BILL NUMBER: S3486
SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law and the insurance law, in relation
to providing information to patients and the public on hospital rule-
based exclusions
 
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this legislation is to ensure that individuals have
access to information about whether the hospital, or hospitals, in their
area provides the care they seek prior to admission and to identify
health care deserts in regions of the state.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 of the legislation includes legislative findings explaining
the problem this Legislation seeks to address and making clear that some
health care denials violate existing state and federal law.
Section 2 of requires the Department of Health to:
* Collect a list of hospital rule-based exclusions from each general
hospital;
* Publish the list of the general hospitals that have such exclusions,
and the specific exclusions for each on its website
* Update the website annually; and
*Ensure that the website is readily understandable to patients, prospec-
tive patients, and members of the public.
In addition, this section requires the Department within one year and
then every five years thereafter to provide to the. Senate and the
Assembly and publish on its website a report regarding hospital rule-
based exclusions and the impact of such exclusions on patients' ability
to access care.
Section 3 requires that the patients' rights and responsibilities docu-
ment that general hospitals are already required to provide to each
patient include information about hospital rule-based exclusions, as
well as a link to DOH's website at which they can be found. Section 3
also requires that general hospitals' websites link to the DOH website.
Sections 4, 5, and 6 require health plans as part of insurance disclo-
sures provide Information about hospital rule-based exclusions and link
to DOH's website.
Section 7 makes clear that nothing in the bill shall be construed to
permit or authorize denials of care or discrimination in the provision
of health care or health insurance, and that compliance with the law
does not reduce or limit any liability for health care facilities.
Section 8 of the legislation is a severability clause.
Section 9 sets forth the effective date (18 months after enactment.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Since 2003, more than in 40 community hospitals in New York have closed.
As a result, large health care systems now control more than 70 percent
of acute hospital beds; and hospital mergers in New York continue apace.
Unfortunately, these large hospital systems sometimes remove categories
of care from local hospitals, leaving patients in regions of the state
without access to particular types of care, including some types of
emergency care.
Too often patients do not have the ability to determine whether the
healthcare facilities in their area provide the care they seek, because
Information about how healthcare facilities' restrictions impacts,
options for care is too difficult to obtain. Worse still, denials of
care can lead to serious adverse health impacts that jeopardize individ-
uals' lives and wellbeing. In addition, some denials of care violate
state and federal law.
It is incumbent on New York to identify whether and where there are
health care deserts in the state where particular types of care are
unavailable and to understand the impacts of such gaps on communities
and individuals statewide.
It is equally imperative to give prospective patients the tools they
need to determine whether the hospital or healthcare facilities in their
area provides the care they seek prior to admission. Access to this
information is lifesaving it permits patients to make informed decisions
about, where to seek the health care they need.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2024: S.1003A/A.733A- Veto memo 126
2023: S.1003A/A.733A- Passed Senate / Assembly third reading
2022: S.5400/A.6334 - Passed Senate / Referred to Assembly Health
2021: S.5400/A.6334 - Referred to Senate Health / Referred to Assembly
Health
 
FISCAL IMPACT ON STATE:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect eighteen months after it shall have become a
law.

Statutes affected:
S3486: 2803 public health law, 2803(1) public health law, 3217-a insurance law, 3217-a(a) insurance law, 4324 insurance law, 4324(a) insurance law, 4408 public health law, 4408(1) public health law