Water bill scofflaws beware: The city wants you to pay up - or else.The top three offenders in Queens identified by the DEP are all hospitals.
Scofflaws in hot water with city
Leading the Queens list was Caritas Health Care - better known as Mary Immaculate Hospital - which owes more than $1.1 million in unpaid water bills.
"We are working with the DEP to resolve the issue," Juliette Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Jamaica-based hospital said, declining to discuss details.
But officials from the two other hospitals disputed their places on the list.
Parkway Hospital - second on the deadbeat list - was threatened with closure in 2006.
"We emerged from our bankruptcy on Feb. 28," said Fred Stewart, a Parkway executive. "[The bill] would had to have been satisfied for us to come out of bankruptcy."
Officials at Flushing Hospital - No. 3 on the list - said they stopped paying their bill because they believed the facility was being overcharged.
"The situation was just recently rectified, and approximately $250,000 of erroneous charges have been credited to the hospital, allowing us to now make the appropriate payments," said Michael Hinck, the hospital's associate director of public affairs.
3 comments:
With all the tweeding programs to draw off resources to people that the machine wants here, its little doubt that for the foreseeable future, every institution in Queens will be overtaxed and in trouble.
Just go to the typical ER at a Queens hospital and see something that resembles a National Geograhic photo. All that is missing is the goat tied up in the corner and a basket of chicens to barter.
ER at Queens Hosp is a nightmare. I went 2 years back when I had a high fever. It took 14 hours of waiting for me to get treated! I actually went home, took a nap, and then came back, and still had to wait more. Thank god I have good health coverage now.
I do have to say though that the Queens Hosp doc who treated me was nice and professional. I can't say the same for the patient next to me who was spitting on the floor.
Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink. My brother spent some time in Parkway Hospital, and had to depend on family members or ambulatory patients to get him drinking water. The staff was "too busy" with other things. Where is all this water going? Perhaps washing off the tables in the morgue where many patients wind up after the poor care they receive.
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