Senate Bill S12

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S12

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the education law, in relation to
contracts for joint or group purchasing of goods for state university
health care facilities

 PURPOSE :

To provide that in the event State University health care facilities
purchase goods through joint or group purchasing arrangements, such
arrangements and purchases made through such arrangements shall not be
subject to the pre-approvals of the State Comptroller and Attorney
General, competitive procurement requirements, requirements to
purchase from preferred sources and through centralized contracts of
the Office of General Services and publication requirements.

 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 of the legislation amends Education Law section 355(16)(b)
to authorize State University health care facilities to enter into
joint or group purchasing arrangements for goods, which arrangements
and purchases made through such arrangements shall not be subject to
State Finance Law section 112 (State Comptroller pre-approval),
Executive Law section 63 (Attorney General approval), State Finance
Law section 163 (competitive procurement; preferred sources; OGS
centralized contracts), Economic Development Law Art. 4-C (publication
              

in Contract Reporter or Education Law section 355(5)(a), (a-1)(rules
of the State Comptroller).

Section 2 provides that the legislation takes effect immediately.

 EXISTING LAW :

Education Law section 355(26)(b) authorizes the State University to
purchase goods without prior approval of the State Comptroller and
Attorney General and to purchase services without the approval of the
State Comptroller and Attorney General at a cost under negotiated
thresholds. Generally, the provisions of State Finance Law section 163
require competitive procurement of goods and services and require
procurement first from preferred sources then through centralized
contracts of the Office of General Services and then through
procurement by a State entity directly.

 JUSTIFICATION :

SUNY's hospitals exist in increasingly competitive and rapidly
changing health care markets, requiring that they be provided with
additional flexibility to deploy limited resources more efficiently.
All hospital - including other public hospital in New York - use Group
Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) as a major purchasing tool to save
money and maximize the efficiency of internal procurement resources.
Current procurement requirements for SUNY's hospitals, which this
legislation seeks to amend, preclude them from taking full advantage
of leveraging the shared buying power of all three hospitals and the
efficiency provided by using GPOs as a purchasing tool. Nothing in
this legislation either amends the civil service law or impacts State
employee contracts.

This legislation only provides flexibility for hospital joint or group
purchasing, thereby providing an incentive for the hospitals to
purchase together to maximize savings for all three of them and
freeing them from duplicative and time consuming requirements
associated with current law. This legislation is an important step in
giving the SUNY Hospitals the flexibility from overly burdensome
processes that impede their ability to survive and compete - so they

are able to continue to support the educational mission of SUNY's
public academic medical centers at Downstate, Stony Brook and Upstate.

 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2013-14 S.1653; 2012 S.7065A.

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS :

Savings in expenditures for goods and services procured for State
University health care facilities.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.