Signed into law: New protections sparked by a badly-needed S.I. health clinic’s closure during the pandemic - silive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — When a CityMD location in West Brighton temporarily closed last year at the height of the pandemic, the borough’s elected officials took immediate action.

Led by Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore), the elected officials wrote the company’s CEO, Richard Park, to highlight the Forest Avenue health center’s importance to the community in the city’s only borough without a public hospital.

Now, Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed legislation that will help protect the health centers that are important to so many Staten Islanders by requiring centers to give 30-days notice before closure. Fall and State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore/Brooklyn) sponsored the legislation in their respective chambers.

Assemblyman Mike Cusick (D-Mid-Island) co-sponsored the legislation, and the Democrats’ local Republican counterparts — State Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore), Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-South Shore), and Assemblyman Mike Reilly (R-East Shore/South Brooklyn) — voted in favor of the bill back in June.

“Since there are no public hospitals located on Staten Island and in certain parts of New York State, many residents rely on community-based health care for a wide variety of medical services, including physicals, injury-related and illness diagnosis and care, rapid lab tests and screening, pediatric care and women’s wellness needs for some of the most vulnerable residents,” Fall said.

“Having residents who may be elderly or lack reliable transportation to travel to another facility during heightened federal and state protocols is detrimental to the well-being of all New York residents, especially those residing on the North Shore of Staten Island.”

Without giving a reason, Fall said former Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed the bill, which passed unanimously in the Assembly.

In addition to the 30-day closure notice, because of the law the New York Health Commissioner will conduct a study of ambulatory care and other medical care throughout the pandemic with the goal of recommending ways to improve that care.

“There are no public hospitals located on Staten Island and several other areas throughout the state, resulting in public hospital deserts,” Savino said while praising Fall for raising the issue.

“This study of ambulatory health services in the state in response to the COVID -19 pandemic will help provide a roadmap to where state resources are and where they need to be.”

The four-piece package that Hochul signed also featured legislation that seeks to crack down on fake COVID vaccine cards, improve schools’ access to the state’s immunization database, and have the Department of Financial Services conduct a study of the pandemic’s economic impact.

Legislation would clarify that physical card falsification is a misdemeanor, and that digital falsification is a felony. Schools would have full access to the Department of Health’s immunization database instead of the read-only access that some schools have.

“We need to make sure we learn the lessons of the pandemic so we don’t make the same mistakes twice,” Hochul said.

“These new laws will help us improve our response to the pandemic now, crack down on fraudulent use of vaccination records, and help us better understand the areas of improvement we need to make to our health care system so we can be even more prepared down the road.”

source: https://www.silive.com/coronavirus/2021/12/signed-into-law-new-protections-sparked-by-a-badly-needed-si-health-clinics-closure-during-the-pandemic.html

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