Bill Text: NY S02247 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requires hospitals and healthcare facilities which provide emergency services to develop plans to provide reasonable accommodations to house a patient's service animal until such time as they can be picked up.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO INVESTIGATIONS AND GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS [S02247 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S02247-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          2247

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 19, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  WEIK  --  read twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on Investigations and Govern-
          ment Operations

        AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to  requiring  certain
          healthcare  facilities to develop plans to provide reasonable accommo-
          dations for service animals

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. Section 47-b of the civil rights law is amended by adding a
     2  new subdivision 8 to read as follows:
     3    8.  Each  hospital  or  healthcare  facility  that  provides emergency
     4  services shall develop a plan to provide a reasonable accommodation  for
     5  service  animals  brought  into such facility during an emergency or any
     6  time that a patient needs medical  treatment  and  such  service  animal
     7  cannot  be  with  such  patient.    Such  reasonable accommodation shall
     8  include, but not be limited to, a space or area to  house  such  service
     9  animal until such time as a family member, designated person, or service
    10  animal agency can collect such service animal or such service animal can
    11  be reunited with the patient at the hospital or healthcare facility. For
    12  purposes  of  this  subdivision, "service animal" shall mean  any animal
    13  that has been partnered with a person who has a disability and has  been
    14  trained  or  is  being trained, by a qualified person, to aid or guide a
    15  person with a disability.
    16    § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after
    17  it shall have become a law.



         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04981-01-3