Promoting innovative local solutions for protecting reproductive health services threatened by religious/secular hospital mergers

Because of economic conditions, hospital mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. have increased dramatically in recent years. When a merger is proposed between a secular community hospital and a religiously-affiliated hospital or health system, continued provision of comprehensive reproductive health care can be threatened at the secular facility. This presentation will describe how advocates have preserved access to reproductive health services when secular hospitals merge with religious hospitals that prohibit those services. In the absence of strong federal or state laws protecting community access to comprehensive reproductive health care, advocates have devised innovative approaches to achieve their goals. As a result, some secular hospitals have maintained provision of most reproductive health services by utilizing looser forms of business partnerships with religious hospitals, such as joint ventures and affiliations. In other places, separately-incorporated “hospitals-within-hospitals” and ambulatory surgery centers have been created to take over provision of threatened reproductive health services.

Drawing on 14 years experience directly assisting local advocates, staff of the MergerWatch Project will present case examples of successful solutions and best practices for achieving positive outcomes. Topics to be covered will include: public education campaigns to rally support for protecting local access to reproductive health care; the role of physicians in urging continued patient access to care; strategies for working with secular hospital officials to achieve innovative solutions; the role of state hospital oversight officials in supporting such solutions; pros and cons of the various types of innovative approaches; and the conditions necessary for achieving a positive outcome.