March 19, 2020

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo

Governor of the State of New York
State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Governor Cuomo:

We greatly appreciate all the efforts the state is taking to respond to the rapidly expanding COVID-19
crisis in New York State, especially given the slow federal response. We noted especially your charge to
GNYHA President Kenneth Raske and Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling to devise ways to increase
the state’s supply of hospital beds to accommodate an expected surge of patients. We also saw your
request to the federal government that a ship with 1,000 hospital beds be sent to New York to help
address the likely shortage of beds.

We write to specifically urge that, in light of the COVID-19 crisis, the state institute an immediate
moratorium on hospital closings and downsizings, including pausing those actions that already have
state approval to go forward. We further urge that your administration work to re-open some of the
hospitals and other health facilities that have been closed in recent years, in order to increase bed
capacity. We join the New York State Nurses Association in making this request.

Across New York State over the last 20 years, more than 40 community hospitals have closed. We have
been alarmed by additional closings and downsizings that have recently been approved by the NYS
Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) or are pending state approval. For example:

 The Mount Sinai system plans to replace the 700-bed Beth Israel Medical Center in lower
Manhattan with a 70-bed facility. This action, approved by the PHHPC in February, would
remove more than 500 acute care beds from downtown Manhattan. We worried that this action
would leave downtown with too few hospital beds should a public health crisis like COVID-19
emerge.
 The Montefiore system has submitted a Certificate of Need (CON) application to close the
Mount Vernon hospital it acquired in 2013, replacing it with an emergency department and
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ambulatory care center. More than $40 million in state health facility transformation grants
would be used to bring about this transformation, which seems ill advised at this moment.

We noted with relief that this week, the plan to consolidate services at three Brooklyn hospitals was
paused to accommodate an expected surge of COVID-19 patients. A planned closing of units at one of
the hospitals, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Crown Heights, was postponed, and an already-
closed unit will be reopened, according to reports. We were also encouraged to learn that the Mount
Sinai Health System is willing to make available for this same purpose the former Rivington House AIDS
nursing home on the Lower East Side, which Mount Sinai had planned to convert into a substance use
disorders treatment facility. Across the Hudson River, New Jersey health officials are working to re-open
Inspira Health Network’s former hospital in Woodbury, which closed in 2017. The facility will be able to
accommodate 300 hospital beds, according to NJ Health Commissioner Judith Perischilli.

We are a new and growing statewide alliance of community and health advocacy organizations working
to give consumers a greater voice in determining the future of their local hospitals. Participating
organizations include the Center for Independence of the Disabled-NY, the Children’s Defense Fund-NY,
the Commission on the Public’s Health System, the Community Service Society-NY, the Empire Justice
Center, March of Dimes NY, Medicaid Matters-NY, Metro NY Health Care for All, Neighbors to Save
Rivington House, the New York Immigration Coalition, the Statewide Senior Action Council and the
Women’s Health Program of Community Catalyst.

We are nonprofits that represent and serve many people in communities that already are medically
underserved, and who will likely be especially affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. While we truly
appreciate the need for rapid response to this crisis, we stand ready to provide insights from affected
communities that we believe can inform government action. We request that non-profits be consulted
in the response strategy whenever possible, and receive ongoing information about where additional
bed capacity is being added and where COVID-19 testing will be available, so we can inform consumers.

We appreciate your attention to our concerns.

Sincerely,

Lois Uttley
Women’s Health Program Director, Community Catalyst
On behalf of CVHSA members/ luttley@communitycatalyst.org or 518-281-4134 (cell)

cc: Secretary to the Governor Paul Francis and Assistant Secretary for Health Megan Baldwin
NYS DOH Commissioner Howard A. Zucker
NYS Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried
NYS Senate Health Committee Chair Gustavo Rivera
Members of the NYS Public Health and Health Planning Council