The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has agreed to reimburse New York City's public hospitals nearly $1 billion for treating Covid patients in spring 2020.
New York Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Ritchie Torres announced the news at a press conference on Wednesday outside of Lincoln Hospital - one of the city's 11 public hospitals - in the Bronx, reported The New York Times.
The first wave that struck the Big Apple was the city's most devastating, sending cases rising and seeing hospitalizations and deaths reach record-high levels.
Officials say the money will cover the costs hospitals made by hiring additional staff, buying more equipment, stocking up on personal protective equipment and expanding capacity to treat the surge of patients.
FEMA has agreed to reimburse New York City's public hospitals nearly $1 billion for treating Covid patients in spring 2020, during which hospitalizations at 1,791 on March 31 (above)
NYC Health + Hospital asked FEMA in October 2020 for compensation of $864 million but, at the time, FEMA said it would only reimburse $260 million because H+H had allegedly included costs unrelated to COVID-19. Pictured: COVID-19 patients are taken into to the Wakefield Campus of the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City, April 2020
The system, NYC Health + Hospital (H+H), asked FEMA in October 2020 for compensation of $864 million to cover the spring 2020 costs.
However, in March 2021, FEMA said it would only reimburse $260 million, only about one-third of the request.
The federal agency claimed this was because the system had included costs unrelated to COVID-19.
FEMA claimed that coronavirus-related hospital expansion
