NYACP Legislative Update

NYACP Legislative Bill Status

Since January 1, 2025, there have been more than 17,388 bills introduced into the NYS Legislature.  Out of that number, NYACP followed the activity of 207 bills and closely monitored a smaller number including the Wrongful Death/Grieving Families Act and the Medical Aid in Dying bills.

As of this writing, 12 of the 207 bills followed by the Chapter, passed the Senate and Assembly and were acted upon by the Governor.

Chaptered:

1. A128 Gonzalez-Rojas/S1804 Rivera - Requires insurance coverage for inhalers at no cost.
2. A203 Cruz/S5294 Sepulveda - Requires hospitals to develop a violence prevention program.
3. A387 Rozic/S6288 Liu - Requires general hospitals to provide language assistance services.
4. A926 McDonald/S769 Rivera - Amends the effectiveness of provisions related to the submission of physician profile information.
5. A1195 Peoples/S2000 Addabbo - Relates to mandatory health insurance coverage for follow-up screening or diagnostic services for lung cancer.
6. A1476 Pretlow/S776 Harckham - Defines medically fragile young adults for certain purposes.
7. A785 Solages/S5539 Baskin - Requires schools safety plans to include a cardiac emergency response plan.
8. A8481 Chandler/S8206 Serrano – Extends authorization for certain health care professionals licensed to practice in other jurisdictions to practice in this state in connection with an event sanctioned by the New York Road Runners.

Vetoed:

1. A3404 Lavine/S6223 Ryan - Relates to permitting an interpreter to remain with a deaf, hard of hearing or nonverbal patient during admission to a hospital. 
2. A2520 McDonald/S616 Rivera - Provides parity to durable medical equipment providers by requiring Medicaid managed care organizations to reimburse such providers.
3. S1786 Hinchey/A6047 Schiavoni - Requires the department of health to publish a report on the incidence of tick-borne illnesses annually on the department's website. 
4. S4423 Hoylman-Sigal/A6963 Lunsford - Provides for the types of damages that may be awarded to the persons for whose benefit an action for wrongful death is brought. 

GOVERNOR VETOES WRONGFUL DEATH/GRIEVING FAMILIES ACT

Many thanks to the NYACP members who took the time to answer the Chapter’s numerous “Call to Action” requests and advocate in opposition to this bill for a fourth year in a row! Whether you called the Governor’s office, sent a letter, sent a tweet, and/or encouraged your colleagues to do the same, your efforts were successful, at least for now. For those members who contacted the Governor’s office multiple times throughout the year…you are awesome! Keeping the issue and organized medicine’s position at the forefront of the Governor was extremely important.

For those members still not familiar with this legislation, if signed into law, it would have “significantly altered the legal framework for wrongful death actions in New York by expanding the types of damages that may be recovered, expanding the class of persons who may seek such damages, and extending the statute of limitations”.  The Governor vetoed this bill because the alternative would “have likely resulted in higher costs to patients” and “have had other unintended consequences.”  Physicians would have been faced with significant increases in malpractice costs and tough decisions pertaining to affordability, relocation outside of NYS, retirement, etc. The access to care struggles currently experienced by patients would have worsened if this bill had been enacted into law.

The Governor indicated her continued commitment to working collaboratively to find solutions that support affected families, and NYACP has offered to be a resource to her and her staff.