Albany, NY – NY State Assemblymembers Jo Anne Simon, Brian Cunningham, Deborah Glick, Harvey Epstein, Jessica González-Rojas, Schenectady County Legislator Michelle Ostrelich, health care advocates, NYSNA, UUP, labor and local community activists urged Governor Kathy Hochul to sign the Local Input in Community Healthcare Act (LICH), Rivera S8843A / Simon A1633B. The bill is currently before the Governor and must be acted upon by the end of the week.

Under current state law, hospitals are not required to give adequate notice to stakeholders like local officials or the impacted community before a hospital or major unit closes, which leads to little public engagement, planning, or transparency. Communities throughout the state are often blindsided when they learn their local hospital is closing. This bill brings transparency and rigor to the State’s oversight of hospital closings and ensures that communities can provide input before, not after, the closure of a hospital or a unit that provides emergency, maternity, mental health, or substance use care.

In the last decade, more than 40 hospitals have closed across New York, 10 hospitals have closed essential maternity services, and several psychiatric beds that were closed early in the Covid-19 pandemic have not been restored. A study by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found that there are 27 rural hospitals in the state at risk of closing, amounting to 53% of New York’s rural hospitals. There is also concern about the potential closures of Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan and SUNY Downstate’s University Hospital in Brooklyn, and attempts to close services in the Capital District (childbirth in Troy, and in-patient services in Schenectady), and in the Catskill region in Sullivan County (transfer of key hospital services into another county altogether).

"When hospitals close without warning, communities are blindsided and too often left without access to critical care. The LICH Act is a crucial safeguard that will bring transparency, accountability, and community engagement to the hospital closure process. Communities across the state -- from Brooklyn to the Capital Region to Central and Western New York -- are now facing potential hospital closures or key service reductions that could leave them without lifesaving care. This cannot continue. I call on the Governor to sign my bill before more moms, kids, seniors and other New Yorkers are left without the healthcare they need and deserve.

Thank you to all my colleagues and the advocates for standing with me as we fight for the public's health,” said Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon.

"I join Assemblymember Simon and advocates to urge Governor Hochul to sign our LICH bill into law. Our communities deserve transparency and engagement when they might lose access to their closest maternity unit or emergency department, or even the entire facility," said State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Chair of the Senate Health Committee and Senate sponsor. "New Yorkers are already facing major health disparities so this bill will make them a key stakeholder in a critical decision making process that could have a serious impact on their health and the health care of their communities."

“I’m proud to co-sponsor the LICH Act, which greatly enhances community power in the face of hospital closures. We have lost too many hospitals to closures without real engagement or planning for the health needs of the neighborhoods they leave behind. My community knows all too well how broken the closure process is. While we address the root causes that lead to closures like unfair Medicaid reimbursement rates, we have to also ensure we have a process for closures that centers community needs,” said Assemblymember Harvey Epstein.

"A central responsibility of legislators is to help the public understand changes in their communities and encourage collective participation to address challenges," said Assembly Member Brian Cunningham. "While the legislation will not prevent hospital closures, Gov. Hochul's signature can establish a framework to ensure facilities providing maternity and in-patient care, as well as other life-saving and preventive treatments, are not closed without a clear plan or alternative solutions."

“Healthcare is a human right, and New Yorkers must have a say in decisions related to hospital closures in their local communities. The closure of more than 40 hospitals around the State has dramatically reduced the quality and cost effectiveness of care New Yorkers receive — particularly low-income and working class New Yorkers, who are more likely to experience closures in their neighborhood and less likely to have other accessible options. By increasing community engagement before hospitals close, we can increase the agency that local communities have related to their healthcare,” said Assemblymember Emily Gallagher.

"Without proper engagement and notice, hospital unit or service closures devastate access to essential care. Closures like this one are not just a matter of policy; it's a lifeline being severed in communities. This legislation would help to ensure that every closure decision involves, informs, and empowers the communities it serves," said Assemblymember John T. McDonald III, RPh.

"I was gratified to co-sponsor and vote for A1633A, the Local Input in Community Healthcare Act and I’m grateful to the bill’s sponsor Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon for her steadfast leadership on the critical issue of hospital closures. We have seen the detrimental impact hospital closures have on communities in New York City and around the State time and again. And far too often, we have seen closures occur with little opportunity for communities to weigh in on such consequential actions. The Local Input in Community Healthcare Act will strengthen regulations that guide New York State’s hospital closure process and I proudly join my colleagues in urging the Governor to sign this important legislation," said Assemblymember Deborah Glick.

"Across our state, hospitals are closing or shutting critically-important services that communities need, such as maternity, the ER and mental health care," said Lois Uttley, Co-convenor of the statewide Community Voices for Health System Accountability coalition. "However, all too often, affected communities get little advance notice, and are not consulted about how such a closing would affect their access to timely, affordable health care. Gov. Kathy Hochul can give communities a say and protect our access to health care by signing the Local Input for Community Healthcare bill (S8843A/A1633A), which the State Legislature passed this past spring."

“No one should have to worry about accessing healthcare at critical points in their lives. The LICH Act is a necessary step to safeguard patient care and prevent further harm to our communities. NYSNA strongly supports this vital legislation, and I urge everyone to join us in advocating for laws that protect patients—not profits,” said NYSNA Member Jennifer Kiehle, RN.

“The ongoing crisis over the future of Beth Israel Hospital in Lower Manhattan and its implications for the larger Mount Sinai Health System could have been avoided had the process laid out in the LICH bill been in place because the local community’s voice would have been present from the get-go. Instead, it’s been nothing but top-down edicts from on high by Mount Sinai senior management and secret behind-closed-doors deliberations and decisions from the State Dept. of Health for more than a decade now,” said Mark Hannay, Director of Metro New York Health Care for All, and Coordinator of the Save Beth Israel and New York Eye & Ear Campaign. “We urge Gov. Hochul to sign the LICH bill into law so that something like Beth Israel Hospital ever happens again for any local community across New York. She has been a leader on the issue of relieving patient medical debt, and she can also do the right thing on this issue, too. Local communities really care about what happens to their hospital.”

"In order for the public to have confidence in our healthcare system there must be meaningful input from hospital workers, patients and community groups. I urge the Governor to sign this bill that would strengthen state oversight of proposed closures and/or downsizing," said Seth Cohen, President of Capital District Area Labor Federation.

"In Schenectady, our local hospital Ellis has closed programs and eliminated departments, and there was nothing we could do but watch. Before a local hospital shutters core services, the community it serves deserves to be told and have an opportunity to be heard. We should have a health equity impact assessment done to inform the State Department of Health and allow us to plan," said Michelle Ostrelich, Schenectady County Legislator and founding member of the Schenectady Coalition for Healthcare Access.

"Older New Yorkers consume six times more acute care than other adults and depend on ready access to the hospitals in their communities. Any proposed hospital closures can have a devastating impact on their health. Proposed closures must not occur without extensive public input and careful consideration of alternatives. The LICH bill is essential to helping protect the healthcare needs of senior citizens and other vulnerable populations. We urge Governor Hochul to sign it now," said Maria Alvarez, Executive Director New York StateWide Senior Action Council.

"As a doula and a mom, I know first-hand that when hospitals close maternity services, it can be devastating to local families. Very soon into our fight to save Burdett Birth Center, we learned that community engagement, when led by the hospital proposing the closure, can be abysmal. I urge Governor Hochul to sign this bill and ensure that families, doulas and midwives get a real say about the likely impact of proposed maternity closures and ways to preserve access to high quality childbirth care," Jessica Allen Hayek, Doula and Co-Organizer for the Save Burdett Birth Center Coalition.

Assemblymember Simon and her colleagues also sent a letter to Governor Hochul today requesting that she sign the bill into law.