Metro

City’s $7B municipal hospital system can barely pay its bills

The city’s $7 billion municipal hospital system will barely have enough cash on hand to pay its bills by the end of the fiscal year, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli warned Tuesday.

In an otherwise upbeat report on the city’s budget, DiNapoli found that NYC Health + Hospitals — formerly the Health and Hospitals Corp. — faces “serious financial challenges” despite unprecedented support from the de Blasio ­administration.

DiNapoli said NYC Health + Hospitals’ deficit will nearly double over the next three years to reach $2 billion by 2019 — a startling figure given that the deficit projection for the entire city that year is $2.9 billion.

The dour prognosis comes on the heels of a state Financial Control Board review that similarly labeled the hospitals a “significant risk” to the city’s ­financial plan.

City Hall and hospital officials attributed much of the funding challenge to the high proportion of uninsured patients served by the 11 public hospitals.