NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A1323B
SPONSOR: Rosenthal (MS) TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the public health law, in relation to
identification of caregivers
PURPOSE:
This bill would require a general hospital as defined in § 2801(10) of
the public health law to allow a patient an opportunity to designate,
upon admission to a hospital, a caregiver in the patient's medical
record; to require a hospital to notify and offer to meet with the
designated caregiver to discuss the patient's plan of care prior to the
patient's discharge or transfer to another facility; to require a hospi-
tal to offer to adequately train the designated caregiver in certain
aftercare tasks upon a patient's discharge to his or her current resi-
dence.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds a new section 29-CCCC to the public health law and sets
forth definitions.
Section 2 sets forth the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
At any given time, an estimated 4.1 million New Yorkers provide varying
degrees of unreimbursed care to adults with limitations in daily activ-
ities. The total value of the unpaid care provided to individuals in
need of long-term services and supports amounts to an estimated $32
billion every year, based on 2009 data. Caregivers are often members of
the individual's immediate family, but friends and other community
members also serve as caregivers. While most caregivers are asked to
assist an individual with basic activities of daily living, such as
mobility, eating, and dressing, many are expected to perform complex
tasks on a daily basis such as administering multiple medications,
providing wound care, and operating medical equipment.
Despite the vast importance of caregivers in the individual's day-to-day
care, many caregivers find that they are often left out of discussions
involving a patient's care while in the hospital and, upon the patient's
discharge, receive little to no instruction on the tasks they are
expected to perform. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services (CMS) estimates that $17 billion in Medicare funds is spent
each year on unnecessary hospital readmissions. Additionally, hospitals
desire to avoid the imposition of new readmission penalties under the
federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).
In order to successfully address the challenges of a surging population
of older adults and others who have significant needs for long-term
services and supports, the state must develop methods to enable caregiv-
ers to continue to support their loved ones at home and in the communi-
ty, and avoid costly hospital readmissions. Therefore, it is the intent
of the New York State Assembly that this Act enables caregivers to
provide competent post-hospital care to their family and other loved
ones, at minimal cost to the taxpayers of this State.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A.9816 of 2014
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
