Relates to creating the health emergency response data system, which collects information and statistical data relating to public health emergencies in order to assist the department of health, other government entities, health care providers, and the public in understanding and responding to public health emergencies.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A244A
SPONSOR: Gottfried TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to creating the
health emergency response data system
PURPOSE:
This bill is designed to create in statute the Health emergency response
data system (HERDS) and bring transparency to information gathered
during public health emergencies, including communicable disease
outbreaks like COVID-19, by requiring the Department of Health to share
aggregate data from HERDS reports with the entities reporting and the
public.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Creates a new section 206-c of the public health law to
create in statute the Health Emergency Response Data System (HERDS).
Sections 2: Amends paragraph b of subdivision 2 of section 206-c of the
public health law directing HERDS to make HERDS information available to
government entities, health care providers, and the public, including
posting on the department's website, as soon and as close to real time
as practicable after it is collected but no later than seven days after
it is received by the department.
Section 3: Provides an effective date
JUSTIFICATION:
The Department requires health care providers of all types to answer
survey data points throughout an emergency, often changing the data,
requested from the providers at various intervals, and collects this
data in the Health Emergency Reporting Data System (HERDS). In every
other instance, the data provided by individual providers on HERDS forms
have been given back to providers in an aggregated form to help them
better understand and manage the emergency. Much to the dismay of
providers, however, after months of daily data submissions and requests
to the department to share the aggregate data, the department has never
shared any of the HERDS data relating to the COVID-19 public health
emergency. At 2020 legislative hearings on COVID-19, providers expressed
desire to see this information in order to better inform their emergency
response policies. This bill would ensure that the department provides
timely feedback to providers as they have in the past and to the public
on the department's website whenever the HERDS is activated.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
A11132 - Referred to Health
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to state.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately, provided section two of the bill
takes effect 60 days after enactment.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
244--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY(Prefiled)
January 6, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. GOTTFRIED, THIELE, SEAWRIGHT, PAULIN, McDONALD,
ABINANTI, LUPARDO, DINOWITZ, JACKSON, ENGLEBRIGHT, NOLAN, MEEKS, HEVE-
SI, CAHILL, BRONSON, BARRON, MAGNARELLI, MONTESANO, LAWLER, SCHMITT,
BRABENEC, McDONOUGH, SALKA, CUSICK, LUNSFORD, KELLES, BYRNE, ZEBROW-
SKI, STECK, ANDERSON, SIMON -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Health -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to creating the
health emergency response data system
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding a new section
2 206-c to read as follows:
3 § 206-c. Health emergency response data system. 1. a. The health emer-
4 gency response data system, referred to in this section as "HERDS", is
5 hereby created in the department. The HERDS shall collect information
6 and statistical data, referred to in this section as "HERDS informa-
7 tion", relating to public health emergencies and health care services
8 related to public health emergencies, in order to assist the department,
9 other government entities, health care providers, and the public in
10 understanding and responding to public health emergencies.
11 b. Individually identifiable HERDS information shall be kept confiden-
12 tial. HERDS information disclosed under this section shall be aggregated
13 so it cannot be individually identifiable, but it shall contain suffi-
14 cient detail, so it refers to specific geographic areas and hospitals,
15 as defined in article twenty-eight of this chapter.
16 c. The commissioner shall make regulations implementing this section.
17 2. a. The HERDS shall collect HERDS information, including from
18 surveys submitted by hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care
19 providers, as determined by the commissioner.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02797-02-1
A. 244--A 2
1 b. The HERDS shall be operated by the department, including the
2 collecting and making available information, in conjunction with and to
3 improve the department's fulfillment of its responsibilities under arti-
4 cles twenty-one and forty-one of this chapter.
5 § 2. Paragraph b of subdivision 2 of section 206-c of the public
6 health law, as added by section one of this act, is amended to read as
7 follows:
8 b. HERDS shall make HERDS information available to government enti-
9 ties, health care providers, and the public, including posting on the
10 department's website, as soon and as close to real time as practicable
11 after it is collected but no later than seven days after it is received
12 by the department.
13 c. The HERDS shall be operated by the department, including the
14 collecting and making available information, in conjunction with and to
15 improve the department's fulfillment of its responsibilities under arti-
16 cles twenty-one and forty-one of this chapter.
17 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however,
18 section two of this act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it
19 shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the commissioner of
20 health shall make regulations and take other actions reasonably neces-
21 sary to implement each section of this act on its effective date.
