Bill Text: NY A08237 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to incorporating additional information in the physician profile and streamlining reporting requirements.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - referred to health [A08237 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-A08237-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8237 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY June 10, 2019 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. GOTTFRIED -- (at request of the Department of Health) -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to incorporating additional information in the physician profile and streamlining reporting requirements 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 2995-a of the public health law, 2 as added by chapter 542 of the laws of 2000, paragraph (h) as amended by 3 section 1 of part A of chapter 57 of the laws of 2015, is amended to 4 read as follows: 5 1. The department shall collect the following information and create 6 individual profiles on licensees subject to the authority of the office 7 of professional medical conduct, in a format that shall be available for 8 dissemination to the public: 9 (a) a statement of any criminal convictions (as defined by section 10 1.20 of the criminal procedure law) within the most recent ten years, 11 under the laws of New York state or any other jurisdiction, for offenses 12 specified by regulations of the department; 13 (b) a statement of any action (other than an action that remains 14 confidential) taken against the licensee pursuant to section two hundred 15 thirty of this chapter or any similar action taken by any other state or 16 licensing entity, within the most recent ten years; 17 (c) a statement of any current limitation of the licensee to a speci- 18 fied area, type, scope or condition of practice; 19 (d) a statement of any loss or involuntary restriction of hospital 20 privileges or a failure to renew professional privileges at hospitals 21 within the last ten years, for reasons related to the quality of patient 22 care delivered or to be delivered by the physician where procedural due 23 process has been afforded, exhausted, or waived, or the resignation from 24 or removal of medical staff membership or restriction of privileges at a EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD09241-02-9A. 8237 2 1 hospital taken in lieu of a pending disciplinary case related to the 2 quality of patient care delivered or to be delivered by the physician 3 (notwithstanding paragraph (a) of subdivision three of section twenty- 4 eight hundred three-e of this chapter, as added by chapter eight hundred 5 sixty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty); 6 (e) (i) a statement indicating the number of medical malpractice court 7 judgments and arbitration awards within the most recent ten years in 8 which a payment is awarded to a complaining party (notwithstanding 9 subsection (f) of section three hundred fifteen of the insurance law); 10 and 11 (ii) a statement indicating all malpractice settlements within the 12 most recent ten years in which payment is awarded to a complaining party 13 (notwithstanding subsection (f) of section three hundred fifteen of the 14 insurance law), 15 (A) if the total number of settlements exceeds two; or 16 (B) if the commissioner determines any such settlement could be rele- 17 vant to patient decisionmaking concerning health care quality. The 18 statement shall include the following: "Settlement payments will appear 19 in this profile only if the total number of settlements made within the 20 past ten years exceeds two, or if the commissioner of health determines 21 a settlement to be relevant to patient decisionmaking. Settlement of a 22 claim may occur for a variety of reasons, which do not necessarily 23 reflect negatively on the professional competence or conduct of the 24 physician. A payment in settlement of a medical malpractice action or 25 claim does not necessarily mean that a medical malpractice has 26 occurred." The commissioner may supplement such statement as may be 27 appropriate. 28 (iii) judgments, awards and settlements shall be reported in graduated 29 categories indicating the level of significance, date and place of the 30 judgment, award or settlement. Information concerning medical malprac- 31 tice judgments, awards and settlements shall be put in context by 32 comparing an individual licensee's medical malpractice settlements to 33 the experience of other physicians in New York state within the same 34 board specialty. Pending malpractice claims shall not be disclosed to 35 the public under this section. Nothing herein shall be construed to 36 prevent the board from investigating or disciplining a licensee on the 37 basis of medical malpractice claims that are pending; 38 (f) name of medical schools attended and date of graduations; 39 (g) graduate medical education; 40 (h) current specialty board certification and date of certification; 41 (i) dates admitted to practice in New York state; 42 (j) names of hospitals where the licensee has practice privileges; 43 (k) appointments to medical school faculties and indication as to 44 whether a licensee has had a responsibility for graduate medical educa- 45 tion within the most recent ten years; 46 (l) information regarding publications in peer reviewed medical liter- 47 ature within the most recent ten years; 48 (m) information regarding professional or community service activities 49 or awards; 50 (n) (i) the location of the licensee's primary practice setting iden- 51 tified as such; [and] 52 (ii) [the names of any licensed physicians with whom the licensee53shares a group practice, as defined in subdivision five of section two54hundred thirty-eight of this chapter] hours of operation of the 55 licensee's primary practice setting;A. 8237 3 1 (iii) availability of assistive technology at the licensee's primary 2 practice setting; and 3 (iv) whether the licensee is accepting new patients; 4 (o) the identification of any translating services that may be avail- 5 able at the licensee's primary practice location; 6 (p) whether the licensee participates in the medicaid or medicare 7 program or any other state or federally financed health insurance 8 program; [and] 9 (q) health care plans with which the licensee has contracts, employ- 10 ment, or other affiliation[.] provided that the reporting and accuracy 11 of such information shall not be the responsibility of the physician, 12 but shall be included and updated by the department utilizing provider 13 network participation information, or other reliable sources of informa- 14 tion submitted by health care plans; 15 (r) physician's website and social media accounts; 16 (s) the names of any licensed physicians with whom the licensee shares 17 a group practice, as defined in subdivision five of section two hundred 18 thirty-eight of this chapter; and 19 (t) workforce research and planning information as determined by the 20 commissioner. 21 § 2. Section 2995-a of the public health law is amended by adding a 22 new subdivision 1-b to read as follows: 23 1-b. (a) For the purposes of this section, a physician licensed and 24 registered to practice in this state may authorize a designee to regis- 25 ter, transmit, enter or update information on his or her behalf, 26 provided that: 27 (i) the designee so authorized is employed by the physician or the 28 same professional practice or is under contract with such practice; 29 (ii) the physician takes reasonable steps to ensure that such designee 30 is sufficiently competent in the profile requirements; 31 (iii) the physician remains responsible for ensuring the accuracy of 32 the information provided and for any failure to provide accurate infor- 33 mation; and 34 (iv) the physician shall notify the department upon terminating the 35 authorization of any designee, in a manner determined by the department. 36 (b) The commissioner shall grant access to the profile in a reasonably 37 prompt manner to designees authorized by physicians and establish a 38 mechanism to prevent designees terminated pursuant to subparagraph (iv) 39 of paragraph (a) of this subdivision from accessing the profile in a 40 reasonably prompt manner following notification of termination. 41 § 3. Subdivision 4 of section 2995-a of the public health law, as 42 amended by section 3 of part A of chapter 57 of the laws of 2015, is 43 amended to read as follows: 44 4. Each physician shall periodically report to the department on forms 45 and in the time and manner required by the commissioner any other infor- 46 mation as is required by the department for the development of profiles 47 under this section which is not otherwise reasonably obtainable. In 48 addition to such periodic reports and providing the same information, 49 each physician shall update his or her profile information within the 50 six months prior to [the expiration date of such physician's registra-51tion period] submission of the re-registration application, as a condi- 52 tion of registration renewal [under article one hundred thirty-one] 53 pursuant to section sixty-five hundred twenty-four of the education law. 54 Except for optional information provided and information required under 55 subparagraph (iv) of paragraph (n) and paragraphs (q) and (t) of subdi-A. 8237 4 1 vision one of this section, physicians shall notify the department of 2 any change in the profile information within thirty days of such change. 3 § 4. Subdivision 6 of section 2995-a of the public health law, as 4 added by chapter 542 of the laws of 2000, is amended to read as follows: 5 6. A physician may elect to have his or her profile omit certain 6 information provided pursuant to paragraphs (k), (l), (m), [(n) and (q)] 7 (r), (s), and subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (n) of subdivision one of 8 this section. Information provided pursuant to paragraph (t) of subdivi- 9 sion one of this section shall be omitted from a physician's profile and 10 shall be exempt from disclosure under article six of the public officers 11 law. In collecting information for such profiles and disseminating the 12 same, the department shall inform physicians that they may choose not to 13 provide such information required pursuant to paragraphs (k), (l), (m), 14 [(n) and (q)] (r), and (s) of subdivision one of this section. 15 § 5. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 16 it shall have become a law.
