Healthcare

Requires general hospitals to provide language assistance services; requires general hospitals to develop a language assistance program to ensure meaningful access to the general hospital's services and reasonable accommodation for all patients who require language assistance.

This bill (S 4926) gives injured workers in New York State the right to choose their own pharmacy for prescribed medications under specific circumstances, directly affecting workers receiving workers' compensation. It allows them to bypass the employer/carrier's contracted pharmacy if payment is denied within 72 hours or if reauthorization fails for reasons like missing medical reports, disputes over treatment guidelines, or case settlement delays. Pharmacies dispensing medication under this provision must follow the state’s pharmacy fee schedule, medical treatment guidelines, and formulary, and assume liability for costs if the medication isn’t later approved. The bill was passed by the state legislature in June 2025 but was vetoed by the Governor on December 5, 2025.

Creates a department of health education and outreach program on reproductive health services for consumers, patients, educators, and health care providers related to reproductive health services available in New York state including, but not limited to: access to family planning services such as contraceptives and pregnancy testing, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; makes related provisions.

This bill (A 7321) would require New York health insurers to cover speech therapy for stuttering when recommended by a physician. It applies to all medical, major medical, and similar insurance plans, eliminating limits on the number of therapy sessions or visits. Coverage must be provided by licensed professionals and clarifies that school-based therapy (like IEPs) does not affect medical coverage for therapy outside educational settings. The bill was vetoed by the governor in October 2025 and did not become law.

This bill requires most health insurance plans to cover contraceptive services provided by pharmacists without cost-sharing. It mandates coverage for all FDA-approved contraceptives (including over-the-counter options), emergency contraception, patient counseling, and follow-up care like device insertion/removal. Plans must allow dispensing up to 12 months of contraceptives at once and reimburse pharmacists the same rate as other healthcare providers. The law applies to group/blanket health insurance policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, directly affecting insured individuals and pharmacists providing these services.

This bill repeals a requirement in New York's public health law that previously mandated healthcare providers to report patients' drug use to authorities. It directly affects healthcare practitioners who no longer must report such information under this provision. The bill removes this specific reporting obligation with no new mechanisms or provisions added. As a procedural repeal, it solely eliminates the existing legal requirement without creating new policies. The bill was enacted after passing both legislative chambers and receiving the Governor's signature in October 2025.

Enacts into law major components of legislation necessary to implement the state health and mental hygiene budget for the 2025-2026 state fiscal year; requires the commissioner of health to provide a quarterly report on known and expected department of health state funds Medicaid expenditures through state fiscal year 2026-2027 (Part A); extends the effectiveness of various provisions relating to social services and healthcare including medical reimbursement and welfare reform (Part B); relates to supplemental hospital payments (Part D); shifts long-term nursing home stays from managed care to fee for service; authorizes penalties for managed care plans that do not meet contractual obligations (Part E); requires a health plan to pay the MCO provider tax for each calendar year; requires every health plan subject to the approved MCO provider tax to submit reports; imposes penalties for failure to submit such timely payments; grants the commissioner of health audit powers; relates to the healthcare stability fund; relates to Medicaid payment increases for certain medical services; makes certain Medicaid payment increases contingent upon the availability of funds within the healthcare stability fund (Part F); relates to insurance coverage for medical malpractice paid for by funds from the hospital excess liability pool; extends portions of the New York Health Care Reform Act of 1996 (Part G); eliminates the fees paid by funeral directors for permits for burials and removals which are used to support the electronic death registration system; repeals certain provisions of such law relating thereto (Part I); relates to extending the time for awards to be granted to applications for the statewide health care facility transformation III program (Part J); requires general hospitals to report community benefit spending by July 1 of each calendar year (Part M); requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care to pregnant individuals; defines terms; repeals provisions relating to required protocols for fetal demise (Part P); relates to improving access to and increasing coverage for infertility treatments (Part Q); requires hospitals to have sexual assault forensic examiners (Part T); extends the provisions relating to preferred sources for entities that provide employment to certain persons (Part Z); extends certain provisions relating to clarifying the authority of the commissioners in the department of mental hygiene to design and implement time-limited demonstration programs to 03/31/2028 (Part AA); extends the effectiveness of certain provisions relating to the appointment of temporary operators for the continued operation of programs and the provision of services for persons with serious mental illness and/or developmental disabilities and/or chemical dependence (Part BB); extends certain provisions relating to services for individuals with developmental disabilities (Part CC); amends the definition of minor to exclude certain homeless youth for purposes of allowing such homeless youth to consent to certain medical, dental, health and hospital services, including behavioral health services (Part DD); relates to involuntary admission and assisted outpatient treatment; establishes the behavioral health crisis technical assistance center; relates to required training and maintaining of records relating to persons dealing with mental health and substance use crises (Part EE); provides that director of the budget, the commissioners of the office of mental health, office for people with developmental disabilities, office of addiction services and supports, office of temporary and disability assistance, office of children and family services, and the state office for the aging shall establish a state fiscal year 2025-2026 targeted inflationary increase, effective April 1, 2025, for projecting for the effects of inflation upon rates of payments, contracts, or any other form of reimbursement for the programs and services (Part FF); relates to the composition and work of mental health incident review panels (Part GG); provides that school-based health centers shall not be provided to medical assistance recipients through managed care programs until at least April 1, 2026 (Part HH); requires any New York subdivision that directly received funds pursuant to a statewide opioid settlement agreement to publicly post on their website information regarding how such funding was utilized and submit such information to the office of addiction services and supports (Part II); relates to clarifying which entities handle the reporting of pregnancy loss; and the responsibilities of health care providers and penalties for not protecting the identities of individuals who suffered a pregnancy loss (Part JJ); extends the authorization for certain fees and charges related to emergency medical services (Part KK); relates to the modernization and revitalization of the Nassau health care corporation (Part LL); extends certain provisions relating to the NYS medical indemnity fund (Part MM).

Provides that maternal health care facilities are not required to grant doula access during emergencies or when such access could compromise the safety of the patient or health care team.