Brian Sharp

@SharpRoc

ALBANY – The impending resignation of New York's top health official comes at a crucial time for the state Department of Health.

Under Commissioner Nirav Shah's lead, the agency has been working on issuing recommendations on hydraulic fracturing, finalizing an $8 billion agreement with the federal government and implementing a plan to allow medical marijuana on a limited basis.

As that work continues, the Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed Shah would be stepping down at the end of June, a move that caught health care advocates by surprise.

But in a letter Thursday to department employees, Shah said his last day would be May 4 — nearly two months earlier than the agency indicated.

"It is with mixed emotions that I am announcing my departure as the Commissioner of Health for New York State," Shah wrote in the letter, which was obtained by Gannett's Albany Bureau. "I have accepted a position as Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer for Clinical Operations for the Southern California Region of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. My last day at the Department will be May 4."

A spokesman for the Health Department confirmed Shah's last day would be in early May, and blamed the incorrect information Wednesday on a miscommunication.

Cuomo first appointed Shah to his position in 2011. Howard Zucker, who became Shah's first deputy commissioner last year, will replace Shah on an interim basis.

Shah was first tasked with examining potential permitting guidelines for fracking in September 2012 and had repeatedly said in early 2013 that a conclusion was weeks away. Since then, he has declined to say when his work would be completed.

He had also been at the forefront of crafting an agreement with the federal government on an $8 billion Medicaid waiver — final approval is expected in the coming days — and writing regulations that, when implemented, will allow up to 20 hospitals to distribute medical marijuana to terminally ill patients.

Speaking to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle's editorial board on Thursday, Cuomo said Shah's resignation did not have anything to do with the fracking review. Shah has been criticized for the length and transparency of the review, which will guide an ultimate decision on whether to allow shale-gas drilling.

Rather, when asked about Shah's impending departure, Cuomo talked about the imbalance between government-sector and private-sector salaries. State law sets the salaries of state agency commissioners, and the pay rate hasn't been increased since 1999.

"The salaries are a real problem in state government," Cuomo said. "You know, you want one of the best health professionals in the country as the health commissioner. You don't get that for $130,000. You just don't. And then you tell the person work seven days a week and you can't have any other outside income, and people can only do it for a period of time."

Cuomo, who is in Rochester to promote passage of the state budget, said the hydrofracking review is "an agency function, and all the agency functions continue."

The shale-gas drilling debate has polarized the state since then-Gov. David Paterson put large-scale fracking on hold in 2008. Proponents say it would create jobs and bring a boost for landowners in the Southern Tier, where much of the gas-rich Marcellus Shale lies. Opponents say the practice can be destructive to air, water and land, pointing to high-profile incidents in Pennsylvania and other shale-bearing states.