Press Release
CSS Applauds Passage of Health Equity Act in the State Legislature
The Community Service Society (CSS) applauds the New York State Assembly for passing legislation that will require hospitals, nursing homes and other institutional health providers seeking state approval for closings, mergers, downsizing, acquisitions, consolidations, new construction or change of ownership be subject to an independent assessment of the impact projects will have on racial and ethnic minorities as part of the approval process.
This legislation, which already passed the State Senate and now goes before the Governor, is in direct response to COVID-19, which laid bare the structural inequities in our healthcare system resulting in Black New Yorkers being four times more likely to die from the virus than their white counterparts.
Over the last two decades, community stakeholders had little or no voice in the policy decisions of hospitals and health industry players when it came to hospital consolidations in New York and the closing of safety-net medical facilities serving vulnerable communities. As a result, the most powerful hospital systems became stronger, while the burden of treating low-income patients fell on the underfunded, overextended safety-net hospitals that remained.
Last June, CSS released an Issue Brief documenting how structural inequities in the healthcare system had contributed to wide racial disparities in the quality and availability of health care to New Yorkers. Among its recommendations was requiring the regulatory body that approves hospital closings and consolidations – an entity that is overly influenced by the hospital industry – to engage communities on the implications of these policy changes with an emphasis on preserving access to care for all communities.
The Health Equity Assessment Bill (S.1451A/A0191A), sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and State Senator Gustavo Rivera, reforms the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) process to ensure that proposed health industry transactions include an evaluation the impacts to affected communities. CSS supports the legislation and urges Governor Cuomo to sign it into law.