Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Members of the Maimonides Medical Center Board of Trustees have named NYC City Health + Hospitals in their lawsuit against the health system.
The trustees are suing Maimonides Medical Center, its President and CEO Kenneth Gibbs, Executive VP and Chief Legal Officer Laurie Weinstein and Eugene Keilin, chair of the Board of Trustees, over the health system's plan to merge with NYC Health + Hospitals.
The lawsuit was filed in November 2025. On Jan. 5, an amended complaint added NYC Health + Hospitals as a defendant.
Members of the board want to block the transaction and are seeking a preliminary injunction against the merger of Maimonides with NYC Health + Hospitals. Through court filings, they want to enjoin the closing of the Maimonides with the public health system and have the affiliation agreement ordered void. The closing is not expected for an estimated two months.
The lawsuit was filed by Directors Aaron Twerski, Peter Rebenwurzel, George Weinberger, Chaim Fisher, Yehoshua Leib Fruchthandler, Marty Waisbrod and David Spira in the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of Kings.
Maimonides Medical Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Maimonides is an independent, community hospital that would be owned and operated by NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, a publicly operated hospital with a mixed history of management and performance, according to the lawsuit.
The board never formed a search committee, and there was no sufficient board oversight in the decision.
"The momentous transformation is being rushed through, without an adequate search having been conducted to identify other potential bidders, and without the Board receiving critical structural and financial issues necessary for a well-considered decision," the lawsuit said.
Touro University and Westchester Medical Center approached Maimonides on multiple occasions to seek an affiliation, but that was rebuffed, the trustees said.
New York City Health + Hospitals has advised that physician employees of Maimonides could not become employees of the post-sale entity, but no permanent structure has been established for their continued service, the lawsuit said.
"The deal's financing is predicated on a new Medicaid reimbursement rate that HHC claims it could receive, but the details of the rate are, in the words of the HHC CEO this past Friday, 'very raw.'"
One of the biggest complaints by the trustee plaintiffs is that the sale has political ramifications, saying that should the merger go through, Maimonides would be subject to the political preferences of the New York City mayor.
"The decision as to whether to sell Maimonides to HHC has been influenced to a large extent by politicians with constituencies and interests that are broader than the constituency of Maimonides itself," the lawsuit said.
The mayor appoints nine members of the HHC 17-member board, giving the mayor control of the governing majority, the lawsuit said.
"HHC is not an independent nonprofit hospital system," they said. "It is instead a political entity subject to the direct control of an elected official, with many competing interests, including some that may conflict with or stand in tension with local needs."
THE LARGER TREND
The merger would allow Maimonides to adopt a new EHR, Epic, and access a higher Medicaid rate, according to the announcement by NYC Health + Hospitals President and CEO Dr. Mitchell Katz, Maimonides Health CEO Ken Gibbs and former New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is supporting the partnership with a $2.2 billion grant over five years that officials said protects safety net care in Brooklyn.
The partnership is expected to be complete before April 1, when Maimonides will become part of the NYC Health + Hospitals system, officials said.
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org