Directs the department of health to make publicly available the results of all inspections conducted by the department in nursing homes and other residential health care facilities in the state during the COVID-19 state disaster emergency.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A1010A
SPONSOR: Bronson TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to directing the
department of health to make publicly available the results of all
inspections conducted by such department in nursing homes and other
residential health care facilities in the state during the COVID-19
state disaster emergency and thereafter
PURPOSE:
This bill will make public all inspections conducted on nursing homes
and other residential health care facilities during the COVID-19 crisis.
It will also require the Department of Health to conduct and publish a
study documenting the best practices in these facilities for preventing
and containing outbreaks of COVID-19.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1: Requires the department of health to publish online all
inspections conducted in nursing homes and residential healthcare facil-
ities during the COVID-19 crisis. The department will redact any
patient-identifying information from such reports and provide an expla-
nation for such redactions. The department is also required to regularly
release the results of any future inspections conducted during the
COVID-19 emergency.
Section 2: Sets the effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The Department of Health has conducted many inspections in nursing homes
and other residential care facilities across New York as a result of the
COVID-19 public health emergency. In order for New Yorkers to make sound
decisions and for the state legislature to thoroughly analyze the
state's performance in order to make policy changes, these reports must
be available to the public for review. This bill will provide transpar-
ency in inspections conducted during the crisis by requiring that the
department post all such inspection reports on its website, with appro-
priate redaction to protect any patient-identifying information. Addi-
tional visits shall be made to nursing home as needed to determine
whether violation or deficiencies have been corrected.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Minimal.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
1010--A
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 7, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRONSON, LUPARDO, SEAWRIGHT, STERN, CLARK, GOTT-
FRIED, NOLAN, JACOBSON, MEEKS, SIMON, ENGLEBRIGHT, GRIFFIN, LUNSFORD
-- 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 directing the
department of health to make publicly available the results of all
inspections conducted by such department in nursing homes and other
residential health care facilities in the state during the COVID-19
state disaster emergency and thereafter
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 2803 of the public health law is
2 amended by adding a new paragraph (a-1) to read as follows:
3 (a-1) The commissioner shall publish on the department's website with-
4 in thirty days, in a location accessible to the public, the results of
5 all inspections conducted in a nursing home. Any patient-identifying
6 information shall be redacted, and the publication on the website shall
7 state the reason for such redaction.
8 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that
9 the department of health shall be responsible for publishing all
10 inspections conducted on or after March 7, 2020.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04806-06-1
