All topics / Health and Human Services / NYC Health + Hospitals
Uninsured patients served
Provide medical, mental health and substance abuse services to New York City residents regardless of their ability to pay. — Expand access to care.
Two distinct, documented factors drive this swing. First, the FY22-to-FY23 drop is mostly a reporting change: H+H's own notes say the methodology switched to exclude insured patients who received non-billable services, which had previously "artificially inflated" the count, making FY22 and later years not directly comparable. Second, the decline after FY24 reflects New York State Medicaid expansions -- including continuous eligibility for children under six and Medicaid coverage for New Yorkers 65+ regardless of immigration status -- plus the correction of a temporary inflation in FY24's figure caused by a February 2024 cyberattack on a health care claims/insurance-eligibility vendor that disrupted insurance verification system-wide.
Researched July 16, 2026 — NYC Health + Hospitals, Fiscal 2023 Mayor's Management Report, NYC Health + Hospitals, Fiscal 2025 Mayor's Management Report
* Year to date — this fiscal year isn't complete, so it's not compared against prior years in the target/trend status above.
View as table
| Fiscal year | Actual |
|---|---|
| FY22 | 391,810 patients |
| FY23 | 219,943 patients |
| FY24 | 249,785 patients |
| FY25 | 231,368 patients |
| FY26 (YTD) | Not available |
Why this is tracked
New York State created the Health and Hospitals Corporation in 1969 (Chapter 1016 of the Laws of 1969) to take over the city's public hospitals from the Department of Hospitals, which it did in June 1970. Structuring it as a quasi-independent public benefit corporation, rather than a standard city department, freed it from direct control by the City's budget agency and let it collect its own revenue and make its own purchasing decisions — while the City retained ownership of the facilities. That structure exists because the system's core mission — treating all New Yorkers regardless of ability to pay — depends on financial flexibility a typical city department doesn't have.
History of New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation — FundingUniverse, NYC Health + Hospitals — Wikipedia
Source: Division of Finance — via NYC Open Data: Mayor's Management Report, Agency Performance Indicators
Coverage shown: FY22–FY26, reported pmmr/mmr.
Definition: The number of unique patients with at least one encounter in the reporting period with a primary financial class of “Self Pay.” It includes patients who are uninsured and enrolled in an NYC H+H financial assistance program, including NYC Care and H+H Options.