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Need Help in Your Community?

  1. Has your local hospital announced a merger or affiliation with a religiously-affiliated hospital that uses doctrine to restrict patients’ access to health services?
  2. Has a pharmacist refused to fill your prescription because of personal objections to contraception?
  3. Have you been denied medical care or information by a physician who cited religious or moral objections?

If you’ve been affected by religious restrictions when you tried to obtain health care, please let us know.
We may be able to help. 

send a secure email 

Or call us at 212.870.2010

MergerWatch respects the privacy of every individual. None of the personal information you give us will be given to any other organization or individual without your consent.

Hospital Mergers: Our Services 

Since 1997, the MergerWatch Project has been working with community-based coalitions across the country to prevent the loss of reproductive health services and address threats to patients' end-of-life choices when religious and secular hospitals propose to merge.

We offer a range of services to community members, health providers and organizations interested in working to protect vital health care services and patient self-determination at their local hospitals. These services include:

  • Expert analysis of proposed mergers and acquisitions
  • Support for grassroots organizing and coalition building
  • Fact sheets and other materials for public education
  • Media outreach and messaging
  • Examples of how other communities have protected patients' rights and services
  • Coaching on how to approach hospital officials seeking changes in proposed mergers
  • Assistance intervening in state hospital regulatory oversight proceedings

We do not charge communities for these services. Our work is supported by grants from such funders as the Ford Foundation, the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and the Educational Foundation of America, as well as by donations from individuals.

An activist offers advice to others thinking of fighting a hospital merger.

To date, we have worked on 92 proposed mergers, affiliations or acquisitions involving hospitals in 34 states. The outcomes in completed cases have included defeating 26 proposed mergers (including our most recent victory in AZ), helping to fashion compromises that preserved some services in 22 cases and unraveling existing mergers in 12 cases after the mergers were found to have a negative effect. Some of our cases are still pending. The average length of each case is about 16 months.

The lesson of the project’s work so far is clear: When communities speak up, vital health care services often can be preserved. 

For help in opposing such a merger in your community, contact us.