NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A232C
SPONSOR: Gottfried TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to increasing mone-
tary penalties for public health law violations and providing support
for the nursing home quality improvement demonstration program
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To update money penalties to better deter bad behavior and incentivize
the correction of violations by health facilities and providers.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Amends PHL § 12 and 309 to increase State and local health fines from
the current $2,000 to $10,000 range per violation to $3,000 ($5,000 for
nursing homes or general hospitals) to $20,000; and deposit penalties
garnered from nursing homes into the nursing home quality improvement
demonstration program.
JUSTIFICATION:
PHL § 12 and 309 are the basic frameworks for money penalties relating
to violations of the PHL, where other monetary penalties are not specif-
ically written in statute. The $2,000 floor amount has not been updated
since 1990. The escalated amounts relating to repeat violations or
endangerment have not been updated since 2008. PHL money penalties are
outdated and non-threatening, considered by too many as a "cost of doing
business." This bill will dedicate amounts garnered from actions against
nursing homes to quality improvement in other, deserving facilities.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill
2019-2020: A.4756 - reported to Codes Committee
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
232--C
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 6, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GOTTFRIED, DARLING, WOERNER, GALEF, BARRON,
DINOWITZ, BRONSON, GONZALEZ-ROJAS, CUSICK, STECK, ANDERSON, SIMON,
JACOBSON, COOK, COLTON -- read once and referred to the Committee on
Health -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee -- reported and referred to
the Committee on Codes -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered
reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee -- again
reported from said committee with amendments, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to increasing mone-
tary penalties for public health law violations and providing support
for the nursing home quality improvement demonstration program
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 12 of the public health law, as
2 amended by section 16 of part A of chapter 58 of the laws of 2008, is
3 amended to read as follows:
4 1. (a) Except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subdivi-
5 sion, any person who violates, disobeys or disregards any term or
6 provision of this chapter or of any lawful notice, order or regulation
7 pursuant thereto for which a civil penalty is not otherwise expressly
8 prescribed by law, shall be liable to the people of the state for a
9 civil penalty of not to exceed [two] three thousand dollars for every
10 such violation. Where the violation is committed by an operator or any
11 person or entity that contracts with an operator of a nursing home or
12 general hospital under article twenty-eight of this chapter or a resi-
13 dential care program for adults authorized to operate by the department
14 under article seven of the social services law, the penalty shall not
15 exceed five thousand dollars for every such violation.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00268-05-1
A. 232--C 2
1 (b) The penalty provided for in paragraph (a) of this subdivision may
2 be increased to an amount not to exceed [five] ten thousand dollars for
3 a subsequent violation if the person committed the same violation, with
4 respect to the same or any other person or persons, within twelve months
5 of the initial violation for which a penalty was assessed pursuant to
6 paragraph (a) of this subdivision and said violations were a serious
7 threat to the health and safety of an individual or individuals.
8 (c) The penalty provided for in paragraph (a) of this subdivision may
9 be increased to an amount not to exceed [ten] twenty thousand dollars if
10 the violation directly results in serious physical harm to any patient
11 or patients.
12 (d) Effective on and after April first, two thousand eight the comp-
13 troller is hereby authorized and directed to deposit amounts, except as
14 provided by paragraph (e) of this subdivision, collected in excess of
15 two thousand dollars per violation to the patient safety center account
16 to be used for purposes of the patient safety center created by title
17 two of article twenty-nine-D of this chapter.
18 (e) Amounts collected from an operator of a nursing home licensed
19 under article twenty-eight of this chapter in excess of ten thousand
20 dollars per violation may be transferred as determined by the commis-
21 sioner to the nursing home quality improvement demonstration program, to
22 be used under subdivision six of section twenty-eight hundred eight-d of
23 this chapter in support of projects or programs designed to improve
24 specific areas of quality of care.
25 § 2. Paragraph (f) of subdivision 1 of section 309 of the public
26 health law, as amended by chapter 193 of the laws of 2011, is amended to
27 read as follows:
28 (f) prescribe and impose penalties for the violation of or failure to
29 comply with any of its orders or regulations, or any of the regulations
30 of the state sanitary code, not exceeding [two] three thousand dollars
31 for a single violation or failure, to be sued for and recovered by it in
32 any court of competent jurisdiction; and
33 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided that the amend-
34 ments to subdivision 1 of section 12 of the public health law made by
35 section one of this act shall not affect the expiration of such subdivi-
36 sion and shall be deemed to expire therewith.
