Category Archives: Health

Health, Social Services

Are New York City’s Part-Time, Low-Income Workers More Reliant On Medicaid than Similar Workers in Other Parts of the State?

More than half (51.3 percent) of the state’s lowest income part-time workers—those with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level—resided in New York City in 2012.

  • A greater reliance on Medicaid among New York City’s lowest income part-time workers may be linked to their lower rate of enrollment in employer-sponsored health insurance compared with the rest of the state.
  • A smaller share of low-income, part-time workers was uninsured in the city than in the downstate suburbs. But an even smaller share of these workers was uninsured upstate, where the rate of enrollment in employer-sponsored health insurance was highest in the state.

For more details on regional differences in health insurance coverage across New York State, see IBO’s recent report “Medicaid, Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance & the Uninsured in New York: Regional Differences in Health Insurance Coverage.”

New York City Independent Budget Office

SOURCE: American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample 2012
NOTES: Percentages do not sum to 100. Direct purchase insurance and Medicare are excluded, and individuals may have both employer-sponsored health insurance and Medicaid. The federal poverty level for a family of four in 2012 was about $23,500.

Print version available here.

New York City By The Numbers

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Correction, Criminal Justice, Health

How Many Mentally Ill Inmates Are in City Jails? How Does This Compare with the Capacity of the City’s Psychiatric Facilities?

  • Of the daily average of 11,827 inmates in New York City jails, 37 percent, or 4,376 inmates on any given day, had a mental health diagnosis.
  • The combined capacity of all New York City inpatient psychiatric facilities is only slightly higher at 4,518.

Prepared by Christina Fiorentini and Nashla Rivas Salas
New York City Independent Budget Office

SOURCES: Mayor’s Management Report Fiscal 2013; New York State Division of Budget; New York State Office of Mental Health

Print version available here.

New York City By The Numbers

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Health, Hospitals, Medicare

Will New York City Hospitals That Treat Many Low-Income Patients Face The Heaviest Penalties Under New Federal Reimbursement Policies?

Two new federal policies tying Medicare reimbursements to quality of care took effect in October 2012. Hospitals are now penalized for excess readmissions. An additional penalty or bonus can be awarded, based on adherence to clinical standards and ratings on patient surveys.

Hospitals that serve the city’s poor−public hospitals and private safety-net hospitals−generally face heavier penalties than other hospitals. Penalties for 8 out of 12 public hospitals and 4 out of 6 safety-net hospitals exceed the citywide average of 0.97 percent of reimbursements.

Medicare accounts for $777 million of expected inpatient revenues in 2013 at Health & Hospitals Corporation facilities, about 30 percent of all anticipated inpatient revenues, ranging from $21 million at North Central Bronx Hospital to $112 million at Bellevue.

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SOURCES: United Hospital Fund; U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
NOTES: Some hospitals have more than one campus, but penalties/bonuses are systemwide. Private safety-net hospitals, as defined by the United Hospital Fund (UHF), are those where Medicaid and uninsured patients comprised more than 50 percent of admissions, other than births, in 2008.

Prepared by Christina Fiorentini
New York City Independent Budget Office

PDF version here.

New York City By The Numbers IBO Homepage