Governor Cuomo last night signed HCA’s priority “Essential Personnel” bill into law.
The Governor’s long-awaited support of our “essential personnel” bill (S.5016-A/A.6549-A) establishes a vital statutory basis to assure home care and hospice provider input into local emergency planning, including “essential-personnel” access for home care and hospice staff to reach vulnerable patients when disasters strike.
HCA worked closely and arduously with the bill’s legislative sponsors, Assemblyman Michael Cusick and Senator Andrew Lanza (both of Staten Island), to overcome the Governor’s vetoes of past legislative versions which, like this bill, were unanimously approved by the Legislature. We thank the Governor, Assemblyman Cusick and Senator Lanza for seeing this bill through to fruition.
Please be on the look-out for more information, guidance, resources and recommendations on ways that providers can utilize this new statutory authority to interface with local emergency management officials on behalf of patients in the emergency planning process. (HCA is also preparing a press release that we will be sending out later this afternoon commending the Governor and legislative sponsors for their support of this bill.)
