On January 5th, Governor Kathy Hochul delivered her first State of the State speech, which outlined her policy agenda for the 2022 Legislative Session. The accompanying State of the State Book, entitled “A New Era for New York,” describes the Governor’s proposed agenda across nine sections. Notably, the first section is focused on the “healthcare economy” and includes workforce, digital health, and coverage expansion proposals. Other sections outline the Governor’s plans for affordable housing, economic development, and infrastructure initiatives.
Further details, including legislative language for proposals that require funding appropriations, will be included in the Governor’s upcoming Executive Budget and Financial Plan, which are to be submitted to the State Legislature this month. Some major proposals include:
- Making a $10 billion investment in health care wage supports, retention bonuses, Cost of Living Adjustments (COLAs), and health care capital infrastructure;
- Enacting various reforms to increase health care training and educational capacity;
- Joining interstate licensure compacts for physicians and nurses and permanently expanding scope of practice for certain practitioner types;
- Requiring commercial insurers to reimburse for telehealth services at the same rate as in-person services;
- Creating a Center for Medicaid Innovation to work with digital health companies to connect them with the New York Medicaid system;
- Increasing Medicaid eligibility thresholds for Medicare-eligible individuals to 138% of the federal poverty line (FPL) and eliminating the resource eligibility test;
- Requesting federal approval for a proposal to expand the Essential Plan eligibility limit from 200% of FPL to 250% of FPL or more; and
- Developing a State Master Plan on Aging to coordinate all state policy on long-term care.
SPG’s full summary of the Governor’s healthcare-related proposals is attached. The full State of the State book is available here.