Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara announced new legislation today aimed at protecting Ellis Hospital and other community hospitals from the enforcement of restrictive employment agreements when doing so would threaten essential health care services.

The Essential Health Care Access Protection Act comes as Ellis Medicine and St. Peter’s Health Partners are involved in a legal dispute concerning 27 cardiologists who provide services at Ellis. Ellis has alleged that enforcement of noncompete provisions involving the physicians could jeopardize its cardiology program and affect emergency, critical care and other essential hospital services. St. Peter’s disputes Ellis’s allegations.

“Ellis Hospital is essential to Schenectady, and I am going to fight to protect it,” Assemblyman Santabarbara said. “Whatever disagreement exists between these health systems, our patients and our community cannot become collateral damage. No employment agreement should be allowed to put essential hospital services at risk.”

Santabarbara’s legislation would establish a statewide public-interest standard governing the enforcement of restrictive covenants involving health care professionals. Under the proposal, courts would be prohibited from granting injunctive or other equitable relief enforcing such an agreement when doing so would materially impair access to essential health care or cause the elimination or substantial reduction of essential hospital services.

Courts would consider factors including the number of patients affected, availability of comparable services nearby, impact on emergency and critical care, continuity of care and the effect on a hospital’s ability to maintain essential clinical services.

“This isn’t about choosing one health system over another in a contract dispute,” Santabarbara said. “It’s about drawing a line when that dispute threatens an entire community’s access to health care.”

Ellis has stated in its court filing that losing access to the cardiologists could threaten its cardiology service line and affect emergency, critical care and pulmonary services.

“Ellis is more than one department or one group of doctors. It’s part of the health care infrastructure of Schenectady and the surrounding region,” Assemblyman Santabarbara said. “Families depend on it. Our workforce depends on it. Our employers depend on having a strong local hospital. The consequences of losing essential services would reach throughout our community.”

“My position is simple: we are not going to stand by and watch essential health care disappear from Schenectady,” Santabarbara added. “I will fight to protect Ellis, its patients and the community it serves.”