BILL NUMBER: S7287
SPONSOR: BAILEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the insurance law and the public health law, in relation
to clarifying the provision of donate life registration to certain
insured persons
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill would clarify that major medical or comprehensive health
insurance enrollees must be asked if they would like to be added to the
Donate Life Registry.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends Section 3221 of the Insurance Law to clarify that
enrollees for major medical or comprehensive health insurance must be
asked if they would like to be added to the donate life registry.
Section two amends Section 3216 of the Insurance Law to clarify that
enrollees for major medical or comprehensive health insurance must be
asked if they would like to be added to the donate life registry.
Section three amends Section 4306 of the Insurance Law to clarify that
enrollees for major medical or comprehensive health insurance must be
asked if they would like to be added to the donate life registry.
Section four amends Section 4408 of the Public Health Law to clarify
that enrollees for major medical or comprehensive health insurance must
be asked if they would like to be added to the donate life registry.
Section five establishes the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Originally enacted in 2012, Lauren's Law provided that individuals
applying for a New York State driver's license would be asked about
organ donation registration. The law has been amended numerous times to
expand opportunities for individuals to register to become an organ
donor, opening additional "doorways to donation." Most recently,
Lauren's Law was expanded in 2022 (Chapter 758 of the Laws of 2022) to
require health insurers to ask applicants for insurance if they would
like to be added to the Donate Life Registry. While the question appears
straightforward, Lauren's Law does not provide clarity about what health
insurers are required to do if the enrollee responds yes.
Once the expansion was enacted, the Donate Life Registry and the health
insurance industry set out to implement the new law. Working together,
insurers and the registry embraced the challenge of finding the most
efficient and effective way to ensure more New Yorkers had the opportu-
nity to become donors. This journey was not without its obstacles -
changing technology and limited financial resources created challenges -
and opportunities. As the world has moved away from paper, so has the
registry and the insurance industry. In an effort to create a seamless
experience for the enrollee, thereby increasing the chance that the
individual responds yes to the Lauren's Law question, a system had to be
developed which allowed health insurers to package the enrollee's infor-
mation and transmit it to the registry, without additional hoops, data
fields, or questions. Developing this system has taken time and crea-
tive thinking.
Over time, the registry conceptualized a system that is not only user
friendly, but also efficient. It allows the registry to make the best
use of limited resources to capture new donors cost-effectively using
technology. This bill clarifies that only major medical or comprehensive
health insurance enrollees will be asked about registration. This clar-
ification is consistent with the original intent of the underlying chap-
ter, and necessary because of the way in which the vast majority of
individuals are provided other, supplemental health insurance products,
such as disability, accident, or hospital indemnity insurance. For those
products, the carrier providing the insurance does not possess the
personal information necessary for registration as an organ donor at the
time the individual is provided coverage. As a result, the insurer is
not able to seamlessly transmit the information to the registry.
Notably, the insurers who provide these supplemental health insurance
benefits are not the entities enrolling applicants in the benefits
programs. When an employee enrolls for their supplemental benefits
during the annual benefit enrollment period, it is a third-party bene-
fits administrator (ADP or Workday, for example) or the employer itself
that is doing the enrollment, not the insurer. Fortunately, limiting the
registration law to comprehensive health insurance should not affect the
number of new registrations as individuals who are enrolling for supple-
mental health benefits will likely be enrolling for comprehensive health
insurance at the same time, and will therefore have already been
presented the opportunity to become an organ donor. As an added benefit,
the clarification presented in this legislation will also potentially
reduce duplicate entries that might otherwise need to be resolved by the
registry.
The clarifying language in this bill is consistent with many sections of
the Insurance Law which recognize the distinguish between major medical
or comprehensive health insurance and other types of health insurance
products.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to the state.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.

Statutes affected:
S7287: 3221 insurance law, 3221(a) insurance law, 3216 insurance law, 3216(c) insurance law, 4306 insurance law, 4306(o) insurance law, 4408 public health law, 4408(8) public health law