(JTA) — Yeshiva University said it will soon transfer the operations and finances of its medical school to the Montefiore Health System, contradicting reports that a deal had fallen apart.
“Building on the agreement originally announced in May, the Boards of Trustees of Montefiore Health System and Yeshiva University announced today that they have agreed on the principal terms of an agreement with respect to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine,” read a statement released jointly by Y.U. and Montefiore Health System on Tuesday.
The statement adds that “Montefiore and Yeshiva look forward to sharing further details about this historic agreement in the months ahead,” signaling that a deal may not be completely finished for a few months.
A Y.U. spokesman told JTA that the deal is “not finalized and will be completed as soon as practicable.”
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine accounts for an estimated two-thirds of Y.U.’s deficit, which in recent years has reached $100 million. In May, Y.U. and Montefiore announced the initial agreement, which would allow Y.U. to shed the medical school’s financial burden. However, as of this week, hopes of a deal seemed slim. A Moody’s report from December warned that the collapse of a deal could lead Y.U. to run out of money before it addressed its deficits.
In an email to the campus community, Y.U. President Richard Joel wrote that the prospective agreement “will help to propel YU toward its goal of stabilizing its finances within the next three years.”
Einstein faculty and students had been worried in recent months that the medical school’s research programs would have to be shut down to save costs, the Forward reported.
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