Bill Text: NY S08999 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Outlines requirements for reporting communicable diseases and deaths due to such communicable diseases for the commissioner of public health, state institutions, and hospitals.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-09-23 - REFERRED TO RULES [S08999 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S08999-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          8999

                    IN SENATE

                                   September 23, 2020
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  RIVERA,  MAY,  SKOUFIS  -- read twice and ordered
          printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules

        AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to reporting communi-
          cable diseases and deaths caused by such communicable diseases

          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 206 of the public health law is
     2  amended by adding two new paragraphs (e-1) and (e-2) to read as follows:
     3    (e-1) ensure that the department  updates  its  regular  reporting  of
     4  "Nursing Home and Adult Care Facility COVID Related Deaths Statewide" to
     5  include  those  COVID-19  confirmed and presumed positive cases of those
     6  residents who were transferred to a hospital and died  in  the  hospital
     7  retrospective  to  March  first,  two thousand twenty. Such update shall
     8  occur and be publicly posted within thirty days of the effective date of
     9  this subdivision;
    10    (e-2) share aggregate  reports  of  information  collected  under  the
    11  department's  emergency  survey  system  known  as  the Health Emergency
    12  Response Data System  (HERDS),  or  its  successor,  with  the  entities
    13  completing  and  submitting  the HERDS surveys, in order to support such
    14  entities' situational awareness and emergency response needs as dictated
    15  by the nature of the  emergency;  such  reports  shall  be  shared  with
    16  surveyed entities as soon as practicable after the HERDS collection, and
    17  shall  be in a form and interval appropriate to the collection frequency
    18  and circumstances of the emergency; for surveys of  duration  less  than
    19  one  week, reports shall be shared as soon as practicable, but not later
    20  than one week after final collection; for surveys of duration more  than
    21  one  week,  such  reports shall be shared no less frequently than weekly
    22  during the survey period. Information from  such  reports  may  be  made
    23  public  by  the  department and shall be used to ensure the department's
    24  public reports required pursuant to sections  twenty-one  hundred  one-a
    25  and forty-one hundred forty of this chapter are accurate and timely;
    26    §  2.  The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2101-a
    27  to read as follows:

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD17298-03-0
        S. 8999                             2

     1    § 2101-a. Communicable diseases; duty to report; transfer of  individ-
     2  uals.  1.  When a communicable disease is reported by a person in charge
     3  of a state institution, pursuant to section  two  thousand  one  hundred
     4  five of this title, or a facility licensed under article twenty-eight of
     5  this  chapter,  pursuant to   the provisions of section two thousand one
     6  hundred one of this title, the report shall include whether the individ-
     7  ual was transferred from another institution or facility,  including  an
     8  adult  care  facility,  and identify the facility. The report shall also
     9  include whether the individual works in a health care facility and iden-
    10  tify the facility.
    11    2. During a declared public health emergency, information collected by
    12  the state and local health districts on cases of a communicable  disease
    13  associated  with  a declared public health emergency shall be maintained
    14  and updated on the department's website no less frequently than once per
    15  week to identify the number of cases of residents and staff  at  partic-
    16  ular  nursing homes and adult care facilities, together with information
    17  on deaths of residents as required by section forty-one hundred forty of
    18  this chapter.
    19    § 3. Section 4140 of the public health law is amended by adding a  new
    20  subdivision 4 to read as follows:
    21    4.  Where  the  death is confirmed or presumed to have occurred from a
    22  disease which is designated in  the  sanitary  code  as  a  communicable
    23  disease,  and  the  individual  resided  in a nursing home or adult care
    24  facility at or immediately prior to such death, the commissioner and the
    25  department of health of the city  of  New  York  and  registrar  of  the
    26  district  in  which the death occurred shall, in addition to maintaining
    27  deaths by district, record such death as that of a nursing home or adult
    28  care facility resident even if the individual did not die in such facil-
    29  ity. During a declared public health emergency, such  information  shall
    30  be maintained and updated on the department's website no less frequently
    31  than once per week, together with information on cases of the communica-
    32  ble disease associated with the public health emergency of residents and
    33  staff as required by section twenty-one hundred one-a of this chapter.
    34    § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.