NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A614
SPONSOR: Peoples-Stokes
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring written
in-person or electronic notifications to be utilized for registration in
the donate life registry
 
PURPOSE:
To clarify when an individual's enrollment into the Donate Life Registry
becomes active.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This bill amends Chapter 649 of the Laws of 2022 by clarifying that an
individual's enrollment into the Donate Life Registry becomes active
after their information is entered into the Registry itself and not
immediately upon enrollment.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
While important recent improvements have been made, New York unfortu-
nately continues to struggle with regard to the percentage of residents
that are registered as organ and tissue donors. Nearly 9,000 individuals
are in need of a life-saving organ transplant at any given time, which
represents one of the highest need for donors in the United States. Over
1,500 people in New York State have been on the national transplant
waiting list for more than five years. Sadly, in 2020'alone, nearly 600
New Yorkers died in part due to a pronounced shortage of donors.
This legislation takes a common sense approach to modernizing communi-
cations or New Yorkers enrolling as organ and tissue donors through the
donate life registry. While communications with registrants are impor-
tant, modern improvements can and should be made to make communications
more equitable, convenient, effective, and transparent to enrollees in
the registry.
This bill takes additional amendments in the administration of the
Donate Life Registry by ensuring that enrollees are aware of their
registration and that the individual's data has sufficient time to enter
the Donate Life Registry system.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is a new bill.
 
BUDGET IMPLICATIONS:
None noted.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the same date and in the same manner as a
chapter of the laws of 2022 amending the public health law relating to
requiring written in-person or electronic notifications to be utilized
for registration in the donate life registry, as proposed in legislative
bills numbers S. 6921-A and A. 7916-A, takes effect.,
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
614
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 10, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. PEOPLES-STOKES -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring written
in-person or electronic notifications to be utilized for registration
in the donate life registry
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 5 of section 4310 of the
2 public health law, as amended by a chapter of the laws of 2022 amending
3 the public health law relating to requiring written in-person or elec-
4 tronic notifications to be utilized for registration in the donate life
5 registry, as proposed in legislative bills numbers S. 6921-A and A.
6 7916-A, is amended to read as follows:
7 (c) Enrollment or amendment or revocation through the donate life
8 registry website through any of the means listed in this subdivision may
9 be signed by electronic signature, in accordance with the provisions of
10 article three of the state technology law, supported by the use of suit-
11 able mechanisms including unique identifiers to provide confidence in
12 the identity of the person providing the electronic signature. The
13 registration shall take effect upon the provision of written or elec-
14 tronic notice of the registration to the individual enrolling in the
15 donate life registry and the registry's [receipt] entry of the individ-
16 ual's enrollment data in the registry; provided, however, that written
17 in-person or electronic notifications shall be utilized wherever possi-
18 ble as methods for fulfillment of the purposes of this paragraph.
19 § 2. This act shall take effect on the same date and in the same
20 manner as a chapter of the laws of 2022 amending the public health law
21 relating to requiring written in-person or electronic notifications to
22 be utilized for registration in the donate life registry, as proposed in
23 legislative bills numbers S. 6921-A and A. 7916-A, takes effect.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03939-01-3