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
Long Term Care, Home Health and DME
DOH Issues Additional Guidance on New LHCSA Moratorium and other Restrictions Imposed by the 2018-19 Enacted New York State Budget.

As we reported in our annual series highlighting the various healthcare related provisions of the 2018-19 New York State Budget (here), the Enacted Budget reflects the state’s overall policy towards consolidation of the home care marketplace. Nowhere is the effort to force consolidation more…
The Broadest Impact: 2018-19 New York State Managed Care Budget Highlights

This, the last of our posts on the 2018-19 New York State Health Budget (the “Enacted Budget”), focuses on an area of healthcare that has perhaps the broadest impact of the sector as a whole — managed care. A prior…
A Renewed Focus: 2018-19 New York State Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Budget Highlights

Since the beginning of the administration of Governor Andrew Cuomo, there has been a strong emphasis on reform of the acute, primary, and long term care systems, and, particularly with the recent focus on the opioid crisis, that attention…
Fewer Home Care Providers, But More Assisted Living Programs: Long Term Care Reforms in 2018-19 New York State Budget

While much of the public attention this year on healthcare budget negotiations in New York State was drawn to the pharmaceutical and managed care sectors, the Enacted Budget for 2018-19 also includes some very significant reforms in the long term care…
State Authorizes Another $525 Million in Capital Grants for Providers
Periodically over the years, and consistently since 2005, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has received funding through the New York State budget process to provide capital support for infrastructure improvements at institutional providers. The rationale for this state funding has varied – at times, it has ostensibly been intended to incentivize certain…
2018-19 New York State Healthcare Budget

In the wee hours of the morning on March 30, almost two days ahead of the April 1 deadline, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed a $168.3 billion State Budget for the 2018-19 fiscal year. The Enacted Budget maintains a self-imposed cap of 2%…
No Pay to Sleep or Eat on the Job: New York State Department of Labor Issues an Emergency Regulation for Home Care Workers
The New York State Department of Labor (the “DOL”) issued an emergency regulation clarifying its minimum-wage rules regarding home care employees. The emergency regulation provides that sleep and meal times for home care aides who work shifts of 24 hours or more are not counted as hours worked. Recently, there has been a ringing dissonance…
Medical Marijuana Update – “Caregiver” Definition Expanded to Include Facilities
In our previous post, Medical Marijuana 103: Patient and Practitioner Regulations in New York State, we discussed that patients certified for medical marijuana use can designate up to two caregivers. Caregivers can assist patients who are unable to pick up medical marijuana at a dispensing facility or are unable to administer medical marijuana to…
The Individual’s Rights Under HIPAA to Access their Health Information- Verifying the Identity of the Person Requesting PHI
Under the Privacy Rule, HIPAA covered entities (health care providers and health plans) are required to provide individuals, upon request, with access to their protected health information (PHI) in one or more “designated record sets” maintained by or for the covered entity.
Covered entities are also required to protect the individual’s PHI from unauthorized disclosure.…