In summer of 2023, New York City Mayor Eric Adams signed Intro. 844-A (Local Law 844-A) and amended the New York City Charter. Local Law 844-A directs Mayor Adams to establish an Office of Healthcare Accountability that will serve to increase health care price transparency in New York City. Though health care price transparency laws have been enacted at the state level across the nation, New York City has become the first municipality in the nation to implement a price transparency law. Indeed, New York City Councilmember Julie Menin, who sponsored Local Law 844-A, emphasized “the positive impact of price transparency measures in other states, and it’s time for New York City to curb excessive health care prices” alongside other states during the bill’s signing ceremony. The law took effect on February 18, 2024.

On November 13, 2023, Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans to regulate cybersecurity for New York general hospitals regulated under Article 28 of the Public Health Law. As proposed, the regulations will provide an additional level of security for hospitals, which have been increasingly targeted for cybersecurity scams and breaches. The proposed regulations would be additive to those requirements of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which already includes a variety of requirements meant to safeguard Protected Health Information (PHI). Accompanying the proposed regulations, a $500 million dollar fund has been appropriated under Governor Hochul’s FY24 budget to assist hospitals in complying with the proposed cybersecurity regulations. The funds will be made available through a Health Care Technology Capital program, which will be established by the New York State Department of Health (DOH).

On May 3, 2023, New York joined Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and California in enacting legislation that increases oversight over certain health care transactions. Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Fiscal Year 2024 New York State Executive Budget (FY 24 Executive Budget) into law which enacted the final version of Article 45-A of the New York Public Health Law (PHL) titled “Disclosure of Material Transactions.” The law takes effect on August 1, 2023.

On April 25, 2023, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders and Ranking Member Bill Cassidy introduced a package of legislation aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. The package includes four bills, each proposing changes that would address a different piece of the pharmaceutical supply chain. This post focuses on the Pharmacy Benefit Manager Reform Act (PBM Reform Act), which proposes to increase oversight of entities providing pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) services to group health plans and health insurance issuers (i.e., employer-based health insurance coverage).

Deal structure is the foundation of a health care transaction. This post offers practical tips and hypothetical case studies for laying the groundwork for a successful health care transaction.

Bridgette Keller speaks with the Mintz Health Law team about what they are grateful for as they look back on a year of client service, mentorship, and working together as a team.

In this post, we summarize the reforms under Article 28 of the New York Public Health Law and changes to general hospital and nursing home staffing laws and discuss what these changes mean for both. 

Effective October 1, 2022, Connecticut adopted the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact (IMLC) and the Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact (PSYPACT). As of the date of this post, Connecticut joins 38 other states who have adopted the IMLC and 34 other states that have adopted the PSYPACT. This blog post provides an overview of the IMLC and PSYPACT and analyzes its impact in Connecticut. 

This post is the third and final installment of our blog series on the proposed regulations published by the New York State Office of Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG). The proposed regulations would repeal the current Part 521 - Provider Compliance Programs of Title 18 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations in its entirety and establish new requirements for providers to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in the Medicaid Program under a new Part 521: Fraud, Waste, and Abuse Prevention (Part 521). If enacted, the proposed rules would implement changes related to Medicaid provider compliance programs, Medicaid managed care organization (MMCO) fraud, waste, and abuse prevention, and Medicaid providers’ “obligation to report, return, and explain Medicaid overpayments through OMIG’s Self-Disclosure Program.”