Bill > A2259

Introduced Session

This bill would provide that, in addition to the other rights that are retained by a hospital patient under existing law, a hospital patient with a developmental disability has the right to be personally accompanied by a designated family member, guardian, direct support professional, or other caregiver throughout the duration of the patient's stay at the hospital, except when the patient is actively undergoing a surgical procedure and would be endangered by the presence of the designated person in the room where surgery is being performed. The bill would require a hospital, immediately upon the admission of an individual with a developmental disability thereto, to provide the patient or the patient's parent or legal guardian, as appropriate, with an opportunity to designate a family member, guardian, direct support professional, or other caregiver to accompany the patient throughout the patient's hospital stay. If the patient is unconscious or otherwise incapacitated at the time of admission to the hospital, the patient's parent or guardian, if any and as appropriate, is to be given the opportunity to make the designation under the bill unless the patient is an adult who does not have a guardian, in which case, the adult patient is to be given the opportunity to make a designation as soon as practicable after the patient regains consciousness or decision-making capacity. If a patient with a developmental disability is a minor child whose parents are divorced, it is the custodial parent who will have the authority to make a designation under the bill's provisions. The hospital will be required to promptly document, in the patient's medical record, either the name of the person designated to accompany the patient or a statement indicating that the patient or the patient's parent or guardian has declined to make a designation. The hospital will be required to allow the designated person to accompany the patient throughout the course of the patient's hospital stay, except as otherwise provided by the bill. A designation made under the bill will not obligate the designated person to provide direct support or personal care assistance to the patient during the patient's hospital stay or after-care assistance to the patient following the patient's discharge from the hospital. A patient or the patient's parent or guardian, as the case may be, may elect, at any time, to change the designation made pursuant to the bill. Any such person wishing to change the designation is to provide the hospital with notice of the change at least one hour prior to the effectuation thereof, and the hospital is to promptly update the designation in the patient's medical record.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Al Barlas (R)*,  Margie Donlon (D)*,  Vicky Flynn (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document