GNYHA’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Reception, held on May 30 at the Javits Center in Manhattan, celebrated the membership and highlighted the GNYHA/1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East Healthcare Education Project’s (HEP) multi-year Medicaid Equity Now campaign.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of everything you do in helping so many people throughout the metropolitan area,” GNYHA President Kenneth E. Raske told the 1,000+ attendees from across the Association’s membership. “It’s about what you do on a day in day out basis that makes it so special.”
Mr. Raske also paid special tribute to 1199SEIU President George Gresham “who joined me in this labor of passion and love to achieve Medicaid equity for all New Yorkers regardless of their economic status.”
GNYHA President Kenneth E. Raske gives his annual address (at table: Elisabeth Wynn, Dr. Philip Ozuah, and Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy)
Outgoing GNYHA Board of Governors Chair Philip Ozuah, MD, PhD, Montefiore Health System President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), thanked the Board and GNYHA for their support during his tenure, paying homage to Mr. Raske’s “tireless” effort to ensure “the health care system gets the investments it needs most.”
Mr. Raske presented Dr. Ozuah with a plaque commending him for his service during what was another historically challenging year for the health care community.
Incoming GNYHA Board Chair Patrick M. O’Shaughnessy, DO, Catholic Health President & CEO, thanked Dr. Ozuah for his leadership, saying, “You’re a tough act to follow.” New York has the “finest health care community ever assembled,” he said, adding that Mr. Raske and Lee H. Perlman, President, GNYHA Management Corporation, have developed an extraordinary staff at GNYHA.
During the event’s Annual Business Meeting, the 2024-25 GNYHA Board of Governors was duly elected and installed.
Mr. Raske’s annual address highlighted the myriad challenges New York’s health care community continues to face, including post-pandemic staffing issues and hospitals’ anemic financial performance. Additionally, “the pandemic emphasized the disparities in communities of color,” which were worsened by “chronic Medicaid underpayments,” said Mr. Raske. New York’s recently approved Medicaid waiver, which provides $550 million for certain safety net hospitals and $694 million to support retraining and loan repayment initiatives, “provides a long-term solution,” he said.
In giving special recognition to Mr. Gresham, Mr. Raske noted, “I have never seen anybody more committed to achieving health care equity than George Gresham, at great personal sacrifice. George is my hero.”
1199SEIU President George Gresham speaks following special recognition
After thanking Mr. Raske and GNYHA, Mr. Gresham noted that attaining equity “is a civil rights issue” and not just a health care issue. “COVID-19 attacked the weakest within us”—“it was survival of the fittest,” and it must never happen again.
Mr. Perlman hosted a “fireside chat” with Karl Rove, Fox News Commentator and former Deputy Chief of Staff and Special Advisor to President George W. Bush, and Paul Begala, Political Analyst and Commentator, CNN, on the runup to the 2024 elections. The wide-ranging discussion touched on the recently announced verdict in Donald Trump’s New York City trial on hush money payments, the Electoral College, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy, and each party’s chances of winning control of the House and Senate, among other things.
Lee H. Perlman moderates a fireside chat featuring Karl Rove and Paul Begala
Guests enjoy a reception following the annual business meeting