Town Hall On Neponsit Adult Day Health Care Gives Little Hope

By Katie McFadden

The Neponsit Adult Day Health Care may potentially close at the end of the month. While registrants, caretakers, staff, community leaders and elected officials have been pleading the case for why it needs to remain open, at a recent town hall, NYC Health and Hospitals gave little hope about its future, instead explaining the reasons for why the closure is necessary, despite the center being a necessity to many. But ultimately, the New York State Department of Health will have the ultimate say.

Since 1988, the Neponsit Adult Day Health Center (NADHC), located at 230 Beach 102nd Street, has been serving Rockaway’s seniors with services like nursing, physical therapy, nutrition assessment, occupational therapy, medical social services, psychosocial assessment, rehabilitation and socialization, as the only medical adult day center on the peninsula.

However, citing a lack of funding and low enrollment, in July 2024, NYC Health and Hospitals (HHC) submitted a closure plan to the NYS Department of Health (NYSDOH). In October 2024, NYSDOH approved that plan and clients and staff started to receive the bad news by early November.

As many clients live in District 31, Councilwoman Selvena Brooks-Powers organized a town hall, in partnership with Councilwoman Joann Ariola, Senator James Sanders and Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato on Wednesday, March 5 at the Rockaway YMCA, to advocate on behalf of keeping the facility open. Brooks-Powers began saying, “Tonight is about transparency, accountability and finding solutions. We want to explore every possible path to keep this essential facility open,” adding that she and her colleagues sent a letter to NYSDOH, urging them to keep it open, and that she would be testifying at a NYC Council Budget Hearing on Hospitals, to urge the city to allocate funding for the site.

However, what attendees, including caregivers, former staff members and others were greeted with last Wednesday, was a PowerPoint presentation from David Weinstein, Chief Executive Officer for NYC Health and Hospitals/McKinney, outlining the reasons for the closure and the options for seniors who will no longer have a medical adult day center on the peninsula. “I come across as critical and transparent and very concerned about what’s going on,” Weinstein said. “I’ve worked over 40 years in long-term care. This is an emotional time for everyone including our registrants and their families. We don’t take this lightly. This is a big move for us to make and we’ve done our homework to help you understand why we’re closing and most importantly, there are options. We’re not closing because we don’t think this program is necessary. It’s clear it’s necessary. Medical models are needed but the financial viability is not there.”

Weinstein explained that medical adult day programs have seen a trend of closures across the state. He explained that it started around 2012, when New York implemented Managed Long-Term Care (MLTC). For insurance, adult day health programs like Neponsit only accept MLTCs, Medicaid Fee-for Service and private pay. Most Neponsit registrants are enrolled under MLTCs. But Weinstein says MLTC programs aren’t contracting with medical day care centers as much now, opting to contract more with social day care models. In 2017, Neponsit had 11 contracts with MLTCs, but as of 2025, only six remain, making it difficult for people to qualify for the program at Neponsit.

As a result, Weinstein says this led to limited enrollment. The program at Neponsit has capacity for 50 registrants a day, but on average they only have about 15 a day, as they only have 36 registrants total, who attend on average two days a week.  The enrollment issue was made worse due to Covid, which forced the closure of these medical day care centers. “Before Covid, there were 116 medical model day cares in New York. When the health department said they could reopen in 2021, only 53 reopened. In July 2024, there were only 15 in the entire city. As of 2025, there are only 11 left. We’re one of them,” Weinstein said. Neponsit didn’t reopen until August 2022.

Weinstein claims after reopening, they attempted to ramp up marketing to draw in more potential registrants. “This used to be much more of a community-based referral system at senior centers and social day cares and local housing projects, but we had paid ads going out,” he said. He said an attempt was made to distribute marketing materials at physical therapy centers, St. John’s Hospital, Northwell Health, ads were placed in newspapers, and staff made phone calls to try to attract potential clients. But despite those efforts, not everyone was qualified either due to medical reasons or their insurance. “When we reopened, we had 126 knocks on the door from people inquiring about the program. Of the 126, only 26 got approved. That’s what’s driving this problem. I don’t have the solution. There was a fair amount of outreach but ultimately, we realized it was time to close,” Weinstein said.

With that, Weinstein spoke about the options available to their current registrants. He referenced six other medical adult day care facilities, including Palm Garden, Bainbridge, Four Seasons Lakeside, Four Seasons Sunrise and Centers in Brooklyn, and Franklin in Queens. He also encouraged people to explore local social day care models like Tri-Med in Far Rockaway and South Richmond Hill, Genesis in Rockaway Park, Heritage in Rockaway Beach, Rockaway Social Day Center and Seagirt Adult Daycare in Far Rockaway and JASA in Far Rockaway and Rockaway Park.

When the floor opened up to comments and questions, many expressed that those options aren’t satisfactory for their loved ones, many of whom live with dementia or Alzheimer’s or other restrictive medical conditions that makes traveling far to the other medical centers difficult, and the local social centers don’t meet their medical needs.

Many criticized HHC for not doing enough to try to keep Neponsit open, citing times when friends and family attempted to enroll but were told Neponsit wasn’t taking new registrants when they reopened after Covid, and earlier attempts to close the center prior to Covid. Felicia Johnson, district manager for Community Board 14 who spent 35 years prior working in social work on the peninsula, expressed concern over the claims of doing enough outreach. “With over 5,000 nursing home beds on this peninsula, how is it that you’re not able to find enough people to register for this program?”

Andrew Falzon, whose late father with dementia used to attend the program, asked a question with an answer that seemed to crush any hope of saving it. “How many people does the program need to be viable?” Falzon asked. “It’s never going to be viable,” Weinstein said. Councilwoman Ariola asked, “Why not?” Weinstein responded, “Even if I get 120 more people to join and get the total registrants to the capacity of 150, averaging 50 registrants a day, the program would still lose half a million dollars a year. All of these programs are going to close.”

Weinstein reiterated again that ultimately the decision to close is up to the NYS Department of Health. In the meantime, local elected officials vow to do what they can on the state and city levels to keep fighting for the Neponsit Adult Day Health Center.