A group of mostly Long Beach residents filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency over South Nassau Communities Hospital’s proposed use of $154 million in funds that it was awarded after it acquired the former Long Beach Medical Center, according to an article on the Long Island Herald website.
South Nassau has earmarked the bulk of the funding for an expansion of its Oceanside campus, while planning to use $40 million to construct a medical pavilion with an emergency department on the former Long Beach Medical Center property.
Long Beach Medical Center was badly damaged in Hurricane Sandy, and despite efforts to reopen, the state Health Department pressured the cash-strapped facility to declare bankruptcy and merge with SNCH.
South Nassau was awarded the FEMA funding when it acquired LBMC in 2014 for $11.8 million in a bankruptcy sale. The deal hinged on an agreement between South Nassau and FEMA, which pledged to release the Sandy aid to South Nassau to redevelop healthcare services in Long Beach and surrounding communities.