{"id":150395,"date":"2026-03-03T01:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/150395\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T01:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T01:03:12","slug":"nycs-maimonides-merger-advances-despite-concerns-from-orthodox-jewish-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/150395\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC\u2019s Maimonides merger advances despite concerns from Orthodox Jewish community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park is on track to become part of the city’s public hospital system by April 1, even as an ongoing lawsuit aims to stop the city takeover, according to the head of NYC Health and Hospitals.<\/p>\n

The top priority once the merger is complete will be renovating Maimonides\u2019 bustling maternity ward and getting the financially struggling medical center on a better footing, Dr. Mitchell Katz, president and CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals, told City Council members at a hearing on the merger Monday.<\/p>\n

Katz also outlined other potential benefits of the deal for patients \u2014 including an updated medical records system and more funding for support staff \u2014 and responded to concerns some in the Orthodox Jewish community have raised in recent months that a city takeover of Maimonides would erode the hundred-year-old hospital\u2019s cultural accommodations.<\/p>\n

Hatzolah of Boro Park, which operates an ambulance fleet in the area, wrote a letter<\/a> opposing the proposed merger shortly after it was announced in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the critical role the Orthodox community has played in creating and supporting the hospital and we look forward to honoring that,\u201d Katz said at Monday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

He added that the hospital, named for a rabbi and physician who lived 800 years ago, will retain its name.<\/p>\n

Asked Monday about a pending lawsuit opposing the deal, Katz responded that there\u2019s currently no injunction in place that would prevent the merger from moving forward.<\/p>\n

Maimonides\u2019 Board of Trustees voted to approve the merger last year. But a group of dissenting Board members sued hospital leaders in November to block the deal, arguing that the city\u2019s public hospitals have a history of providing substandard care and that the deal would harm Maimonides\u2019 ability to serve the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

In court documents, Katz has noted that the agreement between Maimonides and the city requires the preservation of existing religious and cultural practices at the hospital for at least 30 years. At Monday’s hearing, he added that his goal is to retain Maimonides\u2019 existing doctors and other staff.<\/p>\n

The merger still needs state approval before the parties can finalize the deal. The state health department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

But the partnership has the support<\/a> of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has pledged $2.2 billion for Maimonides over five years if the merger moves forward.<\/p>\n

If the deal is finalized, $500 million of the state funding that\u2019s been pledged for Maimonides will go toward the new maternity ward, and the city will work to keep the current maternity ward operational while completing the updates, Katz said.<\/p>\n

Maimonides delivers about 6,000 babies a year \u2014 six times as many as most public hospitals in the city, Katz noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women deserve a nice ward, not the ward they\u2019re currently in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Like the hospitals run by the city, Maimonides is considered a safety net hospital, treating a large volume of low-income patients.<\/p>\n

If Maimonides becomes part of the public hospital system, Katz said, the medical center will be entitled to a higher reimbursement rate from Medicaid, the public insurance program for low-income residents.<\/p>\n

He said that it will immediately increase revenue at the medical center by about $9 million per month. Once the hospital is more financially stable, the city will be able to bring in sorely needed support staff, Katz added.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s plan also involves updating Maimonides\u2019 antiquated electronic medical record system and giving patients access to the NYC Health and Hospitals\u2019 MyChart app to review their test results, make appointments and access other health information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park is on track to become part of the city’s public hospital system…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-150395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}