New York Governor Andrew Cuomo worked with New York State Senate and Assembly leadership to introduce their budget bills on January 21, 2014. Of the 10 budget bills in each chamber, Assembly Bill 8558 andSenate Bill 6358 include $1.2 billion to restructure hospitals, long-term care and other healthcare services not including an additional $75 million towards health IT.
Specifically, the measures amend “the Public Health Law to modify the reconciliation of collections for the Covered Lives Assessment in excess of $1.45 billion through December 31, 2017 for the purpose of Continuing operational support for the Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHINNY) and the All Payor Claims Database (APCD)” and it adds a new subsection to the Public Health Law to “authorize DOH to distribute funds to applicants for the purpose of further developing health home infrastructure, including workforce training and implementation of health information technology systems.”
AB 8558 was referred to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and SB 6358 was referred to Senate Finance Committee. These measures will be considered in their respective committees on February 6th and February 13th. It is unlikely that these measures will see action on their chamber floor until May.
