Hospitals in New York State will see cuts of $775 million in an emergency spending bill passed by the legislature.

The cuts were in a measure proposed by Governor David Patterson aimed at breaking a deadlock over a state budget.

The state has been operating under a series of weekly emergency spending bills since April 1.

Most of the cost reduction is in the Medicaid program, along with reductions in the trend factor for hospitals and nursing homes and cuts in indigent care funding. 

Hospital officials say that the cuts will cause them to reduce staffing and will therefore adversely affect patient care. 

According to the Healthcare Association of New York State, the budget action was the seventh in just two years that cut funding to New York’s health care providers, bringing the total to more than $5 billion.

“Health care providers have done more than their fair share in shouldering the burden of resolving the state’s fiscal woes,” HANYS’ President Daniel Sisto said in a statement. “State leaders need to understand that any additional cuts and taxes will translate directly to more layoffs, loss of critical health care services, and the closure of health care institutions.”