Provides managed care enrollees access to the services of the foot center of New York

BILL NUMBER:S6142A REVISED 5/19/14

Title of bill

An act to amend the social services law, in relation to providing managed care enrollees access to the services of the foot center of New York

Purpose

Amending the social service law to designate an academic podiatry center as a State Specialty Care Center for its podiatry services.

Summary of provisions

Section 1. Amends the following: reletters paragraph (f) of subparagraph (iii) of paragraph (a) of subdivision 4 of section 364-j to (G) and adds a new clause (F) to mandate the reporting of services provided at an academic podiatry center.

Section 2. This act shall take effect immediately, provided however, that the amendment to section 364-j of the social services law made by sections one and two of this act shall not affect the repeal of such section and shall be deemed to repealed therewith.

Justification

The affordability and accessibility of podiatric services such as those provided by an academic podiatry center is a lifeline for residents in low-income communities across the City of New York where a large portion of the population is grappling with diabetes and many of these individuals are on some form of public assistance. Diabetes is a citywide epidemic, according to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene more than half a million adult New Yorkers have been diagnosed with diabetes and additional 200,000 have diabetes but do not yet know it. Diabetes and diabetes-associated. cardiovascular disease are leading causes of death in NYC. These figures are worse in lower income areas of the City where residents have up to 5 times the mortality rates of diabetes as compared with NYC residents overall-with the vast majority of individuals on Medicaid or Medicare, or uninsured. Given these atrocious statistics, preserving affordable and accessible care at podiatry clinics such as Foot Care Center of Mew York, the only podiatric clinic in upper Manhattan is a citywide imperative. Under the Managed Long Term Care reform enrollees will no longer have free access to the podiatry clinic and will be forced to get these services out side of their community or in emergency rooms as cases go undetected or untreated. "Free access" means that managed care plan enrollees are free to access these clinics, regardless of whether the clinic is in their plans network and without the plans prior approval. Currently, the State allows free access to managed care enrollees at the SUNY College of Optometry as well as academic dental centers-but not for academic podiatry centers.

According to the State Department of Health Commissioner "free access requirements are pursuant to statute and are not under the purview of the Department.

This legislation seeks to amend the Social Service Law statute for the sole purpose of preserving the accessibility and affordability of the specialty services which combat diabetes provided at the limited number of podiatric clinics, like an academic podiatry center.

Legislative history

Legislation.

Fiscal implications

None to the State.

Effective date

Effective immediately.