The co-chairs of the Legislative Committee wanted to provide a legislative update on NYSCA’s legislative activities in Albany. Our Legislative Committee has been actively working with our government affairs attorney on several legislative priorities for the Association.
Scope modernization remains our main legislative priority. The scope bill numbers are A4358 and S1319. The Assembly bill is sponsored by Assemblymember Daniel O’Donnell and the Senate bill is sponsored by Senator James Gaughran. Both our sponsor’s understand the need for scope modernization and for doctors of chiropractic to practice to the full extent of our education and training.
Two other legislative priorities for the year are bills to recognize conservative care providers, like chiropractors, as alternatives to an opioid prescription and to add doctors of chiropractic to the list of providers authorized to perform telehealth services. Both of these bills are sponsored by Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and Senator Gustavo Rivera, each the Health Committee Chair in their respective house.
The opioid alternative bill is A273/S4640 and would require a medical doctor to inform a patient that they may want to consider seeking conservative care treatment instead of receiving a prescription for an opioid. This bill is currently on the Assembly calendar and in Senate Health. This bill passed the Senate last year. The telehealth provider bill is A7369-A/S7130 and would add doctors of chiropractic to the list of authorized healthcare providers. As we announced in an alert last week, this bill has once again passed the Assembly. We now turn out attention to the Senate and working with that house to get this legislation advanced.
The legislature was closed to the public through March 1 of this year, so all meetings were being done remotely. While the building is open now, most offices are still holding virtual meetings. The Legislative Committee is reviewing this now and will follow up with information on contacting your legislators to advocate for our legislative priorities. We are likely not going to be doing a Lobby Day in Albany this year because of the uncertainty of the building being open, so we will be providing training sessions on how to meet with you local legislators and asking you all to reach out and schedule those meetings.
Please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions.
