Senate Bill S6306A

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                  6306--A
 
                        2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                              April 21, 2021
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by Sen. HARCKHAM -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed  to  the  Committee  on  Health  --  committee
   discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
   to said committee
 
 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:
 
   Section 1. Legislative finding and declaration. New Yorkers in  recov-
 ery  for  substance and opioid use disorders and in treatment for mental
 health conditions are losing access to  in-person  treatment  under  the
 state's "stay at home" and social distancing orders as part of coronavi-
 rus  pandemic  mitigation  efforts. In recent news reports, experts warn
 that the coronavirus pandemic may be "a national  relapse  trigger"  for
 individuals in treatment for alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijua-
 na,  and  heroin addiction.   Evidence-based mobile medical applications
 are new, software-based disease treatments designed  to  directly  treat
 disease,  tested  for safety and efficacy in randomized clinical trials,
 evaluated by the FDA, and  prescribed  by  healthcare  providers.  These
 therapies  are  designed  and  tested much like traditional prescription
 drugs with one distinction: rather than swallowing a pill or  taking  an
 injection,  patients  are  treated with software. Certain evidence-based
 mobile  medical  applications  provide  clinicians  and  patients   with
 evidence-based remote treatment modalities to treat substance and opioid
 use  disorders, mental health, and other diseases and conditions. Howev-
 er, there is no clear  statutory  benefit  category  to  allow  Medicaid
 coverage  for  evidence-based  mobile medical applications.  In light of
 the promise of evidence-based mobile medical applications for the treat-
 ment of patients with substance use and opioid use disorders during  the
 coronavirus  pandemic,  this legislation would require that the New York
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
              

                                                            LBD10469-02-1

 S. 6306--A                          2
 
 state department of health seek guidance from the Centers  for  Medicare
 and  Medicaid  Services relative to a coverage and reimbursement pathway
 for evidence-based mobile medical applications, in order  to  accelerate
 access to such therapies for enrollees.
   §  2.  No  later than 30 days from the effective date of this section,
 the New York state department of health shall 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  evidence-based mobile medical applications approved by the
 food and drug administration to  treat  substance  use  and  opioid  use
 disorders.
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.