New cancer center coming to Jamaica, Queens as NY state backs projects to help low-income patients

A new cancer center is coming to Jamaica, Queens as part of a partnership between Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with the help of up to $188 million in funding from the state.

The Queens cancer center is one of seven new health care projects Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on Friday. The projects make up the first slate of initiatives that will be funded through a program the state launched last year to incentivize hospitals that serve large shares of low-income patients to partner with other health care facilities on “transformation” projects to improve care. The state budget proposal Hochul unveiled on Tuesday includes funding to expand the program further, as part of a broader effort to invest in New York’s financially struggling hospitals.

Hochul is looking to include up to $1 billion in capital funding and $300 million in operational support for the Safety Net Hospital Transformation Program in the 2025-2026 fiscal year. The funds would build on the $800 million allocated to the program for 2024-2025.

“Every person should have access to affordable, reliable health care regardless of the ZIP code they live in, and these investments will bring vital resources to underserved New Yorkers,” Hochul said in a statement on the projects that already received funding through the program.

The clinical partnership between Jamaica Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering aims to improve cancer care in Queens while allowing Jamaica to refer patients to Memorial Sloan Kettering for advanced therapy or clinical trials, according to the announcement.

The investment in the new cancer center “ensures that Queens residents will have access to cutting-edge cancer care close to home,” said state Sen. Leroy Comrie, who represents Jamaica and other parts of Queens.

The state is also investing up to $188 million in a project that will upgrade the emergency department at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx and facilitate a collaboration with other providers in the area on efforts to improve patient outcomes.

The state has not announced a timeframe for when those projects will be completed.

In addition to clinical partnerships, the Safety Net Hospital Transformation Program incentivizes mergers and acquisitions, which could further health care industry consolidation if hospitals go that route.

In her executive budget, Hochul cited the program as just one piece of a broader state effort to prop up financially struggling hospitals and maintain care for low-income communities. It’s a perennial concern that predates Hochul — but according to her executive budget, state support for these hospitals is growing.

Of New York’s 261 hospitals, 75 are considered “financially distressed” and overall spending on these hospitals through a variety of supplemental payment programs totaled about $3.5 billion last year — more than six times the spending on financially distressed hospitals in fiscal year 2017, according to Hochul’s executive budget.

Hospitals that serve lower-income patients are more reliant on Medicaid, which generally pays lower rates than commercial insurance. The rising cost of drugs, labor and supplies has also contributed to increased financial precarity overall among New York hospitals, according to a survey released by the Healthcare Association of New York State in November.

Some of the state funding for financially distressed hospitals goes directly toward operating costs. Hochul is seeking to include $100 million in operating support for Brooklyn’s SUNY Downstate Hospital in the coming fiscal year, on top of the $100 million allocated in last year’s budget. Hochul is also proposing $450 million in capital funds for the hospital campus.

But it remains unclear exactly what that capital funding will go toward. Last year, Hochul threw her weight behind a plan to close SUNY Downstate and replace it with an outpatient center, but that plan was scrapped amid community opposition. An advisory board is now working on a new recommendation for the hospital’s future and will hold its first public hearing in Brooklyn on Wednesday evening.