Authorizes the Westchester health care corporation to enter into contracts and arrangements providing for the creation and operation of a delivery system network.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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8034--A
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 17, 2013
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ABINANTI -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions -- recommitted to the
Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions in accordance
with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended,
ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public authorities law, in relation to authorizing
the Westchester health care corporation to enter into agreements for
the creation and operation of a health care delivery system network
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 3301 of the public authorities law is amended by
2 adding a new subdivision 6 to read as follows:
3 6. As a free-standing public health care provider, the corporation is
4 at a competitive disadvantage in the current and emerging health care
5 environment, yet it cannot become part of a larger system of corporate
6 entities while maintaining its public status. Significant investments in
7 the public assets of the corporation and its efforts to provide high
8 quality health care services to medically underserved populations are
9 jeopardized by the corporation's inability to compete on its own and by
10 potential limits on its ability to collaborate with other public and
11 private providers, entities and individuals. The state finds that the
12 benefits of collaboration by the corporation outweigh any adverse impact
13 on competition. The benefits of the corporation's collaborative efforts
14 include preserving and expanding needed health care services in its
15 primary service area; consolidating unneeded or duplicative health care
16 services; enhancing the quality of, and expanding access to, health care
17 delivered to medically underserved populations; lowering costs and
18 improving the efficiency of the health care services it delivers; and
19 achieving improved reimbursement from non-governmental payors. Based on
20 the findings contained in this section, the state hereby affirmatively
21 expresses a policy to allow the corporation to engage in collaborative
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11518-03-4
A. 8034--A 2
1 activities consistent with its health care purposes, notwithstanding
2 that those collaborations may have the effect of displacing competition
3 in the provision of hospital, physician or other health care-related
4 services. With respect to the collaborative activities contemplated in
5 this section and in subdivision eight of section thirty-three hundred
6 six of this title, the corporation and the public or private entities
7 and individuals with which it collaborates shall be immunized from
8 liability under the federal and state antitrust laws.
9 § 2. Section 3306 of the public authorities law is amended by adding a
10 new subdivision 8 to read as follows:
11 8. (a) In carrying out its health care purposes through the exercise
12 of the special powers exercised pursuant to this section and the general
13 powers exercised pursuant to section thirty-three hundred five of this
14 title, the corporation is authorized to engage in arrangements,
15 contracts, information sharing and other collaborative activities with
16 public or private entities and individuals irrespective of the compet-
17 itive consequences of these activities and notwithstanding that these
18 activities may have the effect of displacing competition in the
19 provision of hospital, physician, or other health care-related services.
20 These collaborative activities may include without limitation: joint
21 ventures; joint negotiations with physicians, hospitals and payors,
22 whether such negotiations result in separate or combined agreements;
23 leases; and/or agreements which involve delivery system network creation
24 and operation, provided that, the corporation shall exercise state over-
25 sight by determining whether particular collaborations with public or
26 private entities and individuals further the interests of the state as
27 set forth in this subdivision and in subdivision six of section thirty-
28 three hundred one of this title. In undertaking these collaborative
29 activities, the corporation and the public or private entities and indi-
30 viduals with which it collaborates shall be immunized from liability
31 under the federal and state antitrust laws.
32 (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, the corporation
33 and its collaborators shall remain subject to generally applicable
34 provisions of the public health law and regulations thereunder. In addi-
35 tion, the corporation shall file an annual report with the state depart-
36 ment of health, as additional state oversight, concerning the impact of
37 the collaborations authorized under this section on the advantages and
38 disadvantages identified by the department of health in its request for
39 applications for HEAL NY Phase 21, entitled "Restructuring Initiatives
40 in Medicaid Redesign," and concerning the impact on reimbursement to the
41 corporation's facilities by managed care organizations with respect to
42 commercial plan members, including the extent to which rates have been
43 negotiated that more fairly compensate the corporation's facilities for
44 the cost of providing services to commercial enrollees, without cross-
45 subsidy from medicaid or other governmental programs. In response to the
46 report, the department of health shall have sixty days after the report
47 has been filed to request, in writing, that the corporation make changes
48 to its policies to ensure that the collaborations authorized under this
49 section further the interests of the state.
50 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
