Senate Bill S8709

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S8709

SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the education law, in relation to professional miscon-
duct by physicians, physician's assistants, and specialist's assistants

 
PURPOSE:

To protect against willful misrepresentations of certain patient
protections.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1. Amends education law section 6530 by creating the following
new prohibitions within existing law governing professional medical
misconduct:

11-a: Willfully representing unlicensed persons in a manner indicating
to a patient or client that such persons are licensed.

              

23-a: Willfully representing to a patient or client that a facility
requires private health information when such information is not neces-
sary to perform the services offered by the facility.

23-b: Willfully representing to a patient or client that their private
health information is protected by binding rules, including but not
limited to under the federal health insurance portability and account-
ability act (H IPAA,) when it is not.

35-a: Willfully representing to a patient or client that a test is being
conducted or interpreted for diagnostic or treatment purposes when it is
not being performed for such purposes.

51: Willfully representing to a patient or client that a facility is
licensed to diagnose, treat, operate, or prescribe for any condition for
which it is not actually licensed to do so.

52: Willfully representing to a patient or client that a facility is
subject to sanitary or safety standards of a facility licensed under New
York State law when such facility is not.

Section two. Immediate effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Unregulated pregnancy centers (UPCs) are non-medical facilities that
provide determinations of pregnancy or pregnancy counseling but do not
provide or refer for a full range of reproductive care services.  There
are a little under 100 UPCs in New York State as of 2025, about half of
which provide ultrasounds while half provide no medical services what-
soevet. Although they are not medical facilities, UPCs require clients
to fill out medical-looking intake forms, and frequently have waiting
rooms and exam rooms that resemble doctors' offices or community clin-
ics. Therefore clients may wrongly believe the facility is governed by
the standards of health care facilities, including health and safety
codes, inspections, health information privacy protections, and that
support or other unlicensed staff are in fact licensed professionals.
UPCs are not licensed as health care facilities and this bill does not
intend to do so. However, States have clear authority to govern the
practice of medicine. Some UPCs do have licensed health care practition-
ers on staff, whether on-site or as overall medical directors. These
licensed health care practitioners should not use the credibility of
their licenses to create misinformation that clients are being seen by
other health care practitioners when they are not, that clients are in a
licensed healthcare facility when they are not, or that clients'
personal information is subject to legal protections when it is not.

Therefore this bill amends the existing professional medical misconduct
statutes to clarify that such actions constitute misconduct, in order to
ensure that clients accurately understand the nature of the services
offered by UPCs. These actions would be covered by existing penalties
and enforcement structures already applicable to acts of professional
misconduct.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill, 2026.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATION:

None to the state

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediate.