Updated: January 13, 1:30 p.m.
After months of negotiations, unionized physicians won a tentative agreement with NYC Health + Hospitals and its affiliates.
The contract will include salary incentives to enhance physician recruitment and retention and quality of care. The announcement comes on the day a strike by nearly 1,000 affected physicians was planned. The tentative agreement includes, among other things, salary increases, bonuses, restoration of cuts to sick leave hours, contributions to existing benefits, CME reimbursement hikes and Juneteenth added as a paid holiday.
“Our mission as NYC H+H doctors is to care for patients and families, regardless of the color of their skin, the country where they are from or their ability to pay. It’s because we love the work we do and stand by that mission that Doctors Council members united together like never before,” Frances Quee, M.D., a pediatrician at H+H Gotham Health, Blevis and president of Doctors Council SEIU, said in a press release. “I am proud that this tentative agreement puts us on a path to enhance care – for our patients, our communities, and the dedicated doctors they entrust.”
NYC H+H is the city's public health system operating 11 hospitals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The physicians who intended to strike are members of Doctors Council, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The strike was originally planned for Monday if their union could not reach a deal on a new contract by then. conditions that threaten patient care.
Doctors delivered their 10-day strike notice to NYC Health + Hospitals and its private sector affiliates, including PAGNY and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in early January. Following the notice, Mayor Eric Adams urged the parties to work together in mediation to avert the strike. At a City Council hearing last Friday, dozens of clinicians and community members spoke out against poor workplace conditions that threaten patient care.
“A physicians’ strike at four public safety-net hospitals in three boroughs poses substantial risks to the health and safety of the city’s patients and our communities. That is why I have asked all parties to return to the table with the help of a mediator to come to an agreement," Adams said in a statement. "I also commit the efforts of Labor Relations Commissioner Campion if she can be of assistance in helping to resolve this dispute. I know each of the parties share my commitment to ensuring that high-quality care remains available to all New Yorkers, regardless of their ability to pay, and I am hopeful for a speedy solution.”
The strike would be the largest work stoppage by attending physicians in the city’s history, per the union. Four hospitals across three boroughs would be affected by the strike. The work stoppage was authorized mid-December by a member vote, per an announcement. NYC H+H affiliates and the Doctors Council have been negotiating a new contract for 15 months.
"We are on the front lines of healthcare every day, working tirelessly to provide the best possible care to our communities," Joplin T. Steinweiss, D.O., a primary care physician at Jacobi Medical Center, said in an announcement. "But H+H and its affiliates are failing to offer a contract that addresses the rising costs of living, the long hours we work, and the increasing stress and burnout we face as our hospitals struggle to recruit and retain qualified doctors. Without a fair contract, our communities will continue to face a critical shortage of doctors, and patients will ultimately bear the brunt of the system's failure."
Jacobi and North Central Bronx Hospital have been unable to recruit any rheumatologists since 2023, per the latest press release, when the entire division resigned. This has delayed referral appointments and follow-up for patients with critical needs. In addition, several unfair labor practices filed by the union are pending with the National Labor Relations Board, the release said, including over a refusal to bargain over key areas of compensation.
“There are real consequences to the extreme understaffing and high turnover rates we contend with throughout NYC Health + Hospitals facilities,” Michael Jones, M.D., vice chair for education and a residency program director at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Jacobi, said in the December announcement. A lack of support for docs has led to breaks in continuity of care, longer wait times and patients traveling further for care they needed, he added. “A fair contract is about more than physician effectiveness: it’s about securing the healthcare future for New Yorkers.”
The union members claim doctors at city hospitals are paid below market rates, forcing them to consider offers from the private sector to keep up with the rising cost of living and their medical school debts. Doctors at H+H affiliates have had their patient appointment times reduced from 40 to 20 minutes, as reported by Politico. Though this was an attempt by the health system to address long waitlists, given the health system cares for some of New York’s most complex patients, that is not nearly enough time, insiders claimed on a Reddit thread about the planned strike.
“We value physicians who serve patients at NYC Health + Hospitals every day,” Chris Miller, a NYC H+H spokesperson, told Fierce Healthcare. “We continue to encourage all parties involved to work together at the bargaining table to prevent a strike and ensure that quality care remains uninterrupted for our patients.”
In response to the strike notice, PAGNY released a statement calling the strike "unfortunate" and said it has approached contract negotiations "in a spirit of collaboration, while taking into account the finances of our funder, NYC Health + Hospitals." The group said it has negotiated labor contracts since 2010 with Doctors Council and for the current renewal failed to reach an agreement despite increasing its offers throughout the process. In November 2024, PAGNY implemented what it called "significant" wage and benefit increases for unionized physicians. "We work solely within municipal facilities, relying on City funding, and have offered the full authority of what we have," the group said in its statement.
Physicians appear to be following in the footsteps of residents and nurses who previously went on strike in the city. In early 2023, Mount Sinai Medical Center and Montefiore nurses returned to work after several days of striking when their union reached a tentative agreement with the hospitals. About 7,125 nurses were on strike over new contracts and concerns of "chronic understaffing."