Governor Advances State of the State
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Governor Hochul gave her annual State of the State Message this week, identifying legislation she will be advancing this Legislative Session, including through the Executive Budget Proposal to be released next Tuesday, January 20 (which will itself contain thousands of discrete policy proposals). Upon initial review, below are some most notable proposals she identified in her speech and 161-page policy book accompanying the speech. Some are new, but many are repeated from previous Budget proposals.
Positive
- Enact Prior Authorization Reform
- Require Health Plan Formularies to be Publicly Available and Easily Accessible
- Require Health Plans to have longer authorization duration for Chronic Condition Treatment
- Require additional “continuity of care” coverage protections after physician leaves health plan
- Require health plan public disclosure of prior authorization denials.
- Authorize Medical Assistants to perform immunizations under physician supervision
- Permit New York to set its own immunization schedule based on medical organization recommendations for insurance coverage and school eligibility purposes.
- Direct New York’s Department of Taxation and Finance to create a Vapor Products registry that identifies the vapor products that may be legally sold in the State, with prohibited flavored products deemed contraband.
Adverse
- Permit Physician Assistants to Practice Without Physician Supervision
- Remove Workers’ Compensation authorization review from counties – permit any licensed physician to be WC-eligible.
- Shift licensing from SED to DOH
Notable, and Needs Further Review
- Increase medical licensure actions for No-Fault fraud
- Changing “serious injury” standard for No-Fault eligibility
- Increase time periods for No-fault carriers to allege fraud in court
- Greater state oversight of private equity acquisitions of medical practices
- Direct DOH to make CON process “more efficient and targeted”
- DOH to negotiate with the federal government to develop affordable coverage options for the roughly 450,000 New Yorkers (200% FPL income or more) who will lose their Essential Plan coverage.
- DOH to develop a comprehensive Pain Management and Drug Control Strategy focused on preventing opioid misuse and treatment, strengthening prescription oversight, and promoting best practices in pain management across the healthcare continuum.
- Building a Center of Excellence for Cannabis Care and Health Equity
- Update law to dispense with outdated restrictions on the installation of fully automated AEDs and create New York’s first statewide AED registry.
DOH to establish a consortium of healthcare and AI experts to share data and best practices and strengthen cross-sector collaboration around building, testing, and deploying safe and effective AI tools.
