’s insurance, are all covered under the superintendant of insurance of the State of New York,” he said. “Health insurance is not, it’s not regulated. And so, the health insurance companies have a $5 billion excess of reserve.”

Atzrott said the hospital lost $2.7 million from operations in 2007, but was able to turn a profit because of philanthropy of the community and prudent investments. And the CEO endorsed Governor Paterson’s local government efficiency commission report which called for studies into shared or merged municipal services as a means of reducing costs to the community.