Advanced Home Health Aide Bill Signed and Other Legislative Updates

LeadingAge NY is pleased to report that the Governor has signed A.10707 (Glick)/S.8110 (LaValle), legislation authorizing Advanced Home Health Aides (AHHAs) to perform advanced tasks under the supervision of a registered nurse and pursuant to an authorized practitioner’s ordered care. This will advance the field of direct care workers, provide additional critical access to patients living in the community, and increase efficiency in the delivery of care. The bill allows an AHHA to be employed by a home care agency, hospice program, or enhanced assisted living residence. LeadingAge NY was a member of the stakeholder workgroup and has been working hard on getting this bill signed. Click here to read the press release issued by the Department of Health (DOH).

In terms of other legislative updates:

• The Governor has signed A.7588 (Cymbrowitz)/S.5732 (Serino), which expands the types of individuals eligible for Enriched Social Adult Day services to include “functionally impaired adults” and not exclusively “elderly residents.” The bill also requires the Director of the State Office for the Aging (SOFA) to develop an application program for eligible entities to apply to offer enriched and/or optional services. Furthermore, it requires that eligible entities provide all services required of social adult day services programs – including total assistance with toileting, mobility, transferring, and eating where appropriate – and have an existing contract with SOFA. Lastly, the bill establishes a grant program available for approved programs which will be based on a competitive basis.
• The Governor has signed A.7714-C (Gottfried)/S.8081 (Hannon), which authorizes the Commissioner of Health to allow diagnostic and treatment centers (D&TCs) and outpatient clinics of general hospitals to provide licensed services off-site to existing patients who are chronically ill and temporarily or permanently homebound. It limits the types of services that can be provided to those that the facility is authorized to provide on-site and to primary care services. The final version of the bill excluded services that are defined as home care services, home care agency services, and the professional services (nursing, physical therapy, etc.) that home care agencies provide. It was amended to allow for the provision of services to individuals residing in long term care settings that are defined as, or considered to be, the individual’s residence.
• The Governor has vetoed A.9381-B (Cusick)/S.6692-B (Lanza), which would have required that comprehensive emergency management plans developed by municipalities include input from home health care and hospice services providers. It would have also required that plans to deliver services to aid citizens during a disaster include procedures for health care providers to access their patients.
• The Governor has vetoed A.9130 (Cymbrowitz)/S.7161 (Savino), which would have subjected social Adult Day Care Programs (ADCP) not already subject to oversight by a state agency to oversight and regulations promulgated by the State Office for the Aging (SOFA), regardless of whether the program receives funding from SOFA. At LeadingAge NY’s request, language was added to the bill that was designed to avoid the duplication of regulatory jurisdiction for those ADHC programs regulated by other state agencies (i.e. DOH).

Contacts: Jeff Diamond, jdiamond@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8821 or Cheryl Udell, cudell@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871