Bill Text: NY A02770 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Enacts the Jonah Bichotte Cowan Law; relates to pre-term labor care and directs the commissioner of health to require hospitals to provide pre-term labor patients with information regarding the potential health effects of pre-term labor and pre-term delivery on an expectant mother and on her fetus.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: (Passed) 2020-12-22 - approval memo.52 [A02770 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-A02770-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2770--C 2019-2020 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY January 25, 2019 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BICHOTTE, SOLAGES, JEAN-PIERRE, BARRON, WALKER, THIELE -- read once and referred to the Committee on Health -- commit- tee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom- mitted to said committee -- recommitted to the Committee on Health in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said commit- tee -- again reported from said committee with amendments, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to enacting the Jonah Bichotte Cowan law relating to pre-term labor care and directing the commissioner of health to require hospitals to provide pre-term labor patients with information regarding the potential health effects of pre-term labor and pre-term delivery on an expectant mother and on her fetus The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "Jonah Bichotte Cowan law". 3 § 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2509-b 4 to read as follows: 5 § 2509-b. Pre-term labor care. 1. When an expectant mother presents 6 at a general hospital with concerns about being in pre-term labor, the 7 general hospital shall: 8 (a) determine whether the expectant mother is in pre-term labor; 9 (b) upon making a diagnosis of pre-term labor, admit the expectant 10 mother to the general hospital or treat her in the emergency room for 11 close observation and continuous monitoring until it is deemed medically 12 safe for discharge from the general hospital or stabilize and arrange 13 for an appropriate transfer of such expectant mother to another general 14 hospital; and EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD00398-07-0A. 2770--C 2 1 (c) provide the expectant mother with information concerning pre-term 2 labor and the potential health effects of pre-term labor and premature 3 birth delivery on the mother and on her fetus as required by section 4 twenty-eight hundred three-j of this chapter. 5 2. As used in this section, "general hospital" means a general hospi- 6 tal as defined in section twenty-eight hundred one of this chapter. 7 § 3. Subdivisions 1 and 1-a of section 2803-j of the public health 8 law, subdivision 1 as amended by chapter 66 of the laws of 2020 and 9 subdivision 1-a as added by chapter 56 of the laws of 1996, are amended 10 and a new subdivision 1-f is added to read as follows: 11 1. The commissioner shall require that every hospital and birth center 12 shall prepare in printed or photocopied form and distribute at the time 13 of pre-booking directly to each prospective maternity patient and, upon 14 request, to the general public an informational leaflet. Such leaflet 15 shall also be distributed to any expectant mother who presents at the 16 hospital during pregnancy. Such leaflet shall be designed by the commis- 17 sioner and shall contain brief definitions of maternity related proce- 18 dures and practices as specified in subdivision two of this section and 19 such other material as deemed appropriate by the commissioner. Hospitals 20 and birth centers may also elect to distribute additional explanatory 21 material along with the maternity patients informational leaflet. The 22 commissioner shall make the information contained in the leaflet avail- 23 able on the department's website. 24 1-a. The informational leaflet shall also include: 25 (a) an explanation of the special provisions relating to maternity 26 care and coverage under the insurance law and section [two thousand27eight] twenty-eight hundred three-n of this [chapter] article, and 28 suggest that expectant parents check their insurance policies for the 29 details of their maternity coverage; and 30 (b) a statement that the medical assistance program provides coverage 31 for all income-eligible pregnant women and children residing in the 32 state regardless of immigration status. 33 1-f. The informational leaflet shall also include information relating 34 to pre-term labor and premature birth, including but not limited to 35 definitions and information on the risks that pre-term labor and prema- 36 ture birth pose to the expectant mother and fetus. 37 § 4. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 38 have become a law. Effective immediately the addition, amendment and/or 39 repeal of any rule or regulation necessary for the implementation of 40 this act on its effective date are authorized to be made and completed 41 on or before such date.
