Assembly Bill A4440

2009-2010 Legislative Session

Enacts "fair insurance treatment act of 2009" to require health insurers to provide coverage for mental illness and chemical dependence

download bill text pdf

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Assembly Committee


  • Introduced
    • In Committee Assembly
    • In Committee Senate
    • On Floor Calendar Assembly
    • On Floor Calendar Senate
    • Passed Assembly
    • Passed Senate
  • Delivered to Governor
  • Signed By Governor

Do you support this bill?

Please enter your contact information

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.
Actions

co-Sponsors

multi-Sponsors

2009-A4440 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:
Assembly Insurance
Law Section:
Insurance Law
Laws Affected:
Amd §§3216, 3217, 3221, 4303, 4320 & 4322, Ins L; amd §296, Exec L

2009-A4440 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Enacts the "fair insurance treatment act of 2009" to require health insurers to provide coverage for mental illness and chemical dependence.

2009-A4440 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  4440

                       2009-2010 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                            February 4, 2009
                               ___________

Introduced  by  M.  of A. HYER-SPENCER, ALFANO, SPANO, WALKER, TITONE --
  Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. BARRA, DIAZ, GABRYSZAK,  MAISEL,  McDO-
  NOUGH, TOBACCO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Insurance

AN  ACT to amend the insurance law and the executive law, in relation to
  enacting the "fair insurance treatment act of 2009"

  THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section  1.  Short  title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
the "fair insurance treatment act of 2009".
  S 2.  Legislative findings and intent. The legislature hereby declares
that health  insurance  policies  and  health  maintenance  organization
contracts  have  traditionally discriminated against persons with mental
illness  (including  children  with  serious  emotional  disorders)  and
persons  with  chemical  dependency  by  either  not including medically
necessary mental health and chemical dependency treatment  and  services
as  covered  benefits  or subjecting these services to disparate benefit
limitations or cost  sharing  requirements.  Although  federal  law  has
prohibited the imposition of lower annual and lifetime dollars limits by
certain plans on mental health coverage, it is the intent of this legis-
lation  to  strengthen and enhance those protections, and to ensure that
mental health and chemical dependency coverage is provided  by  insurers
and  health maintenance organizations, and is provided on terms compara-
ble to other health care and medical services. Nothing in  this  act  is
intended  to limit or restrict the right of health maintenance organiza-
tions and health insurers to require that all services covered  by  them
satisfy  reasonable  and appropriate utilization review requirements, in
accordance with their contracts, and applicable  laws  and  regulations,
provided  that  such  utilization  review  requirements are applied in a
consistent fashion to all services covered by such contracts.
  S 3. Subsection (i) of section 3216 of the insurance law is amended by
adding a new paragraph 26 to read as follows:

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD07523-01-9
              

Comments

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account. An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.