Identification of caregivers

BILL NUMBER:S7676

Title of bill

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to identification of caregivers

Purpose

This bill would require a general hospital as defined in § 2801(10) of the public health law to allow a patient an opportunity to designate, upon entry to a hospital, a caregiver in the patient's medical record; to require a hospital to notify and offer to meet with the designated caregiver to discuss the patient's plan of care prior to the patient's discharge or transfer to another facility; to require a hospital to offer to adequately train the designated caregiver in certain after-care tasks upon a patient's discharge to his or her current residence.

Summary of provisions

Section 1 adds a new section 29-CCCC to the public health law and sets forth definitions.

Section 2 sets forth the effective date.

Justification

At any given time, an estimated 4.1 million New Yorkers provide varying degrees of unreimbursed care to adults with limitations in daily activities. The total value of the unpaid care provided to individuals in need of long-term services and supports amounts to an estimated $32 billion every year, based on 2009 data. Caregivers are often members of the individual's immediate family, but friends and other community members also serve as caregivers. While most caregivers are asked to assist an individual with basic activities of daily living, such as mobility, eating, and dressing, many are expected to perform complex tasks on a daily basis such as administering multiple medications, providing wound care, and operating medical equipment.

Despite the vast importance of caregivers in the individual's day-to-day care, many caregivers find that they are often left out of discussions involving a patient's care while in the hospital and, upon the patient's discharge, receive little to no instruction on the tasks they are expected to perform. The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) estimates that $17 billion in Medicare funds is spent each year on unnecessary hospital readmissions. Additionally, hospitals desire to avoid the imposition of new readmission penalties under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

In order to successfully address the challenges of a surging population of older adults and others who have significant needs for long-term services and supports, the state must develop methods to enable caregivers to continue to support their loved ones at home and in the community, and avoid costly hospital readmissions. Therefore, it is the intent of the New York State Assembly that this Act enables caregivers to provide competent post-hospital care to their family and other loved ones, at minimal cost to the taxpayers of this State.

Legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.