Major Boro Park Kehilos, including Bobov, Belz, Satmar, and Bobov 45 joined with community members and patient advocacy organizations to file a lawsuit today in New York State Supreme Court, Albany County, seeking to block the proposed transfer of Maimonides Medical Centerto NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), the city’s municipal hospital system, unless and until the transaction receives required State approval.

The lawsuit, brought as an Article 78 proceeding, challenges the State Health Commissioner’s decision to allow the transaction to proceed without the approval of the Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC or Public Health Council), as required by New York law.

The transaction would transfer substantially all of Maimonides’s assets, operations, and governance to H+H, thereby converting a private, not-for-profit community hospital into a municipal facility under the control of the City of New York. If consummated, it would be one of the largest hospital transactions in New York history and would permanently alter the healthcare landscape in South Brooklyn, where Maimonides serves an extraordinarily diverse patient population including large communities of Orthodox Jews, Arabs, Chinese, Latinos, Russians, Caribbean people, and residents from South and Southeast Asia.

The lawsuit is in addition to a suit filed by seven Trustees of Maimonides, who alleged irregularities in the manner in which the Board of Trustees pursued the transaction. This lawsuit, filed in Albany, alleges that the Board failed to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals prior to closing. The presence of these major institutions as Petitioners reflects growing community concern that the conversion of Maimonides into a municipal hospital will have a negative impact on public health.

New York’s Rigorous Certificate of Need Process New York maintains one of the most rigorous Certificate of Need (CON) approval processes in the country. Under Public Health Law § 2801-a, no hospital may be established, and no change in hospital operator may occur, without the written approval of the PHHPC—a body of over two dozen public health experts, including physicians, nurses, health care executives, consumer advocates, and community representatives.

The Council is required to evaluate four statutory criteria before approving any such transaction: public need, character and competence, financial feasibility, and such other matters as the Council deems pertinent. None of these reviews has been conducted for this transaction.

This process exists to protect public health in the event of a hospital transaction. In recognition that that changes in hospital ownership can profoundly affect public health, the Legislature created the PHHPC to ensure that such changes are reviewed by experts before they take effect. “Allowing a multi-billion dollar transfer of one of Brooklyn’s largest hospitals to proceed without any independent review of the impact on public health would undermine the very purpose of New York’s regulatory framework,” said Martin Bienstock, at attorney for the Petitioners.

The Petition also raises significant concerns about H+H’s fitness to operate Maimonides. H+H’s own facilities have been the subject of recurrent regulatory violations, including multiple “immediate jeopardy” citations—the most severe level of regulatory finding, indicating that noncompliance has caused or is likely to cause serious injury, harm, or death. In fiscal year 2023 alone, H+H paid $51.5 million in malpractice claims. Avoiding Public Health Council review means that none of these criteria will be evaluated.

At a New York City Council hearing on March 2, 2026, H+H CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz sought to reassure Council members that the acquisition would not fundamentally change Maimonides.

Bienstock rejected that characterization. “Today, Maimonides is governed by an independent board of community members with fiduciary duties to the hospital and the community it serves,” he said. “Under this deal, the board is being replaced. The CEO is being replaced. Operational control is being handed to NYC Health + Hospitals, which is owned and controlled by the City of New York. That means Maimonides will be subject to the priorities, budget decisions, and political needs of Mayor Mamdani and whatever administration follows. If that’s not a takeover, I don’t know what is.”

The Petition asks the Court to declare that the Commissioner of Health lacks authority to waive or satisfy the statutory requirement of Public Health Council approval; and to prohibit Maimonides and H+H from closing the transaction without that approval. The Petitioners also seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent the transaction from closing while the case is pending.

“It is a travesty that Maimonides and the City of New York, through H+H, are trying to have their flawed deal rubberstamped by the Commissioner of Health behind closed doors, instead of going through the Public Health Council review-and-approval process, which ensures transparency and public participation in evaluating important hospital transactions,” said Akiva Shapiro of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, co-counsel for the Petitioners. “The Legislature gave the Public Health Council—and only the Public Health Council—the authority to approve changes in hospital operators.”

“This case is about whether agency heads can unilaterally bypass the rigorous review process the Legislature created to protect public health,” Shapiro added. “If the Commissioner can declare that his own approval satisfies a statute that assigns that authority to a different body, then the Public Health Council’s review authority is meaningless. That is not what the Legislature intended.”

The Petitioners are represented by Martin Bienstock of Bienstock PLLC and Akiva Shapiro of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP