NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A5372
SPONSOR: Paulin TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to increasing mone-
tary penalties for public health law violations and providing support
for the nursing home quality improvement demonstration program
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To update money penalties to better deter bad behavior and incentivize
the correction of violations by health facilities and providers.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Sections one and two amend PHL § 12 (1) and paragraph f of § 309 (1) to
increase State and local health fines from the current $2,000 to $10,000
range per violation to $3,000 ($5,000 for nursing homes or general
hospitals) to $20,000; and deposit penalties garnered from nursing homes
into the nursing home quality improvement demonstration program.
Section three sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
PHL § 12 and 309 are the basic frameworks for money penalties relating
to violations of the PHL, where other monetary penalties are not specif-
ically written in statute. The $2,000 floor amount has not been updated
since 1990. The escalated amounts relating to repeat violations or
endangerment have not been updated since 2008. PHL money penalties are
outdated and nonthreatening, considered by too many as a "cost of doing
business." This bill will dedicate amounts garnered from actions against
nursing homes to quality improvement in other, deserving facilities.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2019-2020: A.4756 - reported to Codes Committee
2021-2022: A.232-C - passed Assembly/advanced to 3rd reading
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect Immediately; provided that the amendments to
subdivision 1 of section 12 of the public health law made by section one
of this act shall not affect the expiration of such subdivision and
shall be deemed to expire therewith.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5372
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 9, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN, DARLING, WOERNER, DINOWITZ, BRONSON,
GONZALEZ-ROJAS, STECK, ANDERSON, SIMON, JACOBSON, COOK, COLTON,
FORREST, SANTABARBARA, WALKER, BURGOS, TAYLOR, CARROLL, CRUZ, EPSTEIN,
LUNSFORD, CLARK, BICHOTTE HERMELYN, ZEBROWSKI, PEOPLES-STOKES,
L. ROSENTHAL, REYES, FALL, KELLES -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to increasing mone-
tary penalties for public health law violations and providing support
for the nursing home quality improvement demonstration program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 12 of the public health law, as
2 amended by section 16 of part A of chapter 58 of the laws of 2008, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 1. (a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subdivi-
5 sion, any person who violates, disobeys or disregards any term or
6 provision of this chapter or of any lawful notice, order or regulation
7 pursuant thereto for which a civil penalty is not otherwise expressly
8 prescribed by law, shall be liable to the people of the state for a
9 civil penalty of not to exceed [two] three thousand dollars for every
10 such violation. Where the violation is committed by an operator or any
11 person or entity that contracts with an operator of a nursing home or
12 general hospital under article twenty-eight of this chapter or a resi-
13 dential care program for adults authorized to operate by the department
14 under article seven of the social services law, the penalty shall not
15 exceed five thousand dollars for every such violation.
16 (b) The penalty provided for in paragraph (a) of this subdivision may
17 be increased to an amount not to exceed [five] ten thousand dollars for
18 a subsequent violation if the person committed the same violation, with
19 respect to the same or any other person or persons, within twelve months
20 of the initial violation for which a penalty was assessed pursuant to
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09071-01-3
A. 5372 2
1 paragraph (a) of this subdivision and said violations were a serious
2 threat to the health and safety of an individual or individuals.
3 (c) The penalty provided for in paragraph (a) of this subdivision may
4 be increased to an amount not to exceed [ten] twenty thousand dollars if
5 the violation directly results in serious physical harm to any patient
6 or patients.
7 (d) Effective on and after April first, two thousand eight the comp-
8 troller is hereby authorized and directed to deposit amounts, except as
9 provided by paragraph (e) of this subdivision, collected in excess of
10 two thousand dollars per violation to the patient safety center account
11 to be used for purposes of the patient safety center created by title
12 two of article twenty-nine-D of this chapter.
13 (e) Amounts collected from an operator of a nursing home licensed
14 under article twenty-eight of this chapter in excess of ten thousand
15 dollars per violation may be transferred as determined by the commis-
16 sioner to the nursing home quality improvement demonstration program, to
17 be used under subdivision six of section twenty-eight hundred eight-d of
18 this chapter in support of projects or programs designed to improve
19 specific areas of quality of care.
20 § 2. Paragraph (f) of subdivision 1 of section 309 of the public
21 health law, as amended by chapter 193 of the laws of 2011, is amended to
22 read as follows:
23 (f) prescribe and impose penalties for the violation of or failure to
24 comply with any of its orders or regulations, or any of the regulations
25 of the state sanitary code, not exceeding [two] three thousand dollars
26 for a single violation or failure, to be sued for and recovered by it in
27 any court of competent jurisdiction; and
28 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the amend-
29 ments to subdivision 1 of section 12 of the public health law made by
30 section one of this act shall not affect the expiration of such subdivi-
31 sion and shall be deemed to expire therewith.
