Guest post by Faith Daniels, MPH

You deserve a say in health system transactions that impact your access to healthcare. In New York and many other states, hospitals must receive approval from state regulators (and sometimes from local zoning officials) like the New York State Department of Health, before they can make major changes, such as merging with other hospitals or with large health systems, eliminating services, relocating services, opening facilities or closing  facilities entirely.

In New York and some other states, this approval process is called Certificate of Need (or CON), signifying that hospitals must demonstrate a need for the desired change or transaction proposed. We are excited to announce a major change to New York’s version of this process with the passing of the Health Equity Impact Assessment Act that has gone into effect as of June 2023. For the first time an independent assessment is required with each CON application to showcase the likely impact on people, like you, that will be directly impacted by the hospitals’ proposals  (either add, reduce or eliminate services).

You have a right to express your thoughts and concerns in this process. This community guide goes over frequently asked questions regarding the Health Equity Impact Assessment Act. If you have any questions or want to understand how you can get involved in a concerning local health system transaction, please email, Faith Daniel, MPH, and/or Mark Hannay, Community Voices for Health System Accountability co-facilitators,  fdaniel@communitycatalyst.org and Mark Hannay metrohealth@igc.org.