Lenox Hill Hospital is in dire financial shape. How predictable.

Three years ago, a state panel noted that the entire hospital industry in New York faced tough times.

The panel, known as the Berger Commission, came up with a plan suggesting a few small steps — including closing or merging several facilities — to address the problem.

Lawmakers even passed a law essentially requiring the state to carry out the commision’s suggestions. Too bad the state couldn’t care less.

Now Lenox is frantically looking for another institution with which to merge.

Over the past five years, it’s lost some $165 million — and it may lose as much as $20 million this year.

Moody’s downgraded its credit outlook to “negative” in June.

The Berger Commission had noted that hospitals throughout the state were in financial jeopardy — because there were too many of them. A large share of hospital beds were typically left empty, even as the facilities faced huge overheads.

The panel had sought an orderly process of closing and merging facilities across the state — one that would reduce the state’s excess hospital capacity.

The alternative was to do nothing — and let market forces wreak havoc with the industry, leaving New Yorkers to deal with whatever survived.

What did the state do?

For the most part, it chose chaos.

After nearly three years, only a few closures and mergers have been made.

Hospitals have faced the consequences: In January, for example, two Queens hospitals — St. John’s in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate in Jamaica — closed as a result of their poor financial health.

The lack of leadership in Albany apparently comes with a price.