Insights & Resources

On June 11, 2021, Governor Cuomo signed Senate Bill S6767 into law. The amended law, which takes effect on October 21, 2021, will continue to greatly impact the ownership and operation of nursing homes in New York by imposing broad notice and contract disclosure requirements on nursing homes.  This law amends a chapter of laws relating to requirements for nursing homes, as proposed in bills S4893A and A5684A, which were signed into law in late April of 2021, and as addressed in our prior

Client Alert linked here.  Among the amended requirements are the following:
 

• Requires disclosure to staff and current residents and their representatives of any application for establishment submitted by an existing nursing home and further requires immediate notification when such application for establishment is scheduled for consideration by a committee designated by the Public Health and Health Planning Council.
• Adds a requirement for operators to provide notice to the State Office of the Long-term Care Ombudsman, in addition to the Department of Health, at least 90 days before entering into any contracts pertaining to any disposition of real property of the facility or any contract related to the consulting or operations of the nursing home.
• Adds additional Certificate of Need requirements on establishment of nursing homes, including:
• Expanded disclosure and review requirements regarding the character and competence of proposed controlling persons and owners, and new quality of care requirements for facilities in which such persons have an interest.
• Adds safeguards to the requirement that new owners retain all employees of an existing nursing home, by enabling new owners to terminate employees for cause and allowing new owners to maintain disciplinary actions initiated against employees prior to the sale of the nursing home.
• Adds requirements for nursing home establishment applications to include information pertaining to staffing.
• Adds new public disclosure requirements for nursing homes on their websites, including:
• The maximum rates to be charged for residency and services;
• All owners;
• Name and address of landlord; and
• Summary of all contracts for the provision of goods and services paid by Medicare or Medicaid funds within thirty days of executing such contract.

Garfunkel Wild has been regularly tracking and monitoring the status of these bills and certain other proposed nursing home legislation, a list of which can be found here.

Should you have any questions regarding the above, please contact the Garfunkel Wild attorney with whom you regularly work, or contact us at info@garfunkelwild.com.