Bill > A679

Introduced Session

This bill prohibits the inclusion or implementation of certain discriminatory policies in critical health care resource allocation policies, which are defined in the bill to mean any policy related to the policies, procedures, protocols, standards, or other requirements concerning the allocation of health care resources for which demand exceeds or is anticipated to exceed supply. Specifically, the bill requires that any critical health care resource allocation policy developed by the Department of Health (DOH) comply with all applicable federal civil rights laws, including, but not limited to, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. s.794), Title II of the "Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990" (42 U.S.C. s.12101 et seq.), Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub.L.111-148, as amended by the federal "Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010," Pub.L.111-152, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (42 U.S.C. ss.6101 et seq.). Additionally, any DOH critical health care resource allocation policy will be prohibited from: (1) establishing exclusions or deprioritizations related to eligibility to receive health care resources based on whether an individual has a disability or the individual will, or is expected to, require additional resources, more intensive use of resources, or the use of resources for an extended duration, as a result of the individual's disability; (2) factoring long-term survivability into treatment decisions; or (3) allowing reallocation of personal ventilators from an individual who ordinarily uses a ventilator in the course of daily living to another individual who is deemed by a treating practitioner to be more likely to benefit from the use of the ventilator. The bill requires that any critical health care resource allocation policy developed by the DOH require general acute care hospitals to make reasonable modifications to Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score to ensure individuals with an underlying health condition do not receive a lower score when the underlying health condition is unrelated to hospital survival or unrelated to the efficacy of the health care resource under consideration. The bill requires any critical health care resource allocation policy developed by the DOH to prohibit hospitals and nursing homes from issuing do not resuscitate orders that apply to all patients or residents of the facility. Any do not resuscitate policy developed by a hospital or nursing home will be required to account for the treatment preferences of the patient or resident, to the extent they may be determined through an advance directive, a practitioner orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) form, or other appropriate means.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Angela Mcknight (D)*,  Anthony Verrelli (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee (on 01/11/2022)

Official Document