On April 20, 2024, New York State approved several updates to its consumer protection laws, including enactment of Public Health Law § 18-C. Section 18-C provides new requirements for patient consent for treatment and payment of medical services. The updates (discussed further below) went into effect on October 20, 2024. However, due to the volume of stakeholders reaching out to the NYS Dept. of Health (DOH), the DOH issued guidance on October 18, 2024, announcing that it would postpone implementation of Section 18-C until further notice.

Section 18-C includes several notable updates to patient consent forms. First, Section 18-C prohibits healthcare providers from using a single form to obtain a patient’s consent for treatment and payment of medical services. Instead, healthcare providers must have two separate forms – one form for consent of treatment and one form for consent to pay for medical services. This is an important update as many healthcare providers may have been utilizing a single form to obtain patient consent for treatment and payment of services.

Second, and most importantly, Section 18-C prohibits healthcare providers from obtaining a patient’s consent to pay for healthcare services prior to the patient receiving such services and discussing the treatment costs. As written, this new requirement would conflict with the federal No Surprises Act – a federal law which requires advance notice of treatment costs and patient approval of costs in certain circumstances. Moreover, from a practical standpoint, healthcare providers were understandably wary of the requirement to provide healthcare services prior to obtaining any agreement from patients to pay for such services.

The post New York State Dept. of Health Issues Guidance on Recently Amended Consumer Protection Laws and Postpones New Requirements for Patient Consent Forms appeared first on Health Law Attorney Blog.