Good morning, and happy March!
We hope this finds you well. There have been several important updates we wanted to share with you. Let us know if you have any questions or want additional information.
Cheers to a happy, healthy weekend!
Best,
Erin
Erin.hammond@srclawoffices.com
518-407-5800
*Announcement: The 2024 Value Based Payment (VBP) Quality Measure Sets are now available on the NYS DOH Value-Based Payment (VBP) web page. The following 2024 measure sets are now available on the Value-Based, under the VBP Quality Measures tab:
Measurement Year 2024 (NEW)
- 2024 Behavioral Health/HARP Quality Measure Set
- 2024 Children’s Quality Measure Set
- 2024 Maternity Quality Measure Set
- 2024 People Living with HIV/AIDs Quality Measure Set
- 2024 TCGP Quality Measure Set
- 2024 VBP MAP Quality Measure Set
- 2024 VBP PACE Quality Measure Set
*Announcement: Last week, the two United States Senators put out applications for new Congressional Directed Spending (CDS) opportunities. Applications are due to both Senator CDS pages by March 13, 2024.
We are happy to work with you to meet with the regional directors in your area to ensure they know about your project in hopes of them advocating for you. As you are aware, this is a very competitive process, with the most competitive pools of funding being the Labor Health & Human Services category and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Please consider being creative with your approach when looking at the funding bills to request from. (Links in FUNDING section below.)
*Check out the New York Public Health Now podcast
- Future topics include a look at Long COVID and April’s solar eclipse
BUDGET & FINANCE
Senate 2024 Economic Revenue Report
Assembly’s Economic and Revenue Report
30-day amendments: A complete list
30-Day Article VII Bills Amendments: Health and Mental Hygiene
Governor’s Executive Budget Proposal Legislation
Medicaid Redesign Team 1115 Waiver
The Blue Book: Senate Majority Staff Analysis of the 2024-2025 Executive Budget Proposal
BILLS
The following health bills have passed both houses in 2024 (updates are highlighted):
- A8521: Relates to the remote conduct of witnessing health care proxies
- A2656: Permits pregnant women to enroll in health insurance during a special enrollment period without penalty
- A5576: Requires certain information about the facility be provided to prospective maternity patients
- A8486: Extends time frame to two years to receive updated mandated reporter training
- A8497: Relates to a four-year demonstration project to reduce the use of temporary staffing agencies in residential healthcare facilities
- A8501: Relates to adverse determinations related to a step therapy protocol override determination; repealer
- A8502: Requires health insurance policies and medicaid to cover biomarker precision medical testing for certain purposes
- A8515: Relates to the New York state adult cystic fibrosis program
- A8522: Relates to the effectiveness of a chapter of law relating to municipal limited health care service facilities 02/07/24 signed chap. 34
- A8524: Relates to licensure requirements and reimbursements for certain home health services; repealer
- A8536: Relates to orders not to resuscitate
- S1003A: Relates to providing information to patients and the public on policy-based exclusions
- S2039B: Relates to maternal depression screenings
- S5991A: Permits doulas to be present in the operating room while a cesarean section is being performed
- S5992A: Permits expecting and new mothers’ access to their doulas
- S7702A: Requires the department of health to convene a maternal health care and birthing standards workgroup
- S8003: Requires reporting on the status of issues at residential health care facilities to the state long-term care ombudsman.
- S8005: Requires camps and youth sports programs have at least one automated external defibrillator; requires camps and youth sports programs to use best efforts to have at least one person trained to use such defibrillators at camps, games and practices
- S8013: Establishes a registry for children’s non-regulated camps; repealer
- S8016: Requires the department of health to conduct a public information and outreach campaign on medically unnecessary treatments on persons born with intersex traits
- S8024: Relates to physician coursework or training in nutrition; moves such provisions from the public health law to the education law
- S8026: Relates to the justified use of physical force
- S8028: Establishes standards for the evacuation of individuals with disabilities from high-rise buildings during an emergency; provides factors to be considered in the development of such standards
- S8051: Relates to the display of green lights on the vehicles of members of mobile crisis teams and the revocation of authorization to display such light
- S8057: Relates to the controlling disposition of a decedent’s remains
- S8058: Defines gender-affirming care for the purposes of certain prohibitions regarding the legal system and gender-affirming care
- S8061: Clarifies provisions relating to dispensing of drug adulterant testing supplies
- S8072: Relates to the scope of the work an athletic trainer is authorized to perform
- S8076: Requires the office of mental health to identify information and training programs relating to the diagnosis and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder for military veterans; requires the office of mental health to publish on their website information and links to the identified relevant training programs
- S8080: Directs the state department of social services to establish and maintain a community doula directory for doulas for the purposes of Medicaid reimbursement and promoting doula services to Medicaid recipients
- S8092: Allows certain non-public schools to be exempt from being required to provide menstrual products in the restrooms of school buildings, upon a demonstration to the commissioner of education that the school does not serve students who need such products, and that such products are otherwise available to students who might need them
- S8093: Permits the commissioner of health to share deidentified information as strictly necessary to respond to a public health emergency or an imminent threat to public health, or to consult and cooperate with the appropriate agencies of the federal government or of other states in accordance with the functions, powers, and duties of the department, and may share identified information in such circumstances only when strictly necessary and with the consent of the patient 02/13/24 signed chap. 89
- S8096: Relates to the effectiveness of a chapter of the laws of 2023 relating to the dispensing of self-administered hormonal contraceptives
EVENTS
City & State’s Healthy New York Summit
Thursday, April 18, 9am-3:30pm
- Keynote Speakers: Dr. James V. McDonald, Commissioner, NYS Department of Health and Dr. Ashwin Vasan Commissioner, NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
- The “Summit will bring together health care decision makers and policy experts from all sectors to identify challenges and discuss solutions to improve our system. Attendees will gain new insights and perspectives on the most critical issues and priorities in New York health care during and post the pandemic”
- Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York, NY
MARCH
Friday, March 1, 2024
- The New York State Health Equity Council will hold a meeting via live Webcasting from 10am to 1:30pm here
- The public may write and submit comments during the meeting through a portal on the live webcast. The comments will then be read into the public record. We are requesting that members of the public follow the below guidelines:
- Only submit comments during the Public Comment Period of the meeting
- Identify yourself in the comment
Monday, March 4, 2024
- The New York State Coordinating Council for Services Related to Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementia will meet at 11:00 am via Web Ex
- The public may submit written comments at the link above during the meeting, using a portal on this WebEx platform.
- The comments will be read into the public record
- Members of the public seeking to provide comments must adhere to the following guidelines:
- Persons providing the comment must be identified in the content of the comment
- Comments may only be submitted during the Public Comment Period of the meeting, not prior to or after the meeting
- Agenda (PDF)
- You may view but not participate in the public meeting via the live webcast
Thursday, March 14, 2024
- The Early Intervention Coordinating Council will convene for its quarterly meeting from 10:15am to 3:00pm in Meeting Rooms 3 and 4 of the Empire State Plaza Convention Center, Albany
- This meeting is open for public attendance and webcast
- Remote locations to attend via videoconferencing in New York and Rochester
NEWS
- New York Is Failing to Meet Wheelchair-Access Goal for Cabs, Suit Says
- N.Y. Attorney General Urges Stricter Warnings for Asthma Drug
- Homeless New Yorkers with serious mental illness keep falling through the cracks despite billions in spending
- Hochul allocates an additional $100M for SUNY Downstate transformation
- Medical assistants can increase access to care — if we let them
- Massive U.S. cyberattack clogs New York pharmacy prescriptions
- Albany Common Council approves adding fluoride to water supply
- Nurses sue N.Y. to get licenses back after fraud scheme
- Legislation aims to reverse New York’s dental care shortage
- Comptroller cites ‘lax oversight’ in state Medicaid program
Continued drug shortages concern Central NY pharmacists
FUNDING
Congressionally Directed Spending Requests – FY 2025 | U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York
FY25 Appropriations Requests – Kirsten Gillibrand | U.S. Senator for New York
Statewide Transformation Grants
- Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program IV and V Health Information Technology, Cybersecurity, and Telehealth Transformation
- Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program IV
- Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program IV – Residential and Community-based Alternatives to the Traditional Model of Nursing Home Care
New York Health Equity Reform: Social Care Networks
CONTACTS
Senate Health Committee
Senator Gustavo Rivera, Chair (D. WF, Dist. 33)
grivera@nysenate.gov
Albany Office: 518-455-3395
Assembly Healthcare Chair
Assemblymember Amy Paulin (D., Dist. 88)
PaulinA@nyassembly.gov
Albany Office: 518-455-5585
Directory
LINKS
NYSDOH
- State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald Testifies at Joint Legislative Public Hearing on the 2025
- New York Public Health Now podcast
- State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald Testifies at Joint Legislative Public Hearing on the 2025 State Fiscal Year Executive Budget Proposal
- Health Initiatives
- Data & Reports
- Clinical Guidelines, Standards & Quality of Care
- Permits, Licenses & Certification
JUST FOR FUN
Don’t forget to stock up on eclipse glasses by April 8!
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
The path of the eclipse continues from Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/where-when/
By a cosmic stroke of luck, the moon will make the month’s closest approach to Earth the day before the total solar eclipse. That puts the moon just 223,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) away on eclipse day.
When a closer moon pairs up with a more distant sun, totality can last as long as an astounding 7 1/2 minutes. The last time the world saw more than seven minutes of totality was in 1973 over Africa. That won’t happen again until 2150 over the Pacific.
https://apnews.com/article/total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-83164668ee08b0a0c92e1d2ac41e91aa