Neither the city, the state nor the federal government are providing funds to support the costs tied to the migrant influx, which is placing a significant strain on hospital staff and resources, president and CEO Robert Transchel, MD, said in a Feb. 5 interview on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
“We’ve provided $20 million in care to the migrants that are crossing the border and we just don’t have a payer source for those individuals,” Dr. Transchel said. “It’s not a sustainable model to have these continued rising expenses without a revenue source to offset that.”
Dr. Transchel added that the $20 million care cost does not account for flight costs and expenses associated with increased staffing. He said migrant patients have been the hospital’s only patients to receive free care.
“We’re fine today, and we’ll be fine tomorrow. The problem is, if this continues, it’s gonna build up, and it’s gonna continue to be a problem,” Dr. Transchel told Fox.
