Guest post by Lois Uttley, Women’s Health Program director at Community Catalyst and co-founder of Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need

When the first wave of COVID-19 hit New York City in the spring of 2020, it starkly revealed something health advocates had been worried about for some time. The neighborhoods when people of color were being hardest hit, such as in Queens and Brooklyn, were also the places where hospitals had closed or downsized in recent years, leaving inadequate capacity to meet the pandemic needs. The result was overcrowding, long lines and delays in evaluation and treatment.

A new law signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul in late December will help address this problem when hospitals and most other health facilities propose new changes, including reducing or eliminating services. Described as “landmark” legislation by its Assembly sponsor, Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried, the Health Equity Assessment Act will for the first time require an independent assessment of the impact of such proposed changes on medically-underserved New Yorkers. The legislation (A191a/S1451a), sponsored in the Senate by Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera, was a top 2021 priority for Health Care for All New York and allies in the Community Voices for Health System Accountability (CVHSA) alliance.

The required independent health equity assessment would take place during preparation of a health facility’s Certificate of Need (CON) application to the New York State Department of Health seeking approval of a proposed transaction. Under the law, such an assessment must determine whether a proposed project would improve access to hospital services and health care, improve health equity and reduce health disparities within the facility’s service area for medically-underserved people. “Medically-undeserved” is defined in the law to include racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, uninsured people and those with public insurance (such as Medicaid) as well as older adults, rural residents and people living with “a prevalent infectious disease or condition” (such as HIV).

Included in the assessment will be the extent to which the project would provide indigent care (both free and below cost), the availability of public or private transportation to the facility, the means of ensuring effective communication with non-English speaking patients, as well as those with speech, hearing or visual impairments and the extent to which the project would reduce architectural barriers for people with mobility impairments.

The health equity assessment must involve meaningful engagement of residents and leaders of affected communities, as well as public health experts, employees of the health facility and other stakeholders. HCFANY and CVHSA fought hard for the requirement that the health equity assessment must be posted on the NYS DOH website, as well as the health facility’s website, so that the community can read the assessment document and provide comments.

While the law does not require the disapproval of projects that don’t fare well in health equity assessments, it will certainly encourage health facilities to include provisions that address the needs of medically-underserved people, in order to secure state approval. Moreover, the assessments will provide valuable information for DOH officials and members of the Public Health and Health Planning Council, which approves major projects. They could potentially attach conditions to approvals of projects, in order to improve the health equity impact.

The effective date of the law, which was originally six months from signing, was extended out to 18 months by the Governor’s office, to allow for rulemaking by the NYS DOH and PHHPC. This means that HCFANY and CVHSA members will need to be actively involved in the rulemaking process, to ensure that the intent of the law is preserved in the implementing rules.