Spitzer Appoints Richard Daines as Health Commissioner
The New York Sun is reporting that Eliot Spitzer will appoint Richard Daines as the Health Commissioner. Daines will be in charge of implementing the Berger Commission Recommendations . . .
Anyone know anything about him?
Dr. Daines will play a crucial role in the Spitzer administration, being placed in charge of carrying out Mr. Spitzer's sweeping health care agenda. Mr. Spitzer has vowed to cut costs in health care and extend health coverage to hundreds of thousands more children. He has called for putting more focus on managing chronic diseases and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.
Most important, the commissioner will be responsible for executing the recommendations made by the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, which called for the closure of five city hospitals and four upstate hospitals and proposed plans for mergers and conversions of 48 hospitals.
It's a complicated task that is sure to attract criticism from industry opponents of the commission's plan. The recommendations became law on January 1 and are required to be implemented within 18 months.
Turns out Richard Daines is the CEO of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan. According to the article in today's NYT, Daines is associated with Continuum Health Partners, the parent company of St. Luke's-Roosevelt, which has appparently survived well in the statewide downsizing plan.
Although cost cutting has featured prominently in Spitzer's agenda to date, the new health commissioner needs to have more in mind than that. There is a serious mismatch between community needs and health care services in New York that the Department of Health must take steps to fix. A series of decisions by the Department of Health about where to allow hospitals to open and close has made health care increasingly inaccessible and unequal for a growing number of New Yorkers.
Many neighborhoods with the highest health care needs, disproportionately low-income and communities of color, also have the fewest health care resources. These patterns violate the state, federal, and international laws protecting the right to health care. The new Commissioner of Health should takes steps to reinstate community based health planning and ensure that all New Yorkers have equal access to high quality health care.