Bill Text: NY S08270 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Relates to establishing requirements for residential health care facilities during a state disaster emergency involving a disease outbreak; requires the department of health to issue guidance regarding precautions and procedures to maintain health and safety; establishes residential healthcare facility reporting requirements.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-05-29 - PRINT NUMBER 8270A [S08270 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S08270-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         8270--A

                    IN SENATE

                                       May 1, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by Sens. GOUNARDES, MARTINEZ, MAY, METZGER -- read twice and
          ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee  on
          Health  --  committee  discharged,  bill amended, ordered reprinted as
          amended and recommitted to said committee

        AN ACT to amend the public  health  law,  in  relation  to  establishing
          requirements  for  residential  healthcare  facilities  during a state
          disaster emergency involving a disease outbreak

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

     1    Section  1. Section 2803 of the public health law is amended by adding
     2  two new subdivisions 12 and 13 to read as follows:
     3    12. In the event of  a  state  disaster  emergency  as  defined  under
     4  section  twenty  of  the executive law that involves a disease outbreak,
     5  the department shall issue guidance to residential healthcare facilities
     6  regarding precautions and procedures to take to protect and maintain the
     7  health and safety of  residents  and  staff  during  the  course  of  an
     8  outbreak,  and  to  prevent  widespread  transmission  of a communicable
     9  disease.  Such  guidance  shall  include  but   not   be   limited   to:
    10  restrictions  on visitation and entry into the facility by non-essential
    11  personnel, staff education and training on  symptoms  and  transmission,
    12  screening  of all staff prior to the commencement of a work shift, daily
    13  inventory and reporting to the department of personal protective  equip-
    14  ment  and  other  supplies, hand hygiene and environmental disinfection,
    15  mask use and source control, resident education and  monitoring,  place-
    16  ment  of  residents with confirmed or suspected infections, notification
    17  to the lawful representatives of affected residents of  a  confirmed  or
    18  suspected  infection,  informing and educating the lawful representative
    19  of the availability of alternative placement options, including but  not
    20  limited  to  home  care  services authorized under article thirty-six of
    21  this chapter, and making available means of communication for  residents
    22  to  communicate  with  the lawful representative at least once a day, or
    23  otherwise as is practicable. Upon issuance of such guidance, the depart-
    24  ment shall disseminate it to all administrators of  residential  health-

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD16240-03-0
        S. 8270--A                          2

     1  care  facilities and publish it on the department's website no less than
     2  forty-eight hours after a state disaster emergency has been declared.
     3    13.  In  the  event  of  a  state  disaster emergency as defined under
     4  section twenty of the executive law that involves  a  disease  outbreak,
     5  the  department  may  utilize public health emergency appropriations for
     6  the purpose of securing alternative placement options, including but not
     7  limited to home care services under article thirty-six of this  chapter,
     8  for  residents  of residential healthcare facilities for the duration of
     9  the state disaster emergency.
    10    § 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new  section  2808-e
    11  to read as follows:
    12    §  2808-e.  Residential healthcare facility reporting requirements. 1.
    13  The commissioner of health shall, in the  event  of  an  outbreak  of  a
    14  communicable  disease  or  infection,  order  all residential healthcare
    15  facilities to report the following information on a daily basis  to  the
    16  department  and  the  local health department in the county in which the
    17  facility is based: the number of residents or staff  with  suspected  or
    18  confirmed  infection of the disease; the number of residents with severe
    19  infection resulting in hospitalization  or  death;  and  the  number  of
    20  fatalities   following   hospitalization  resulting  from  suspected  or
    21  confirmed infection of the disease. The department shall  aggregate  and
    22  publish  de-identified data, submitted by residential healthcare facili-
    23  ties under this section on a weekly basis, in a manner that is  consist-
    24  ent  with  the  federal  Health Insurance Portability and Accountability
    25  Act, as amended, and any regulations promulgated thereunder.
    26    2. For any residential healthcare facility that experiences a fatality
    27  rate of at least five percent of the resident census as a  result  of  a
    28  state  disaster  emergency  or  disease outbreak as well as strong indi-
    29  cations that the infection rate within the facility is increasing  expo-
    30  nentially, or otherwise attributable to a novel pathogen or known patho-
    31  gen  with  a high lethality rate, the commissioner shall establish daily
    32  communications with such facility  to  determine  and  provide,  to  the
    33  extent  practicable,  all  necessary  supplies, equipment, personnel and
    34  personnel training to ensure the  facility  is  adequately  prepared  to
    35  ensure  the  health  and safety of the residents.  If, in the event that
    36  the fatality and infection rate remains the same  or  increases  over  a
    37  fifteen  day  period  from  the  commissioner's  initial contact, due to
    38  negligent and willful actions of the  established  operator,  which  may
    39  include,  but not be limited to, a willful failure to comply with proce-
    40  dures or utilization of supplies and equipment provided, the commission-
    41  er shall appoint a temporary operator,  subject  to  the  provisions  of
    42  section  twenty-eight  hundred  six-a  of  this  article  to assume sole
    43  control and sole responsibility for the operations of the facility until
    44  the residents of the facility (a) may be safely transferred  to  another
    45  residential  healthcare facility or (b) transferred to a community-based
    46  setting where home care services are delivered under article  thirty-six
    47  of  this  chapter,  provided that, such residents qualifying for medical
    48  assistance shall be deemed eligible for immediate need under subdivision
    49  twelve of section three hundred sixty-six-a of the social services  law.
    50  If  the  commissioner  has  a  reasonable belief of imminent harm to the
    51  public, the commissioner may initiate receivership  subject  to  section
    52  twenty-eight hundred ten of this article.
    53    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.