Bill Text: NY A04081 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: Directs the department of health to request guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to determine whether the state can claim federal financial participation for coverage of and payment for certain evidence-based mobile medical applications.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to health [A04081 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A04081-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4081

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 9, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  CUNNINGHAM  -- read once and referred to the
          Committee on Health

        AN ACT in relation to determining whether the state  can  claim  federal
          financial  participation  for  coverage  of  and  payment  for certain
          evidence-based mobile medical applications

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. Legislative finding and declaration. New Yorkers in recov-
     2  ery for substance and opioid use disorders and in treatment  for  mental
     3  health  conditions  are  losing  access to in-person treatment under the
     4  state's "stay at home" and social distancing orders as part of coronavi-
     5  rus pandemic mitigation efforts. In recent news  reports,  experts  warn
     6  that  the  coronavirus  pandemic may be "a national relapse trigger" for
     7  individuals in treatment for alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijua-
     8  na, and heroin addiction.   Evidence-based mobile  medical  applications
     9  are  new,  software-based  disease treatments designed to directly treat
    10  disease, tested for safety and efficacy in randomized  clinical  trials,
    11  evaluated  by  the  FDA,  and  prescribed by healthcare providers. These
    12  therapies are designed and tested  much  like  traditional  prescription
    13  drugs  with  one distinction: rather than swallowing a pill or taking an
    14  injection, patients are treated with  software.  Certain  evidence-based
    15  mobile   medical  applications  provide  clinicians  and  patients  with
    16  evidence-based remote treatment modalities to treat substance and opioid
    17  use disorders, mental health, and other diseases and conditions.  Howev-
    18  er,  there  is  no  clear  statutory  benefit category to allow Medicaid
    19  coverage for evidence-based mobile medical applications.   In  light  of
    20  the promise of evidence-based mobile medical applications for the treat-
    21  ment  of patients with substance use and opioid use disorders during the
    22  coronavirus pandemic, this legislation would require that the  New  York
    23  state  department  of health seek guidance from the Centers for Medicare
    24  and Medicaid Services relative to a coverage and  reimbursement  pathway

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD06394-01-3
        A. 4081                             2

     1  for  evidence-based  mobile medical applications, in order to accelerate
     2  access to such therapies for enrollees.
     3    §  2.  No  later than 30 days from the effective date of this section,
     4  the New York state department of health shall request guidance from  the
     5  Centers  for  Medicare  and  Medicaid  Services to determine whether the
     6  state can claim federal financial  participation  for  coverage  of  and
     7  payment  for  evidence-based mobile medical applications approved by the
     8  food and drug administration to  treat  substance  use  and  opioid  use
     9  disorders.
    10    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.