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New Health Insurance Laws Signed by Governor in Rochester
Even as Americans debate fundamental changes in health care at the national level, New York State achieved a milestone of its own on Wednesday, July 29, with the signing of three important reform bills by Gov. David Paterson during an event held at Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital. As chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Insurance, I was proud to have been a sponsor or co-sponsor of all three pieces of legislation, which improve health care options for our citizens while controlling the rising and burdensome cost of medical insurance.
I am especially pleased at the changes achieved in relation to managed care, an area where patients and providers alike have been subject to unwieldy and inefficient bureaucratic requirements that block the delivery of treatments and create financial hardship for all parties. This week capped two years of hard work on the part of my staff and our many partners in the insurance field, and I thank all those who made this outcome possible.
These reforms, which do not add to the state's tax burden, take us several important steps closer to universal health insurance in the State of New York. I believe we can achieve that goal by expanding eligibility for existing programs, and matching that effort with a determination to cut costs through increased efficiency at every level.
I thank Governor Paterson for his support, and for sharing this wonderful moment with us. And I look forward to continuing the work of the insurance committee on behalf of New Yorkers in the months and years ahead.
See below for more information about each new law.
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Reform managed care by: 1. Prohibiting insurers from treating an in-network provider as out-of-network on the basis that the referring provider was out-of-network.  2. Establishing a new external appeal standard for rare disease treatments. 3. Prohibiting insurers and HMOs from enacting potentially adverse changes in reimbursement policies without prior notification. 4. Extending current protections for consumers in HMOs to consumers in "HMO look-alike" plans - health plans that operate the same as HMOs but are not licensed as such. 5. Limiting the time insurers have to review requests for post-hospital home care. 6. Protecting doctors and hospitals by providing the opportunity to challenge an insurers' overpayment recovery efforts. |
Protect unemployed New Yorkers by extending Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) coverage from 18 to 36 months, including for individuals laid off by firms with fewer than 20 employees. This addresses a critical issue, given that more than a quarter-million jobs have been lost in New York State since August 2008.
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Require insurers to allow unmarried children up to age 29 to be covered under a parent's group health insurance policy, even if they are not a financial dependent. Premiums will be paid by families, not employers, and priced at group rather than more expensive individual rates. The law also mandates that insurers offer employers an option to buy plans that include young adults as dependents until age 29. This offers an increased level of flexibility to a demographic that represents nearly a third of our uninsured population, and whose members are too often forced to leave New York to find economic opportunities elsewhere.
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