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A08170 Summary:

BILL NOA08170
 
SAME ASSAME AS S07778
 
SPONSORPaulin
 
COSPNSROtis, Simone, Hevesi, Gonzalez-Rojas, Burdick, Seawright, Lavine, Epstein, Weprin, Wallace, Hunter, Stirpe, Shimsky, Levenberg, Glick, Reyes, De Los Santos, Thiele, McDonough, Aubry, Simon, Forrest, McDonald, Rosenthal L, Mamdani, Gunther, Raga, Bichotte Hermelyn
 
MLTSPNSR
 
Add Art 51 §5100, Pub Health L
 
Prohibits state-operated hospitals from suing patients for medical debt; defines "medical debt".
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A08170 Actions:

BILL NOA08170
 
10/18/2023referred to health
01/03/2024referred to health
05/21/2024reported referred to ways and means
06/06/2024reported referred to rules
06/06/2024reported
06/06/2024rules report cal.493
06/06/2024ordered to third reading rules cal.493
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A08170 Memo:

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION
submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A8170REVISED 10/24/23
 
SPONSOR: Paulin
  TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the public health law, in relation to prohibiting state- operated hospitals from suing patients for medical debt   PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL: To prohibit State-operated hospitals from suing patients for medical debt.   SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS: Section 1 amends the public health law by adding a new article 51. Article 51 prohibits state university health care facilities authorized under Article 8 of the education law, cancer institutes authored under article 10-c of the public authorities law, and hospitals authorized under section 2600 of the public, health law from pursuing litigation against patients for medical debt. Section 2 is the effective date.   JUSTIFICATION: This bill would protect New Yorkers who receive care from State operated hospitals from medical debt lawsuits. There are five New York State-op- erated hospitals-SUNY Upstate (Syracuse), SUNY Downstate (Brooklyn), SUNY Stony Brook (Long Island), Roswell Park (Buffalo) and Helen Hayes (Rockland County). Together, they sue their patients at disproportionate rates compared to other New York hospitals, suing over 3,000 patients per year. These lawsuits are pursued in State Supreme Court by lawyers from the Attorney General's office. An analysis of SUNY Upstate by the Community Service Society found that over 50 percent of the cases were filed in zip codes where residents are disproportionately people of color. And 77% of patients who were sued live in zip codes where the median income is under $70,000 a year (and thus were likely eligible for hospital financial assistance under state law). Another dozen patients who were sued lived in prison, and thus unlikely to have any income at all. A July 2023 study by the Urban Institute indicates that 740,000 New Yorkers are afflicted by medical debt and that it is disproportionately shouldered by people of color, low-income people and people who live in rural parts of New York State. This report noted that areas where the percentage of New Yorkers with medical debt are high coincide with areas where there are hospital medical debt litigation hotspots. Medical billing is both confusing and difficult to navigate. Pricing is opaque and insurance payments are bewildering. New York State operated hospitals receive over $500 million annually in federal and state disproportionate share hospital (DHS) funding. They also benefit from local, state, and federal tax exemptions. Private and voluntary hospitals in New York receive only a portion of the DSH fund- ing for which they could be eligible because the need in New York is greater than New York's DSH funding cap. By contrast, these five State- operated hospitals receive the full amount of funding for which they are eligible, with the State paying the entire non-federal share of the DSH funding. Unlike these State-run hospitals, locally operated government- run public hospitals are only able to receive the full amount of DSH funding when their localities pay a portion of the non-federal share. Moreover, the largest government-run public hospital system in New York State, New York City Health and Hospitals, does not sue any patients at all. Suing patients is expensive and will do little to offset the State-run hospitals' margins. For example, the total amount SUNY Upstate sued patients for in one year was just $16_ million. SUNY Upstate's annual operating budget was $1.5 billion, indicating its practice of suing its patients will do little to ameliorate its bottom line.   PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: New bill.   FISCAL IMPLICATION: None.   EFFECTIVE DATE: Immediately.
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A08170 Text:



 
                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                          8170
 
                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions
 
                   IN ASSEMBLY
 
                                    October 18, 2023
                                       ___________
 
        Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN -- read once and referred to the Committee
          on Health
 
        AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to prohibiting state-
          operated hospitals from suing patients for medical debt
 
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new article 51
     2  to read as follows:
     3                                 ARTICLE 51
     4         PROHIBITION ON STATE-OPERATED HOSPITALS SUING PATIENTS FOR
     5                                MEDICAL DEBT
     6  Section 5100. Prohibition on state-operated hospitals suing patients for
     7                  medical debt.
     8    § 5100. Prohibition on state-operated  hospitals  suing  patients  for
     9  medical  debt.  1.  No  state university health care facility authorized
    10  under article eight of the education law,  cancer  institute  authorized
    11  under  article  ten-C of the public authorities law, or hospital author-
    12  ized under section twenty-six hundred of this chapter shall pursue liti-
    13  gation in civil or supreme court against a patient for the pursuit of  a
    14  medical debt.
    15    2.  For  the  purposes  of this section, the term "medical debt" shall
    16  mean an obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay any amount
    17  related to the receipt of health care  services,  products,  or  devices
    18  provided  to  a person by a hospital licensed under article twenty-eight
    19  of this chapter, a health care professional authorized under title eight
    20  of the education law or an ambulance  service  certified  under  article
    21  thirty of this chapter.
    22    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
 
 
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD13371-02-3
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