New York Department of Health (DOH) regulations provide that an adult home may not admit additional residents with serious mental illness if it has a capacity of 80 or more beds and its resident population is over 25% persons with serious mental illness.  In Oceanview Home for Adults, Inc. v. Zucker, the New York Court of Appeals held that these regulations do not facially discriminate against persons with disabilities. 

In 1999, the United State Supreme Court held that the Americans with Disabilities Act imposes an affirmative obligation on states to prevent the segregation of persons with disabilities in institutionalized settings that are more restrictive than appropriate for their needs.  In October of 2012, New York’s Office of Mental Health (OMH) issued two Clinical Advisories stating that certain large adult homes provided housing experiences for persons with serious mental illness that were not clinically appropriate to their needs and were not conducive to their rehabilitation or recovery.  Shortly thereafter, DOH issued the challenged regulations. Continue Reading New York Court of Appeals Upholds Adult Home Admission Regulations

As we head into a new calendar year, in the healthcare space it is worth reflecting on the events of the last few years, as a means of predicting what is likely to come.  Last year, the focus in healthcare policy was very much on what will come after COVID; this year, we finally have the opportunity to review what that is.  And we can confidently say that 2024 is likely to see a continuation of many of the trends in healthcare policy that we saw in 2023.Continue Reading Healthcare Policy in 2024: What’s Next?

On March 31, 2021, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA) legalizing adult-use cannabis in New York State. In doing so, New York became the 15th state in the United States to legalize cannabis use.

As  a result of the enactment of the MRTA, New York established the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). The OCM will regulate and control the cultivation, processing, manufacture, distribution, transportation, and sale of cannabis in New York. This includes medical cannabis, adult-use or “retail” cannabis and cannabinoid hemp.

Below we’ve gathered key facts about New York State’s adult-use and medical cannabis programs. These facts, and more information on the cannabis program in New York, can be found at the websites listed at the end of this post.
Continue Reading CANNABIS IN NEW YORK STATE: JUST THE FACTS

In recent months, there has been a lot of attention on decisions made during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York State in regard to nursing homes.  Some of that attention has focused on an order issued in the early days of the pandemic requiring nursing homes to readmit COVID-positive residents previously referred to hospitals, at a time
Continue Reading New York State Clamps Down on Nursing Home Revenue

As policymakers have responded to the COVID pandemic, they have implemented a variety of changes that create tremendous opportunities in the post-COVID world.  Perhaps the most significant of these is in the area of telehealth.  The remote delivery of healthcare and health-related services has tremendous implications for patient access to care and quality of outcomes, and stakeholders across the country
Continue Reading New York Doubles Down on Telehealth

Last week, in Washington v. Barr, the Second Circuit addressed a case seeking to strike down the federal government’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The Court held that plaintiffs had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies before the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Rather than dismissing the case, however, the Court
Continue Reading Second Circuit Holds Case Challenging Marijuana Classification As Schedule I Drug In Abeyance Pending Agency Exhaustion

Home health care aides working twenty-four hour shifts can be paid for as little as thirteen hours under certain conditions, according to a March ruling from the New York Court of Appeals in Andryeyeva v. New York Health Care, Inc. The Court of Appeals remanded, however, for lower courts to consider whether employers were adhering to the sleep and
Continue Reading Home Health Care Aides Working Twenty-Four Hour Shifts Can Be Paid For Thirteen Hours If Employer Meets Sleep and Meal Time Requirements

The New York State budget, which took effect yesterday to start the new fiscal year on Monday, April 1, does not include a plan for the legalization of adult recreational marijuana use. Instead, Governor Cuomo and the New York Legislature intend to work on developing a more concrete plan for the legalization of recreational marijuana before the close of the
Continue Reading NYS 2019-2020 Budget Does Not Provide for Recreational Marijuana Legalization

Since the advent of the Medicaid managed care program there has been a lingering question as to when a Medicaid dollar stopped being a Medicaid dollar.

With fee-for-service providers that were paid directly by the Medicaid program, the answer was always clear-cut – each dollar received from the Medicaid program was a Medicaid dollar and therefore it and the provider
Continue Reading 2019 Executive Budget Expands OMIG Oversight Authority