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S122Senate2011-2012 SessionSame asA243

Authorizes the commissioner of health to adopt policies to exclude certain non-recurring items from income for the program for elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage

Sponsor Ruben DiazSD-32Affects Finance
Status
In Senate Committee
Finance
Impact
Pending
Passage
Pending

Bill progress

Step 2 of 7

In committee · Finance

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Sponsors

Primary sponsor
Ruben Diaz

Senator · Senate District 32

No co-sponsors yet.

History

  1. Reported and committed to finance
  2. Print number 122a
  3. Amend and recommit to health
  4. Referred to health
  5. Reported and committed to finance
  6. Committee discharged and committed to health
  7. Notice of committee consideration - requested
  8. Referred to aging

Companion bill

Full text

The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.

Sponsor's memo

BILL NUMBER:S122A

Title of bill

An act to amend the elder law, in relation to policies excluding certain non-recurring items from income for purposes of the program for elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage

Purpose

To exclude non-recurring income from the definition of "income" for the purposes of eligibility for the EPIC program.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 - Amends subdivision 3 of section 241 of the Elder Law. Defines income for the EPIC program. Authorizes the Commissioner of Health to adopt policies to create an exclusion for "non-recurring items that would act to artificially inflate the availability of funds to meet current needs."

Section 2 - Effective Date

Existing law

The current EPIC statute makes no provision for the exclusion of certain types of income.

Justification

There are more than 300,000 seniors in New York State that rely on the EPIC program for access to low cost, high quality prescription drugs. Qualification for this program is based on income and it is fair to say that most of the enrollees are middle class, middle income people, and in some cases lower income people. What this legislation aims to do is exempt non-recurring income from the definition of income for the EPIC program. Non-recurring income can include withdrawals from a 401K or other retirement account an employer buyout or severance package, lottery or casino winnings or inheritances. These one-time influxes of money can inflate a persons household gross income and take them off the EPIC program for a year and force them to pay for drugs out of pocket until they are able to qualify again the following year.

Legislative history

2011: S.122 - Reported and Committed to Finance/A.243 - Reported, Referred to Ways and Means 2009-10: S.5457 - Reported and Committed to Finance/A.8044 - Reported Referred to Ways and Means

Financial implication to state and local governments

To be determined.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.