The Chutzpah Is Endemic

Are state hospitals mimicking the Yankees by retaining public relations firms to lobby the public? It looks that way:

Panic is setting in among New York’s money-hemorrhaging hospitals as Governor Pataki’s health care commission nears completion of a first draft of proposals for revamping the state’s troubled health industry.

Late next week, commission members are set to receive confidential advisory reports that will likely include lists of hospitals and nursing homes marked for downsizing or closure. Although the reports are nonbinding, they represent the first time the commission is formally considering recommendations and are the object of intense speculation and fear in the industry.

. . .

In preparation for worst-case scenarios, hospitals are quietly retaining lobbying and public relations firms and reaching out to local lawmakers for support, according to advisers to the commission.

The behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the hospitals is expected to give way to a full-scale campaign, entailing television advertising, protests, and lawsuits, that could be coordinated with the expected return of lawmakers to Albany after the November elections for a special session.

. . .

“They are not coming out and holding press conferences,” a member of a regional advisory committee said. “They are preparing themselves to attack the commission, to take legal action, and to lobby, lobby, lobby.” One struggling downtown hospital has hired the lobbying firm of a former senator, Alfonse D’Amato, according to the committee member, who did not wish to be identified because of the confidential nature of the commission’s work.