\u201cThe hospital never came forward and told us they didn\u2019t pay, the benefits fund communicated [in mid-January] that the last three payments were in arrears, that we wouldn\u2019t be getting benefits from February 1,\u201d said Marcelle Willock, a nurse and case manager who has worked at TBHC for 17 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BrooklynHospitalCenter_NursesRally_031726-9.jpg\")
NYSNA nurses rallied outside The Brooklyn Hospital Center on Tuesday, demanding hospital administrators reinstate nurses\u2019 health benefits. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n
For 40 days, nurses were without healthcare and retirement benefits, Willock said. Hospital CEO Gary Terrinoni told nurses their coverage would be restored as soon as the hospital received a cash infusion from Albany, multiple nurses told Brooklyn Paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Gov. Kathy Hochul provided $15 million to the hospital, but executives did not immediately restore nurses\u2019 benefits. On March 16, TBHC made a payment to the benefits fund to reinstate coverage, union representatives said, but it was only enough to provide benefits until April 30. Come May 1, they fear they\u2019ll be left without insurance once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018The nurses refuse to be pawns\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cCEO [Gary] Terronini is playing a dangerous game with the hospital\u2019s finances, and the nurses refuse to be pawns,\u201d said TBCH nurse Debra Ambrose at the March 17 rally. \u201cWe are here to demand hospital administrators restore and secure our benefits now. We don\u2019t want to be back here without our benefits. We are sick and tired of this bullshit over and over and over.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The health insurance nurses receive through TBHC is comprehensive, Willock said, and many nurses rely on it to treat ailments they pick up on the job. The nurses sometimes pick up contagious diseases like flu and RSV from patients, she said. Some need physical therapy for back pain \u2014 a common<\/a> issue among healthcare workers who frequently need to move and reposition patients.\u00a0<\/p>\n Willock herself has had to forego medical care since the lapse began because she would have had to pay out-of-pocket, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a strain, not just on the nurses, on their families as well,\u201d Willock said.\n<\/p>\n Michelle Lopez, a nurse educator who has worked at TBHC for three years, suffers from asthma, she said. So do her children, who are covered on her health insurance. Since February, Lopez has been paying $250 per month for their medications.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s another bill that you normally don\u2019t have to consider,\u201d she said. \u201cIn New York, everything is so expensive, we don\u2019t need anything in addition to pay. It\u2019s rough.\u201d<\/p>\n While NYSNA nurses went without insurance, TBHC continued to pay benefits for members of other unions at the hospital, including 1199SEIU and the Committee of Interns and Residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n An SEIU representative confirmed that SEIU members at TBHC had not lost their benefits, which include free health insurance and a pension. CIR did not immediately return a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Brooklyn Hospital Center faces significant financial issues<\/p>\n In a statement, 1199SEIU vice president Adekemi Gray said that while benefits for that union are stable for now, \u201cuncertainty persists at TBHC and other community hospitals that are facing severe financial difficulties because of the Trump administration\u2019s massive defunding of healthcare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe will continue working with hospital management to help ensure there is no disruption of benefits for these dedicated caregivers,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n A safety-net hospital where more than 80% of patients are insured by Medicaid and Medicare, TBHC has struggled financially for years.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n In 2024, TBHC lost $31 million, according to tax filings<\/a> published by ProPublica. An independent audit of the hospital\u2019s finances in 2023 and 2024 said there was \u201csubstantial doubt\u201d about the hospital\u2019s ability to keep functioning.\u00a0 Last fall, TBHC requested a $160 million cash infusion<\/a> from Albany as Terrinoni warned the hospital was considering filing for bankruptcy.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear if the state plans to provide more than the $15 million it spent this month, and representatives for Hochul did not return request for comment. TBHC is far from the only local safety-net hospital struggling to make ends meet and seeking help from the state. Last year, Hochul agreed to invest $750 million<\/a> to save\u00a0 SUNY Downstate, which had been at risk of closing after years of financial struggles. Maimonides Medical Center<\/a> in Borough Park is in the midst of merging with NYC Health+Hospitals, primarily so it can receive higher Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates available to public hospitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n Seeing TBHC\u2019s financial struggles, nurses said they were increasingly frustrated by high salaries paid to Terrinoni and other executives.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cIn a safety-net hospital, how do you explain $8 million to the top executives, and yet he\u2019s walking around telling the nurses, \u2018When we get the money from the state, we\u2019ll pay you,\u2019\u201d said NYSNA president Nancy Hagans. \u201cYou got the money, $15 million, last week. So pay up!\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Where\u2019s the money, Gary?\u2019<\/p>\n The nurses took their fight directly to Terrinoni\u2019s front door on Tuesday, marching from the hospital to the condo city records show he purchased for $2.3 million in 2021. Waving signs that said \u201cHands off our healthcare\u201d and \u201cNurses deserve good health benefits\u201d and accompanied by a small band, the nurse parade drew supportive whoops and honks from passersby and drivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brandishing a megaphone, TBHC nurse Rehana Lowtan called up, \u201cWhere\u2019s the money, Gary?\u201d \u201cNow you\u2019ve got the money, it\u2019s time to follow through on your commitment to reinstate and secure our benefits,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe work hard, we care about the hospital and the community. But we can\u2019t put the health and lives of the nurses and our families at risk any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, in a red NYSNA hat, criticized hospital executives for proselytizing the importance of healthcare while stripping benefits from their nurses.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not just, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re a poor little hospital that\u2019s suffering and we can\u2019t make it happen.\u2019 That\u2019s not what we do in this city,\u201d Reynoso said. \u201cThe CEO\u2019s job is to figure out creative ways to make it work. If you can\u2019t make it work, maybe you shouldn\u2019t be the CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n The Brooklyn Hospital Center did not respond to multiple requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the rally, nurses trooped back to the hospital to resume their shifts. Though they are dedicated to their jobs, Lowtan told Brooklyn Paper, many nurses feel their trust in the hospital has been eroded. They\u2019re worried that it will fail to keep paying into the benefit fund after May 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of us here, myself included, have been long-term employees of this institution. We\u2019ve been through two bankruptcies and never had a lapse in healthcare coverage,\u201d she said. \u201cTo not be in that kind of financial strain and to have a lapse in healthcare coverage, what are you doing with the money?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n NYSNA has filed an unfair labor complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, Lowtan said, since the lapse in coverage violates the union\u2019s newest contract. They are still waiting to hear back.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven today while doing my regular rounds, meeting with the nurses, a lot of them have expressed that they have no confidence in this institution and why should they even stay here when they feel so underappreciated and disrespected by the management here,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six weeks after they abruptly lost their healthcare benefits, nurses at The Brooklyn Hospital Center marched on their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[68576,98,100,99,68577,3076,2969,68578,2953,45284,6851,4429,1948,68579,7050,2517,44502,9,24,37502,12,370,23187,63,38979,6986,7153,68580,68581,44506],"class_list":["post-167215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-1199seiu","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-debra-ambrose","tag-downtown-brooklyn","tag-funding","tag-gary-terrinoni","tag-health","tag-health-benefits","tag-health-insurance","tag-healthcare","tag-hospitals","tag-marcelle-willock","tag-medicaid","tag-medicare","tag-nancy-hagans","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state-nurses-association","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nurses","tag-nyc","tag-nysna","tag-protest","tag-rally","tag-rehana-lowtan","tag-safety-net-hospital","tag-the-brooklyn-hospital-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BrooklynHospitalCenter_NursesRally_031726-10.jpg\")
TBHC nurse leader Debra Ambrose said nurses \u2018refuse to be pawns.\u2019 Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BrooklynHospitalCenter_NursesRally_031726-25.jpg\")
Nurses said they have been forced to pay for healthcare out-of-pocket for six weeks. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BrooklynHospitalCenter_NursesRally_031726-26.jpg\")
TBHC has long dealt with significant financial issues. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n
\n![\"TBHC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BrooklynHospitalCenter_NursesRally_031726-16.jpg\")
Brooklyn Hospital Center NYSNA nurses marched to CEO Gary Terrinoni\u2019s condo in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann\n<\/p>\n![\"reynoso](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BrooklynHospitalCenter_NursesRally_031726-22.jpg\")
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso slammed TBHC executives. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/BrooklynHospitalCenter_NursesRally_031726-20.jpg\")
Brooklyn Hospital Center NYSNA nurses rally outside CEO Gary Terrinoni\u2019s condo in Downtown Brooklyn, demanding he reinstate nurses\u2019 health benefits. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n