Bill Hammond | The Buffalo Chronicle

New York’s hospital industry ranks near the bottom of two quality report cards

BY BILL HAMMOND New York’s hospitals remained near the bottom of two quality report cards issued last week. In an update to Hospital Compare, a consumer guide from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the state’s hospitals received an

State reduced funding for public health in decade before pandemic

Sharp reductions in state funding for core public health functions over the past decade may have weakened New York’s defenses against the coronavirus pandemic, according to testimony delivered today by Bill Hammond, the Empire Center’s senior fellow for health policy.

HAMMOND: COVID mortality patterns must inform nursing home regulation in New York

BY BILL HAMMOND A closer look at newly released data about coronavirus in New York nursing homes raises questions about what factors contributed to high infection and mortality rates—and what reforms should be adopted in response. A package of bills

Cuomo administration resists sharing records of its vaccine review

BY BILL HAMMOND After second-guessing the FDA with its own vaccine task force, the Cuomo administration is declining to share even basic information about that panel’s approval process until mid-February. Replying to a Freedom of Information Law request from the

Pending pharmacy ‘carve-out’ could increase Medicaid costs rather than controlling them

BY BILL HAMMOND A pending change to New York’s Medicaid program known as the pharmacy “carve-out” is drawing opposition from a range of interests, including insurers, AIDS clinics and the health-care labor union 1199 SEIU. New Yorkers concerned about good

HAMMOND: Cuomo administration ducks important questions on nursing homes

BY BILL HAMMOND A new report from the state Health Department tries to deflect blame for thousands of coronavirus deaths in the state’s nursing homes—but undermines its own case by withholding data and engaging in tendentious analysis. Most glaringly, it

HAMMOND: Fact-checking Mujica’s op-ed

BY BILL HAMMOND A fact-check of the newly published op-ed by state budget director Robert Mujica, defending Governor Cuomo’s Medicaid proposals, shows it to include a number of exaggerated or misleading arguments. The article, published in the Daily News, focuses on Cuomo’s

HAMMOND: Cuomo stalls on Medicaid

BY BILL HAMMOND Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s response to the Empire State’s big Medicaid deficit, as laid out in his budget presentation on Tuesday, was a disappointing mix of delay, deflection and delegation. In an especially concerning development, Cuomo’s budget director, Robert