As hospitals across New York are facing ongoing financial problems in the more than two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday said more aid is possible for them in the state budget due at the end of March. 

But she added the networks may have to open their books. 

"We're going to be able to help to a certain degree," she said during a news conference in Albany, "but we also have to take a good look at all of our hospitals and say before you get a substantial amount of money, let's look at how you're managing your finances as well."

A survey of hospitals released this week painted a bleak picture of their finances: Most are operating on negative budgets and many say patient care could be affected. 

Hochul acknowledged hospitals are struggling with issues that date back to the start of the pandemic, when they were initially ordered to end elective surgeries, costing them money in the process. 

"We did give substantial assistance to all levels of health care, but particularly our hospitals who lost revenues during the pandemic," she said.

Nearly every hospital is experiencing financial complications heading into the new year. 

"It really is affecting large, small, urban, rural, across the board. Part of this is because it's a national problem as well," said Bea Grause, the president and CEO of the Healthcare Association of New York State. 

A primary cause is a shortage of workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Workforce woes have led hospitals to hire contract workers who cost more money. 

"There just simply are not enough qualified health care workers in that region so they must import contract labor," she said. 

And then there's the bite inflation is taking not just on a person's wallet, but the cost of providing health care as well. 

"Everything is more expensive. Inflation underneath all of that is raising prices for everything," Grause said. "Hospitals are resource intensive."