What's happening
This bill requires HEALTHY NY insurance policies to cover hospice services and palliative care in addition to essential health benefits.
Why it matters
Expanding coverage to include hospice and palliative care means that individuals with serious or terminal illnesses under HEALTHY NY policies will have access to services that improve quality of life, manage symptoms, and support families during critical times.
By explicitly requiring these services in addition to the existing essential health benefits, the bill ensures that end-of-life care is not left out or treated as optional, closing a key gap in patient support for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers.
This change may help reduce costly emergency room visits and hospitalizations by giving patients earlier access to coordinated, comfort-focused care, potentially leading to better health outcomes and lower overall healthcare spending.
Mandating hospice and palliative care coverage in HEALTHY NY plans also aligns state policy with broader healthcare trends that emphasize patient-centered, comprehensive care, and could set a precedent for further insurance reforms in New York.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Cover Hospice for Healthy NY
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Held for consideration in insurance
- Referred to insurance
- Referred to insurance
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2420
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 20, 2017
Introduced by M. of A. CROUCH, MONTESANO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Insurance
AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to the coverage of hospice services and palliative care for HEALTHY NY insurance policies
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subsection (d) of section 4326 of the insurance law, as amended by section 56 of part D of chapter 56 of the laws of 2013, is amended to read as follows:
(d) A qualifying group health insurance contract shall provide coverage for the essential health benefit package as required in section 2707(a) of the public health service act, 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-6(a). For purposes of this subsection "essential health benefits package" shall have the meaning set forth in section 1302(a) of the affordable care act, 42 U.S.C. § 18022(a). In addition to such coverage, a qualifying group health insurance contract shall also provide coverage for hospice services as defined in section four thousand two of the public health law and palliative care as defined in section twenty-eight hundred seven-n of the public health law.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04329-01-7
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.