BOSTON (AP) – Brigham and Women’s Hospital wrote off more than $5,000 in room fees accumulated by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino for stays in private rooms in 2003 and 2004, a published report said Monday.

Menino and hospital officials told The Boston Globe that the hospital did not bill Menino for his time in a private suite because doctors determined his recuperation demanded more security and privacy than he could get in a regular unit.

The mayor spent a total of seven days at the hospital’s Shapiro Pavilion during his stays last year for stomach problems and in 2003 for removal of a cancerous growth in his back, hospital officials said. The pavilion rooms cost as much as $800 per night above insurance.

“We have an obligation (under federal law) to maintain the needed level of privacy and security for all of our patients, and that was the reason for moving the mayor … and assuming the cost of that move,” hospital spokesman Peter D. Brown said.

During a July 2003 stay, Brown said, Menino had so many unannounced visitors that it cut into his rest, and he had to be moved.

Menino said in an interview that he did not request special accommodations and assumed the hospital paid the extra cost as a “courtesy” to him. He said he’d pay any charges if it’s shown to be improper.

“Would I pay them? Sure. If there was a problem, I’d do it,” he told the newspaper.

Menino did not report the waived charges as a gift on his financial disclosure form. The city’s lead attorney advised Menino that the room upgrade was not a gift because it was a medical decision made by the hospital.

Brown said no bill was generated for Menino’s stays, but said the Shapiro Pavilion rooms can cost up to $800 a day over insurance rates depending on the size of the room. He said Menino’s room was one of the “larger rooms,” putting the total cost above $5,000.

The pavilion is a 14-room private floor with hotel-like amenities. Brown said that since the unit opened in 2001, two other political figures stayed there for the same privacy and security reasons. Neither was billed, and Brown would not name them.

AP-ES-09-19-05 0153EDT