Bill Text: NY S01471 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Requires hospitals to offer plant-based food options to patients upon request.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-12-06 - SIGNED CHAP.588 [S01471 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S01471-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         1471--A
            Cal. No. 619

                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 15, 2019
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  HOYLMAN,  MYRIE, PARKER -- read twice and ordered
          printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee  on  Health
          -- reported favorably from said committee, ordered to first and second
          report,  ordered  to  a  third reading, amended and ordered reprinted,
          retaining its place in the order of third reading

        AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation  to  offering  plant-
          based food options in hospitals

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

     1    Section 1. The public health law is amended by adding  a  new  section
     2  2827 to read as follows:
     3    §  2827. Plant-based food options. 1. Upon request by a patient or the
     4  patient's lawful representative in a  hospital  providing  inpatient  or
     5  residential  care,  the  hospital  shall offer the patient a plant-based
     6  food option as an alternative to every meal or  snack  offered  in  food
     7  service  to  the patient. All the hospital's written material describing
     8  food offerings shall include the  availability  of  a  plant-based  food
     9  option.  The  plant-based  food option shall be offered at no additional
    10  cost to the patient beyond what would be charged for a  comparable  non-
    11  plant-based food option.
    12    2.  The  hospital shall respond in a reasonable manner and time to any
    13  request made under this section. The  request  shall  be  effective  for
    14  every hospital meal or snack in which the patient is reasonably expected
    15  to  participate.  This  section does not preclude the offering of plant-
    16  based food options to patients who have not requested it, and  does  not
    17  preclude  an individual who has requested a plant-based food option from
    18  selecting a non-plant-based food option.
    19    3. As used in this section:
    20    (a) "Plant-based food option" means a food or beverage that is free of
    21  animal products and that has nutritional value comparable  to  the  non-
    22  plant-based food option that it replaces.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD04012-04-9
        S. 1471--A                          2

     1    (b) "Animal product" means meat, poultry, seafood, dairy, eggs, honey,
     2  and any derivative thereof.
     3    4.  This  section  shall  not  apply  to  patient  nutritional support
     4  products including, but not limited  to,  infant  formulas,  nutritional
     5  modulars,  oral nutritional supplements, enteral nutrition formulas, and
     6  parenteral or intravenous nutrition, prescribed or ordered by  a  health
     7  care  professional, licensed, certified or otherwise authorized to prac-
     8  tice under title eight of the education law, acting within  the  profes-
     9  sional's  lawful  scope  of  practice.  However, where a request is made
    10  under subdivision one of this section, and a health care professional is
    11  considering prescribing or ordering a patient nutritional support  prod-
    12  uct  under this subdivision, the health care professional shall consider
    13  and advise the requester whether a medically suitable  plant-based  food
    14  option is reasonably available.
    15    §  2. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a
    16  law. Effective immediately, the commissioner of health  may  make  regu-
    17  lations  and  take  other actions reasonably necessary to implement this
    18  act on that date.