After Millions in Federal Benefits, Watchdog Pushes Senate Probe of NYC Hospital and ‘Rural’ Designation

FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL — A conservative group is calling for a Senate investigation into nonprofit hospitals, specifically calling out the New York City-based Mount Sinai Health System.

Save Our States noted in a letter Wednesday to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., that Mount Sinai has filed as a rural hospital, which could allow it to gain access to funds intended for rural communities. However, Save Our States stresses that it’s a Manhattan-based hospital system operating in the nation’s most populous city with 8 million people.

Further, in 2024, Mount Sinai reported more than $4.6 billion in revenue, including $571 million from the federal drug-pricing program and government grants totaling nearly $107 million, says a letter from Save Our States Executive Director Trent England to Thune.

“Mount Sinai’s public tax filings from that same year show that its CEO received more than $5.4 million in total compensation, while the former CEO received nearly $7.2 million the previous year,” says the letter to Thune shared with the Daily Signal.

“These staggering funding and compensation figures, paired with its dubious ‘rural’ designation, demand rigorous scrutiny from the Senate,” England later adds. “The public deserves to know whether nonprofit hospitals are using taxpayer-subsidies and government-created advantages to benefit patients or simply to inflate executive compensation and other spending priorities at odds with their charitable mission.”

Save Our States has previously called for congressional investigations into other nonprofit hospitals such as New York Presbyterian and the Cleveland Clinic.

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Last week, the Justice Department reached an agreement with Mount Sinai to require it to end transgender care for minors.

Save Our States launched a six-figure TV ad buy on Wednesday to put Mount Sinai’s track record front and center in D.C.

The ad argues that despite getting more than $100 million in government grants and about $500 million from a federal drug program, Mount Sinai’s credit rating dropped due to a “lack of cash on hand.”

A Mount Sinai Hospital executive has previously defended how the use of the 340B federal drug program has helped fund a clinic for patients who have experienced neurological conditions, such as those following a stroke.

With regard to the downgrade, in 2024, the health system acknowledged a “confluence of unexpected events and significant ongoing operating challenges,” and said it undertook restructuring measures intended to address sustained losses and underutilization.

The ad also focuses on almost 15,000 frontline workers walking off the job in New York City’s largest nurses’ strike earlier this year, calling for safer staffing and better health benefits.

A January statement from the hospital, when the New York State Nurses Association strike began, said: “Unfortunately, NYSNA decided to move forward with its strike while refusing to move on from its extreme economic demands, which we cannot agree to, but we are ready with 1,400 qualified and specialized nurses – and prepared to continue to provide safe patient care for as long as this strike lasts.”

Save Our States will also launch the ad across New York City in a targeted digital campaign.

In June, the advocacy group released the Nonprofit Hospital Accountability Report that reviewed 14 tax-exempt hospital systems, including Mount Sinai.

New York-Presbyterian was another New York hospital in the report.