Bill Text: NY A04072 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Requires hospitals to offer plant-based food options to patients upon request.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 27-1)

Status: (Passed) 2019-12-06 - SIGNED CHAP.588 [A04072 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A04072-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         4072--A
                                                                 Cal. No. 82

                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 1, 2019
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by M. of A. GOTTFRIED, MOSLEY, L. ROSENTHAL, EPSTEIN, ORTIZ,
          THIELE, D'URSO, DE LA ROSA, PAULIN, REYES, BLAKE, JEAN-PIERRE, TAYLOR,
          JAFFEE, BARRON, GLICK, SOLAGES, SEAWRIGHT, HYNDMAN,  FERNANDEZ,  DICK-
          ENS,  SAYEGH  --  Multi-Sponsored  by  --  M. of A. COOK, ENGLEBRIGHT,
          GALEF, M. L. MILLER -- read once and  referred  to  the  Committee  on
          Health  --  advanced to a third reading, passed by Assembly and deliv-
          ered to the Senate, recalled from the Senate, vote reconsidered,  bill
          amended,  ordered reprinted, retaining its place on the order of third
          reading

        AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation  to  offering  plant-
          based food options in hospitals

          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  section
     2  2827 to read as follows:
     3    §  2827. Plant-based food options. 1. Upon request by a patient or the
     4  patient's lawful representative in a  hospital  providing  inpatient  or
     5  residential  care,  the  hospital  shall offer the patient a plant-based
     6  food option as an alternative to every meal or  snack  offered  in  food
     7  service  to  the patient. All the hospital's written material describing
     8  food offerings shall include the  availability  of  a  plant-based  food
     9  option.  The  plant-based  food option shall be offered at no additional
    10  cost to the patient beyond what would be charged for a  comparable  non-
    11  plant-based food option.
    12    2.  The  hospital shall respond in a reasonable manner and time to any
    13  request made under this section. The  request  shall  be  effective  for
    14  every hospital meal or snack in which the patient is reasonably expected
    15  to  participate.  This  section does not preclude the offering of plant-
    16  based food options to patients who have not requested it, and  does  not
    17  preclude  an individual who has requested a plant-based food option from
    18  selecting a non-plant-based food option.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04012-03-9
        A. 4072--A                          2

     1    3. As used in this section:
     2    (a) "Plant-based food option" means a food or beverage that is free of
     3  animal  products  and  that has nutritional value comparable to the non-
     4  plant-based food option that it replaces.
     5    (b) "Animal product" means meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, eggs, honey,
     6  and any derivative thereof.
     7    4. This  section  shall  not  apply  to  patient  nutritional  support
     8  products  including,  but  not  limited to, infant formulas, nutritional
     9  modulars, oral nutritional supplements, enteral nutrition formulas,  and
    10  parenteral  or  intravenous nutrition, prescribed or ordered by a health
    11  care professional, licensed, certified or otherwise authorized to  prac-
    12  tice  under  title eight of the education law, acting within the profes-
    13  sional's lawful scope of practice. However,  where  a  request  is  made
    14  under subdivision one of this section, and a health care professional is
    15  considering  prescribing or ordering a patient nutritional support prod-
    16  uct under this subdivision, the health care professional shall  consider
    17  and  advise  the requester whether a medically suitable plant-based food
    18  option is reasonably available.
    19    § 2. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become  a
    20  law.  Effective  immediately,  the commissioner of health may make regu-
    21  lations and take other actions reasonably necessary  to  implement  this
    22  act on that date.