STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2705 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 22, 2021 ___________ Introduced by Sen. ORTT -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to imposing a nursing home purchase moratorium on those who own or have owned failing facil- ities The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The legislature recognizes the importance of holding nurs- 2 ing homes accountable in order to ensure a high quality of care. This 3 body acknowledges department of health inspections as the method of 4 holding nursing homes to our state's standards. The legislature also 5 recognizes that nursing home operators who receive poor inspection 6 grades are not meeting our state's standards. 7 The legislature intends to bar failing nursing home owners from 8 acquiring additional nursing homes in this state until they have demon- 9 strated an ability to keep their existing facilities up to standard. 10 § 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2808-e 11 to read as follows: 12 § 2808-e. Nursing home purchasing moratorium. 1. For the purposes of 13 this section, the term "owned facility" shall mean any facility 14 disclosed under subdivisions two and three of this section. 15 2. Any individual attempting to purchase a nursing home shall disclose 16 to the department which existing medical facilities that individual or 17 that individual's spouse owns within the state. Additionally, such indi- 18 vidual shall disclose whether any partnership, corporation, firm, socie- 19 ty, or other entity of which that individual or that individual's spouse 20 owns more than ten percent of or by which the individual or that indi- 21 vidual's spouse is employed owns existing medical facilities in the 22 state. 23 3. Any partnership, corporation, firm, society, or other entity 24 attempting to purchase a nursing home shall disclose to the department EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01999-01-1S. 2705 2 1 any ownership of existing medical facilities in the state. Addi- 2 tionally, such partnership, corporation, firm, society, or other entity 3 shall disclose to the department which medical facilities are owned by 4 all individuals or spouses of individuals who own more than ten percent 5 of such entity. 6 4. The department shall review standard health inspection and life 7 safety health inspection records for all of an applicant's owned facili- 8 ties. 9 5. In the event that one or more of an applicant's owned facilities 10 has been cited for noncompliance in a standard health inspection or life 11 safety health inspection, that applicant shall not be permitted to 12 purchase a nursing home within the state until the owned facility or 13 facilities in violation have been proven to be in compliance for twen- 14 ty-four consecutive months. 15 6. In the event that one or more owned facilities has been cited for 16 noncompliance in a standard health inspection or life safety health 17 inspection and the owning individual, partnership, corporation, firm, 18 society, or other entity sells the cited owned facility or relinquishes 19 its ownership stake in the cited owned facility, that individual, part- 20 nership, corporation, firm, society, or other entity shall not be 21 permitted to purchase a nursing home within the state until twenty-four 22 months have elapsed since the change in ownership status and the indi- 23 vidual or firm pays to the department a compliance fee equal to the 24 amount of fines imposed at the time of citation. 25 7. All monies collected by the department under the provisions of this 26 law shall be made available for use by the department for the purposes 27 of executing this law. 28 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.