STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5307 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY March 7, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. DINOWITZ, RAGA -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to creating the office of healthcare accountability The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Article 1 of the public health law is amended by adding a 2 new title 4 to read as follows: 3 TITLE 4 4 OFFICE OF HEALTHCARE ACCOUNTABILITY 5 Section 40. Office of healthcare accountability. 6 41. Definitions. 7 42. Powers and duties. 8 43. Reporting. 9 § 40. Office of healthcare accountability. There is hereby established 10 within the department an office of healthcare accountability. Such 11 office shall be headed by a director of healthcare accountability, who 12 shall be appointed by the commissioner. 13 § 41. Definitions. For purposes of this title, the following terms 14 have the following meanings: 15 1. "Director" shall mean the director of healthcare accountability. 16 2. "Office" shall mean the office of healthcare accountability. 17 § 42. Powers and duties. The director shall have the power and duty 18 to: 19 1. Provide recommendations to the governor, legislature, state comp- 20 troller, and trustees of the state pension systems regarding healthcare 21 and hospital costs, including, but not limited to, the proportion of 22 healthcare costs spent on hospital care; 23 2. Audit expenditures on healthcare costs for state employees, state 24 retirees, and their dependents; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09629-03-3

A. 5307 2 1 3. Provide, on the office's website in a simplified and publicly 2 accessible format, information on the costs of hospital procedures. Such 3 information shall be based on any publicly available information relat- 4 ing to the cost of hospital procedures, including disclosures required 5 pursuant to state and federal law, and shall be formatted in a way to 6 allow for comparisons between procedure costs for specific hospitals; 7 and 8 4. Provide on the office's website a summary of the cost transparency 9 of each hospital in the state, categorizing each hospital as very trans- 10 parent, satisfactory, or not transparent. Such summary shall be updated 11 at least annually and shall be based on the office's assessment of the 12 information that each hospital has disclosed relating to the cost of 13 hospital procedures, including: 14 (a) whether such disclosures comply with the requirements of state and 15 federal law; and 16 (b) whether such disclosures were provided within the time period 17 required by state and federal law. 18 § 43. Reporting. One year after the effective date of this title, and 19 annually thereafter, the director shall submit to the governor, the 20 temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, and the 21 attorney general, and shall post conspicuously on the office's website, 22 a report detailing the pricing practices for hospital systems in New 23 York state. Such report shall include, but not be limited to, the 24 following: 25 1. a summary of any audits conducted pursuant to subdivision two of 26 section forty-two of this title, including the costs of hospital proce- 27 dures paid for by the state disaggregated by hospital; 28 2. a summary of prices charged for hospital procedures disaggregated 29 by: 30 (a) hospital; 31 (b) type of procedure, and; 32 (c) to the extent available, the average rate of reimbursement 33 received by the hospital from each health insurance provider or other 34 payer for each procedure; 35 3. a summary of each hospital's level of transparency pursuant to 36 subdivision four of section forty-two of this title; 37 4. to the extent available, a breakdown of each major insurance 38 provider's and other payer's profit margins, employee headcounts, over- 39 head costs, and executive salaries and bonuses; and 40 5. to the extent available, a summary of each hospital's community 41 benefit information as publicly reported on the Internal Revenue 42 Service's Form 990, Schedule H, as required pursuant to section 501(r) 43 of the Internal Revenue Service code, and each hospital's publicly 44 available implementation report regarding the hospital's performance in 45 meeting the healthcare needs of the community, providing charity care 46 services, and improving access to healthcare services by the under- 47 served, as required pursuant to subdivision three of section twenty- 48 eight hundred three-l of this chapter. 49 § 2. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 50 it shall have become a law.

Creates an office of healthcare accountability

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