What's happening
This bill requires hospital emergency rooms to follow new regulations for treating opioid overdoses, including providing recovery support, information, and opioid antagonist prescriptions.
Why it matters
Mandates comprehensive discharge planning for overdose patients. Hospitals will be required to go beyond immediate medical stabilization by providing formal recovery support options (such as detox and medication-assisted treatment), which may help reduce the risk of repeat overdoses and facilitate long-term recovery.
Ensures patients and families receive actionable information. Emergency rooms must now give both patients and those accompanying them clear guidance on how to access peer support services, understand various recovery pathways, and receive contact information for further help—potentially empowering families and reducing stigma.
Expands access to life-saving medications. By mandating that hospitals prescribe an opioid antagonist (such as naloxone or buprenorphine) and provide instructions on its use and where to obtain it, the law aims to equip patients and their support networks with tools to prevent fatal overdoses after discharge.
Creates a networked approach to addiction care. Hospitals are encouraged to refer patients to specialized facilities and programs—like methadone clinics, residential treatment, or outpatient services—thereby integrating emergency care with ongoing addiction treatment resources and potentially improving continuity of care.
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Require ER Opioid Treatment Rules
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History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1126
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 14, 2019
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, buprenorphine 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;
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02149-02-9
A. 1126 2
(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
(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, amendment 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.