Open Door to 'Fight Like Hell' Against $500K Funding Cut

A few weeks ago, leaders from three local health centers headed to the Westchester County offices in White Plains.

They had been invited by County Executive Rob Astorino and were asked to bring financial statements from each of their organizations. Astorino wasn't there, but members of his staff met with the health leaders for what was "a pretty lengthy meeting," said Lindsay Farrell, president of Open Door Medical Centers.

Farrell left the meeting thinking Astorino's team would work with her organization, as county leaders have done in the past. Then she saw Astorino's budget presentation, which mentioned her salary before proposing the county cut all funding to Open Door and similar organizations.

"I thought that was so below the belt," said Farrell. "We're highly regulated. We run very large operations, and our compensation is appropriate."

A handful of staff members at Open Door, mostly physicians, make six-figure salaries. Farrell earned $253,000 in 2009, according to the latest Form 990 filed with the IRS.

"Our boards are very involved, and our boards make those compensation decisions," Farrell said. "Obviously we discussed all of this with him, so I was disheartened by the way he put that out there."

But Farrell said she's more concerned by the budget cuts, and the potential impact in places like Port Chester.

Open Door has received between $525,000 and $550,000 in funds from Westchester County in recent years. The funds are used to provide things like flu shots and screening for sexually transmitted diseases, services Farrell said are mandated by New York State law.

Those services were provided by the county until the late 1990s, when the county's Department of Health closed several of its own clinics because their services were redundant in towns served by organizations like Open Door.

"It'll be a significant funding cut that could result in reduced access for services," Farrell said. "Obviously we're going to fight like hell and we're going to reach out to our legislators."