Directs the department of health to request guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to determine whether the state can claim federal financial participation for coverage of and payment for certain evidence-based mobile medical applications.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6306--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
April 21, 2021
___________
Introduced by Sen. HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Health -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
AN ACT in relation to determining whether the state can claim federal
financial participation for coverage of and payment for certain
evidence-based mobile medical applications
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative finding and declaration. New Yorkers in recov-
2 ery for substance and opioid use disorders and in treatment for mental
3 health conditions are losing access to in-person treatment under the
4 state's "stay at home" and social distancing orders as part of coronavi-
5 rus pandemic mitigation efforts. In recent news reports, experts warn
6 that the coronavirus pandemic may be "a national relapse trigger" for
7 individuals in treatment for alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijua-
8 na, and heroin addiction. Evidence-based mobile medical applications
9 are new, software-based disease treatments designed to directly treat
10 disease, tested for safety and efficacy in randomized clinical trials,
11 evaluated by the FDA, and prescribed by healthcare providers. These
12 therapies are designed and tested much like traditional prescription
13 drugs with one distinction: rather than swallowing a pill or taking an
14 injection, patients are treated with software. Certain evidence-based
15 mobile medical applications provide clinicians and patients with
16 evidence-based remote treatment modalities to treat substance and opioid
17 use disorders, mental health, and other diseases and conditions. Howev-
18 er, there is no clear statutory benefit category to allow Medicaid
19 coverage for evidence-based mobile medical applications. In light of
20 the promise of evidence-based mobile medical applications for the treat-
21 ment of patients with substance use and opioid use disorders during the
22 coronavirus pandemic, this legislation would require that the New York
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10469-02-1
S. 6306--A 2
1 state department of health seek guidance from the Centers for Medicare
2 and Medicaid Services relative to a coverage and reimbursement pathway
3 for evidence-based mobile medical applications, in order to accelerate
4 access to such therapies for enrollees.
5 § 2. No later than 30 days from the effective date of this section,
6 the New York state department of health shall request guidance from the
7 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to determine whether the
8 state can claim federal financial participation for coverage of and
9 payment for evidence-based mobile medical applications approved by the
10 food and drug administration to treat substance use and opioid use
11 disorders.
12 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
