What's happening
This bill requires hospital emergency rooms to follow new regulations when treating patients with opioid overdose or addiction, including providing recovery support and prescribing opioid antagonists.
Why it matters
Mandates comprehensive support. Emergency rooms must not only treat opioid overdoses but also provide formal recovery support, information about multiple recovery options, and direct connections to peer support, addressing both immediate health needs and longer-term recovery.
Requires proactive overdose prevention. Hospitals must prescribe and educate patients (and their companions) on how to use opioid antagonists like naloxone, potentially reducing future overdose deaths by empowering people to act in emergencies.
Expands referral options. The bill enables ERs to refer patients to a range of specialized facilities—including detox centers, methadone programs, and residential or outpatient treatment—helping ensure patients can access sustained care tailored to their needs.
Standardizes statewide protocols. By requiring the state health and mental health commissioners to set these regulations, the law aims to ensure consistent, evidence-based practices across all New York hospital emergency rooms, reducing gaps in care for people with opioid use disorder.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Standardize ER Opioid Care
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History
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
10989
IN ASSEMBLY
May 29, 2018
Introduced by M. of A. L. ROSENTHAL -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to promulgating regulations for hospital emergency rooms when treating patients suffering from an opioid overdose or addiction
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Section 206 of the public health law is amended by adding a new subdivision 31 to read as follows:
31. (a) The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of mental health, shall promulgate regulations for the treatment of opioid addictions and/or opioid overdoses in hospital emergency rooms. For purposes of this subdivision:
(i) "Peer to peer support services" means participant-centered services that emphasize knowledge and wisdom through lived experience in which peers are encouraged to share their own personal experience and first-hand knowledge of substance abuse, addiction, and recovery to support the recovery goals of individuals who use drugs and/or alcohol.
(ii) "Opioid" means an opiate as defined in section thirty-three hundred two of this chapter.
(iii) "Opioid antagonist" means a federal food and drug administration-approved drug that, when administered, negates or neutralizes in whole or in part the pharmacological effects of an opioid in the body. The opioid antagonist shall be limited to naloxone or other medications approved by the department for this purpose.
(b) Such regulations shall include, but not be limited to, requiring emergency rooms to provide patients and those who accompany them with:
(i) formal recovery support, including, but not limited to, detox and medication assisted treatment;
(ii) information regarding various modes of recovery;
(iii) contact information for peer to peer support services;
(iv) information for patients and those who accompany them on how and when to administer an opioid antagonist, and where to obtain an opioid antagonist prescription; and
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16017-01-8
A. 10989 2
(v) a prescribed opioid antagonist.
(c) Such regulations may provide that hospital emergency rooms may refer patients to other facilities offering detox and/or medication assisted treatment, including but not limited to:
(i) free standing substance abuse facilities;
(ii) general hospitals;
(iii) residential facilities for persons who abuse or are dependent upon opioids;
(iv) methadone maintenance programs; and
(v) outpatient facilities for persons who abuse or are dependent on opioids.
§ 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law. Effective immediately, the addition, amendement and/or repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective date are authorized and directed to be made and completed on or before such effective date.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.