Creates an office of healthcare accountability to provide recommendations regarding healthcare and hospital costs; audit expenditures for state employees and retirees; and to provide public information relating to hospital costs and the transparency of hospitals with regard to disclosure of costs.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5307
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 7, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. DINOWITZ, RAGA -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to creating the
office of healthcare accountability
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Article 1 of the public health law is amended by adding a
2 new title 4 to read as follows:
3 TITLE 4
4 OFFICE OF HEALTHCARE ACCOUNTABILITY
5 Section 40. Office of healthcare accountability.
6 41. Definitions.
7 42. Powers and duties.
8 43. Reporting.
9 § 40. Office of healthcare accountability. There is hereby established
10 within the department an office of healthcare accountability. Such
11 office shall be headed by a director of healthcare accountability, who
12 shall be appointed by the commissioner.
13 § 41. Definitions. For purposes of this title, the following terms
14 have the following meanings:
15 1. "Director" shall mean the director of healthcare accountability.
16 2. "Office" shall mean the office of healthcare accountability.
17 § 42. Powers and duties. The director shall have the power and duty
18 to:
19 1. Provide recommendations to the governor, legislature, state comp-
20 troller, and trustees of the state pension systems regarding healthcare
21 and hospital costs, including, but not limited to, the proportion of
22 healthcare costs spent on hospital care;
23 2. Audit expenditures on healthcare costs for state employees, state
24 retirees, and their dependents;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09629-03-3
A. 5307 2
1 3. Provide, on the office's website in a simplified and publicly
2 accessible format, information on the costs of hospital procedures. Such
3 information shall be based on any publicly available information relat-
4 ing to the cost of hospital procedures, including disclosures required
5 pursuant to state and federal law, and shall be formatted in a way to
6 allow for comparisons between procedure costs for specific hospitals;
7 and
8 4. Provide on the office's website a summary of the cost transparency
9 of each hospital in the state, categorizing each hospital as very trans-
10 parent, satisfactory, or not transparent. Such summary shall be updated
11 at least annually and shall be based on the office's assessment of the
12 information that each hospital has disclosed relating to the cost of
13 hospital procedures, including:
14 (a) whether such disclosures comply with the requirements of state and
15 federal law; and
16 (b) whether such disclosures were provided within the time period
17 required by state and federal law.
18 § 43. Reporting. One year after the effective date of this title, and
19 annually thereafter, the director shall submit to the governor, the
20 temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, and the
21 attorney general, and shall post conspicuously on the office's website,
22 a report detailing the pricing practices for hospital systems in New
23 York state. Such report shall include, but not be limited to, the
24 following:
25 1. a summary of any audits conducted pursuant to subdivision two of
26 section forty-two of this title, including the costs of hospital proce-
27 dures paid for by the state disaggregated by hospital;
28 2. a summary of prices charged for hospital procedures disaggregated
29 by:
30 (a) hospital;
31 (b) type of procedure, and;
32 (c) to the extent available, the average rate of reimbursement
33 received by the hospital from each health insurance provider or other
34 payer for each procedure;
35 3. a summary of each hospital's level of transparency pursuant to
36 subdivision four of section forty-two of this title;
37 4. to the extent available, a breakdown of each major insurance
38 provider's and other payer's profit margins, employee headcounts, over-
39 head costs, and executive salaries and bonuses; and
40 5. to the extent available, a summary of each hospital's community
41 benefit information as publicly reported on the Internal Revenue
42 Service's Form 990, Schedule H, as required pursuant to section 501(r)
43 of the Internal Revenue Service code, and each hospital's publicly
44 available implementation report regarding the hospital's performance in
45 meeting the healthcare needs of the community, providing charity care
46 services, and improving access to healthcare services by the under-
47 served, as required pursuant to subdivision three of section twenty-
48 eight hundred three-l of this chapter.
49 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after
50 it shall have become a law.
