S 1578: Establishes the "Sickle Cell Treatment Act" which designates sickle cell centers for excellence and outpatient treatment centers.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1578 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE January 10, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sens. SANDERS, ASHBY, CLEARE, COMRIE, FERNANDEZ, GIANARIS, JACKSON, KRUEGER, MAY, MAYER, MYRIE, PARKER, RAMOS, ROLISON, SEPULVE- DA, WEBB -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to establishing the "Syd O. Sotillo Sickle Cell Treatment Act" The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "Syd O. Sotillo Sickle Cell Treatment Act". 3 § 2. The public health law is amended by adding a new section 2807-bb 4 to read as follows: 5 § 2807-bb. Sickle cell centers for excellence and outpatient treatment 6 centers. 1. Centers for sickle cell care excellence. The commissioner 7 shall designate five general hospitals or hospices under article forty 8 of this chapter, upon successful application, as centers for sickle cell 9 care excellence. The designations shall be made through an application 10 designed by the department, and based on service, staffing and other 11 criteria as developed by the commissioner. The centers of excellence 12 shall provide specialized sickle cell disease care, treatment, pallia- 13 tive care, education and related services and shall conduct specialized 14 research into the care, treatment and management of sickle cell disease. 15 Designation as a center for sickle cell care excellence shall not enti- 16 tle a center to enhanced reimbursement, but may be utilized in outreach 17 and other promotional activities. Each center for sickle cell care 18 excellence shall affiliate and cooperate with major centers of higher 19 learning, including medical colleges, and life science research insti- 20 tutes in the state. The state university shall enter into appropriate 21 legal agreements to enable this cooperation. Each center for sickle cell 22 care excellence shall receive four hundred thousand dollars per year EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01146-02-5 
 S. 1578 2 1 from the department, from amounts appropriated for that purpose, to be 2 used on sickle cell disease research. 3 2. Outpatient treatment centers. The commissioner shall designate ten 4 hospitals, distributed based on sickle cell patient population concen- 5 trations, as sickle cell outpatient treatment centers which shall 6 provide patients treatment for sickle cell disease as an outpatient. 7 Each sickle cell outpatient treatment center shall receive two hundred 8 thousand dollars per year from the department, from amounts appropriated 9 for that purpose, to be used to ensure the proper management and equip- 10 ping of the centers to care for sickle cell patients. 11 § 3. Subdivision 8 of section 3331 of the public health law, as added 12 by section 7-a of part D of chapter 57 of the laws of 2018, is amended 13 to read as follows: 14 8. No opioids shall be prescribed to a patient initiating or being 15 maintained on opioid treatment for pain which has lasted more than three 16 months or past the time of normal tissue healing, unless the medical 17 record contains a written treatment plan that follows generally accepted 18 national professional or governmental guidelines. The requirements of 19 this paragraph shall not apply in the case of patients who are being 20 treated for cancer or sickle cell disease that is not in remission, who 21 are in hospice or other end-of-life care, or whose pain is being treated 22 as part of palliative care practices. 23 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.