This past July 26, 2018 was the 28th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), landmark civil rights legislation designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities. Specifically, the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation and telecommunications. It protects
The recent New York Court of Appeals decision in Stega v. New York Downtown Hospital provides strong support for defamation claims arising out of witness testimony in investigations and quasi-judicial hearings. In Stega, the Court held that statements made in administrative proceedings that allegedly defame a person are not absolutely immune where the person
In January 2018, during the Executive budget address, Governor Cuomo directed the Department of Health (DOH) to review the health, criminal justice and economic impacts of regulating recreational marijuana in New York. In doing so, he requested DOH to act in consultation with other NYS agencies and to evaluate the experience, consequences and effects
Unlike most other types of employment arrangements involving physicians, physicians acting as a medical director are compensated purely for the performance of administrative services related to patient care services. That is not to say that a medical director does not play a crucial role in the operation of a health care provider. In fact, the
This post marks the end of our series on recent activity by the New York State Legislature in the health sector (introduced here), and follows posts on legislation impacting the pharmaceutical industry (here), hospitals (here), long term care and aging (here), behavioral health (here), and
Our series highlighting recent activity by the NYS Legislature continues with a recap of bills passed in 2018 that relate to behavioral health. This synopsis follows previous summaries we have done concerning pharmacy (here), hospitals (here), long term care and aging (here).
Except where otherwise noted, these bills await
The latest installation in our series on legislation recently passed by the New York State Legislature (introduced here) addresses legislation in the long term care and aging space. It follows upon descriptions of legislation in the pharmacy space (here) and hospital space (here). Like those areas, the long term
The scheduled 2018 New York State Legislative Session concluded last week amid many of the same speculations and controversies that have characterized all of the Legislature’s activities in recent years. Once again, much of the activity turned on the Legislature’s tense relationship with the Governor, ongoing questions about control of the Senate, and a backdrop
Earlier this month the New York State Department of Health released the first results of its recently adopted Medicaid redesign efforts, the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (“DSRIP”), in four core areas: (1) metric performance, (2) success of projects, (3) total Medicaid spending and (4) managed care expenditures. The passing scores stem from the
The New York State Department of Health (DOH), in consultation with the Department of Labor (DOL), recently announced a Request for Applications for the Health Workforce Retraining Initiative (HWRI). This program was established pursuant to NYS Public Health Law §2807-g and is funded through the State’s Health Care Reform Act. The 2018-19 Enacted New York