BILL NUMBER: S8965
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 SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section one of the bill 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 two defines the term "hospital rule-based exclusions" and estab-
lishes specific covered practice areas, including primary care, repro-
ductive health care, gender-affirming care, and endof-life services,
within which hospitals must disclose service limitations. The list is
modeled on a similar existing law in Colorado. This section also
requires the Department of Health to develop a standardized service
availability form and to collect from each general hospital, on an annu-
al basis, a completed form identifying services within the covered prac-
tice areas that are not generally available or are subject to hospital
rule-based exclusions. The Department must publish each hospital's
completed form on its website within six months of the effective date
and update the website annually. This section further authorizes the
Department to promulgate regulations to specify covered services and to
implement the disclosure requirements.
Section three requires that the patients' rights and responsibilities
document 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
three also requires that general hospitals' websites link to the DOH
website.
Sections four, five, and six require health plans as part of insurance
disclosures provide information about hospital rule-based exclusions and
link to DOH's website.
Section seven 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 eight of the legislation is a severability clause.
Section nine sets forth the effective date (18 months after enactment.)
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Since 2003, more than 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 provide the care they seek prior to admission. Access to this
information is lifesaving; it permits patients to make informed deci-
sions about where to seek the health care they need.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2025: A3862 (Rozic) - Veto Memo 140
2024: A733 (Rozic) - Veto Memo 126
2023: A733 (Rozic) - Died in Assembly, Third Reading
2022: A6334 (Rozic) - Health
2021: A6334 (Rozic) - Health
 
FISCAL IMPACT ON THE STATE:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect eighteen months after it shall have become a
law.

Statutes affected:
S8965: 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