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| The Albany Capitol building |
Legislative leaders in the state Senate and Assembly introduced a bill late Monday night that if passed, would remove immunity protections for healthcare facilities and personnel treating patients that haven’t been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Protections would remain however when treating patients diagnosed with and being treated for the virus.
The Legislature originally voted on and passed the measure within the state’s omnibus $177 billion state budget in April.
Drawing heavy support from the hospital and nursing home industry, the “Emergency or Disaster Treatment Protection Act” granted immunity protections for all healthcare facilities and medical professionals that treated, or arranged for treatment of COVID-19 patients, and any other individual who sought health care services during the COVID-19 emergency declaration.
However, the provision came under the microscope in the light of the state’s massive death toll in nursing homes related to the virus — which have now skyrocketed to upwards of 6,300 lives lost per state records.
Family members that have loved ones who died in facilities cannot sue unless they can prove a high standard of gross negligence occurred.
Bill sponsor Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens) — a nursing home advocate — told The Post the legislation in its current form does not go far enough, and is pushing for a full, retroactive repeal of immunity protections going back to the pandemic’s start.
“I think it’s a good first step in admitting the original protections passed were wrong, but if it doesn’t go retroactively then it doesn’t provide justice for the people that are in the most pain right now,” he said.
“We need to figure out how to provide retroactive justice.”
“There has to be some sort of victim compensation fund for the people who lost their loved ones,” he added.
But the Greater New York Hospital Association — the powerful hospital lobbying arm directly involved in April’s negotiations with Gov. Andrew Cuomo over the protections – issued a memo of opposition, arguing the pandemic is far from over and the healthcare system is still facing challenges.
“The bill would prospectively remove protections for non-COVID-19 patients whose care would be affected by the response to another COVID-19 surge. This includes hospitals’ response to State orders by discharging patients early to prepare for a surge; deploying volunteers, staff, and medical students to alleviate severe staff shortages; expedited triage of emergency room patients to make room for an influx of COVID-19 patients; and the conversion of existing and creation of new hospital spaces to care for patients,” GNYHA spokesman Brian Conway said. He added that any retroactive provision would “make an already bad bill much worse.”
“Health care workers should not have to look over their shoulder for trying to save as many lives as possible during a horrific pandemic.”
“The pandemic isn’t over. The intent of passing these protections was to allow hospitals, nursing homes and doctors to do their job,” argued Tom Stebbins executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York.
“The flip that we’ve made on our healthcare workers is alarming. This is not over, every expert would say this is not over.”
State Senate sponsor Luis Sepulveda (D-The Bronx) told The Post Senate Democrats are still discussing the legislation, and would not comment further.
Lawmakers are expected to be in Albany through the end of the week — both physically and remotely — to pass a series of legislation backed up by the COVID-19 emergency.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo could not be reached for immediate comment.
Full Article & Source:
NY bill would rollback COVID-19 liability protection for hospitals, nursing homes
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