What's happening
This bill allows the exclusion of certain non-recurring income items when determining eligibility for elderly pharmaceutical insurance coverage in New York.
Why it matters
Prevents temporary spikes in income—like cashing out retirement savings or receiving a one-time payment—from making seniors ineligible for prescription drug assistance. This helps ensure that eligibility reflects ongoing financial need, not unusual, non-recurring events.
Gives the Department of Health flexibility to define what types of income can be excluded. This could allow the program to adapt to new or uncommon situations where a senior’s income is temporarily higher but not representative of their typical financial resources.
Targets fairness and accuracy in benefit eligibility by focusing on ‘current needs’ rather than past, potentially misleading, income figures. Seniors who retire or experience a rare financial windfall won’t be unfairly penalized when applying for help with prescription costs.
May result in more seniors qualifying for the pharmaceutical coverage program,. as the law now better accounts for real, ongoing financial situations rather than penalizing those with one-off income events.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Exclude One-Time Income for Seniors
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to aging
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Exclude One-Time Income for Seniors
In Assembly Committee · Ways And Means · Sponsor Jeffrey Dinowitz
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
4905
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 3, 2017
Introduced by Sens. DIAZ, AVELLA, LATIMER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Aging
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
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 3 of section 241 of the elder law is amended to read as follows:
3. "Income" shall mean "household gross income" as defined in the real property tax circuit breaker credit program, pursuant to subparagraph [(C)] (c) of paragraph one of subsection (e) of section six hundred six of the tax law, but only shall include the income of program applicants and spouses and shall exclude the income of other members of the household; provided, however, that the commissioner of health may adopt policies to exclude from income certain non-recurring items that would act to artificially inflate the availability of funds to meet current needs including, but not limited to, a retiree's previous year's wages, and non-recurring distributions from an individual retirement account.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03575-01-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
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 the Elder Law, section 241 (3). Defines income for the EPIC program. Authorizes the Commissioner of Health to adopt policies to create 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 person's 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
2016: S.146 - REFERRED TO AGING/A.1190-reported referred to ways and means 2105: S.146 - REFERRED TO AGING/A.1190-referred to aging 2104: S.345 - Referred to Aging/ A.349 - Reported, Referred to Ways and Means 2013: S.345 - Reported and Committed to Finance/A.349 - Reported, Referred to Ways and Means 2012: S.122-A - Reported and Committed to Finance/ A.243-A - Amend and Recommit to Aging 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.