End‐of‐Session Wrap Up: Home Care, Hospice and MLTC After a long week of negotiations, the state Senate and Assembly adjourned in the early morning hours of Friday, June 21. The Legislature passed a flurry of bills in marathon sessions, including a number of the Legislature and Executives’ key priorities for the 2019‐20 Legislative Session. Overarching priorities include first‐ of‐its‐kind legislation related to climate change, as well as legislation addressing rent control, sexual harassment, eliminating the religious exemption for vaccinations, providing licenses for undocumented immigrants and expanding wages for farmworkers. HCA held a strong presence in the Capitol since January and was successful in advancing a number of the Association’s legislative priorities including legislation related to certified home health agency (CHHA) reimbursement, in‐service requirements and the state’s first‐of‐its kind home care sepsis initiative. Below is an analysis of the legislation HCA advanced and tracked throughout the 2019 Legislative Session. For questions or concerns about the legislation included in this document, please contact Alyssa Lovelace at alovelace@hcanys.org.
PASSED BOTH HOUSES
Bill
Description
A.3839 (McDonald)/S.1817 (Rivera)
Creates a new article 36 section devoted to home care sepsis intervention that would authorize the state Department of Health to provide support for HCA’s statewide efforts in numerous ways
A.7854 (Gottfried)/S.5605 (Rivera)
Requires the record of each in‐service training and hours completed by the worker toward the fulfillment of his/her annual in‐service training requirements be submitted for inclusion in the Home Care Registry (HCR) for each worker by the agency conducting the in‐service.
Flexibility Under LHCSA Moratorium
A.976 (Gottfried)/S.1820 (Rivera)
Clarifies the intent of the legislature that the Commissioner of Health has broad discretion to place applications before the PHHPC during the moratorium on LHCSA approval.
Automatic enrollment and recertification simplification
A.7578‐A (Gottfried)/S. 5485‐A
Shortens and simplifies Medicaid long term care eligibility processes for Medicaid eligible recipients.
Sepsis (HCA‐developed)
In‐service Training (HCA‐developed)
PASSED ONE HOUSE
Bill
Description
Mental Health/Home Care Collaboration (HCA‐developed) Passed in the Senate
A.6566‐A (Gunther)/S.3872‐A (Carlucci)
Provides OMH and DOH waiver authority for mental health‐home care provider collaboration under the state's Geriatric Mental Health program.
Minimum Wage for Home Care Providers Passed in the Senate
A.2788 (Gottfried)/S.4972 (Rivera)
Relates to payments for home and community based long term care services.
A.7938‐B (Fernandez)/S.6394 (Carlucci)
Requires home care, assisted living, nursing home and hospice providers to check the register of substantiated category one cases of abuse or neglect maintained by the Justice Center Registry before hiring an employee or allowing persons to have regular and substantial contact with a person with a disability.
Justice Center Oversight Passed in the Senate
REMAINS IN COMMITTEE
CHHA EPS & Benchmark (HCA‐developed)
Bill
A.7798 (Gottfried)/S.5915 (Rivera)
Description Increases the EPS and FFS rates by 10 percent, in addition to other state methodology adjustments to cover costs that are not currently reflected in base rates.
Home care/hospice worker shortage areas and disciplines A.6768 (Bronson)/S.1420 (Serino) (HCA‐developed)
Addresses major geographic and discipline shortages around the state that impact access to home care and hospice services, and would allow providers to use funds to address key worker support needs.
Labor Market Study for home care/hospice (HCA‐developed)
Authorizes the state Commissioner of Labor to conduct a competitive labor market study assessing and making recommendations for home care and hospice capability to compete in the labor market for recruitment and retention of direct‐care staff to meet patient and health system needs.
A.6902 (Bronson)/S.1359 (Serino)
Home Care Integration in NY's Public Health Prevention Strategies A.3836 (McDonald)/S.1816 (Rivera) (HCA‐developed)
Supports the incorporation of home care in the state's public health, prevention and primary care strategies.
Health Care Disparities (HCA‐ developed)
A.6772 (Peoples‐Stokes)/S.4942 (Sanders)
Addresses health care disparities under the Hospital‐ Home Care‐Physician Collaborative Program.
Home Care Recruitment & Training Pilot (HCA‐developed)
S.1352 (Serino)
Establishes a pilot program for the recruitment and training of retired persons to become home care workers.
Home Health Information & Clinical Technology Act (HCA‐developed)
S.1791 (Rivera)
Establishes and implements a plan to support home health information and clinical technology development, capacity and exchange, consistent with and necessary for execution of major state policies on health information and clinical integration.
Health Care Transformation Fund
A.7977‐A (Gottfried)/S.6376 (Rivera)
Designate at least 25% of the funds deposited into the state health care transformation fund to community‐ based health care providers.
LHCSA Moratorium and Contract Limitations
A.3913 (Hyndman)/S.2790 (Comrie)
Amends LHCSA moratorium/ contract limitations/ registration laws.
LHCSA Licensing Criteria
A.8274 (Hyndman)/S.5931 (Comrie)
Repeals the limitations on the processing and approval of applications seeking LHCSA licensure.
A.2944 (Gottfried)/S.4972 (Rivera)
To improve the patient needs assessment; and to better inform actuarially sound Medicaid rates for long term care services and make sure funding is provided through adjustment for high‐need patients so that home care workers are paid sufficiently to deliver care that is consistent with the patient's needs.
Needs assessment and rate adequacy for Medicaid
NHTD/TBI
A.2798 (Gottfried)/S.1890 (Rivera)
Prevents waivered Medicaid services provided to persons suffering from TBIs or qualifying for NHTD and transition services from being provided to Medicaid recipients through managed care programs.
Community Paramedicine
A.1208 (Gottfried)/S.1805 (Rivera)
Authorizes collaboration model of community paramedicine.
Data Breach Notification
A.5635 (DenDekker)/S.5575‐B (Thomas)
Updates NY’s data breach notification law and establishes security requirements for all businesses to develop and implement.
Health Care Quality Innovation & Improvement Through Home Care
A.1128 (Gottfried)
The program would promote a first‐of‐its kind comprehensive quality measurement and analytical tool, specialized staff training, clinical guidelines and related evidenced based/best‐practices.
Mandated CPR Training for Home Care Workers
A.739 (Rosenthal)
Requires licensed and certified home health agencies to provide biennial CPR training to home health aide workers.