(NYTIMES) — A financially troubled hospital serving a largely African-American and Caribbean niche of central Brooklyn is planning to declare bankruptcy this week, hospital officials said on Sunday, raising concerns that New York State may force it to close or merge with another institution.
The hospital, Interfaith Medical Center, serving Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, has been in and out of financial trouble for decades, with its survival dependent on infusions of state aid. In difficult economic times, however, the Cuomo administration has not indicated a willingness to continue bailing out failing hospitals.
James Introne, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s deputy secretary for health, when asked on Friday about the possibility of an Interfaith bankruptcy filing, said he was not aware of it, but he said, “That’s their decision, not ours.”
