§ 3401. Legislative findings and purpose. The legislature hereby finds
and declares as follows:

1. The needs of the residents of the state of New York and of the
county of Nassau can best be served by a public benefit corporation
having the legal, financial and managerial flexibility to take full
advantage of opportunities and challenges presented by the evolving
health care environment and to take whatever actions are necessary to
enable the corporation's continuation as a system which provides the
finest possible quality of health care consistent with costs.

2. In order to accomplish the purposes recited in this section to
provide health care services and health facilities for the benefit of
the residents of the state of New York and the county of Nassau,
including to persons in need of health care services without the ability
to pay as required by law, a public benefit corporation to be known as
the Nassau Health Care Corporation shall be created to provide such
services and facilities and to otherwise carry out such purposes; that
the creation and operation of the Nassau health care corporation, as
hereinafter provided, is in all respects for the benefit of the people
of the state of New York and of the county of Nassau, and is a state,
county and public purpose; and that the exercise by such corporation of
the functions, powers and duties as hereinafter provided constitutes the
performance of an essential public and governmental function.

3. As a free-standing public health care provider, the corporation is
at a competitive disadvantage in the current and emerging health care
environment, yet it cannot become part of a larger system of corporate
entities while maintaining its public status. Significant investments in
the public assets of the corporation and its efforts to provide high
quality health care services to medically underserved populations are
jeopardized by the corporation's inability to compete on its own and by
potential limits on its ability to collaborate with other public and
private providers, entities and individuals. The state finds that the
benefits of collaboration by the corporation outweigh any adverse impact
on competition. The benefits of the corporation's collaborative efforts
include preserving and expanding needed health care services in its
primary service area; consolidating unneeded or duplicative health care
services; enhancing the quality of, and expanding access to, health care
delivered to medically underserved populations; lowering costs and
improving the efficiency of the health care services it delivers; and
achieving improved reimbursement from non-governmental payors. Based on
the findings contained in this section, the state hereby affirmatively
expresses a policy to allow the corporation to engage in collaborative
activities consistent with its health care purposes, notwithstanding
that those collaborations may have the effect of displacing competition
in the provision of hospital, physician or other health care-related
services. With respect to the collaborative activities contemplated in
this section and in subdivision ten of section thirty-four hundred five
of this title, the corporation and the public or private entities and
individuals with which it collaborates shall be immunized from liability
under the federal and state antitrust laws.