Bills affecting Senior (65+, Medicare/SS) in New York — 2026 session

Establishes a statewide advance care planning public awareness campaign and a community based advance care planning outreach grant program to fund not-for-profit community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, immigrant-serving organizations, senior-serving agencies, housing-based organizations, and other trusted community partners to conduct advance care planning education, outreach, and navigation.

Establishes a municipal senior center capital support program in the office for the aging to assist municipalities in accessing capital funds necessary for the purchase of senior buses; directs the director of the office for the aging to develop an application and establish criteria for the disbursement of grants to eligible municipalities for the purpose of procuring senior buses; makes an appropriation.

Permits an eligible retirement system member to receive, in lieu of an ordinary death benefit, a death benefit such member would otherwise be entitled to receive provided such member is a state-paid judge or justice of the unified court system or a housing judge of the civil court of the city of New York.

Requires the office for the aging to develop and provide elder abuse prevention training to train senior service centers and contractors in the detection and reporting of elder abuse in consultation with the office of children and family services.

Grants members of the city of New York's police force eligibility for retirement and pension based on previous service as traffic enforcement agents.

Requires certain health insurance issuers to certify that at least a majority of prescription drug rebates are provided to patients at the point of sale.

Relates to program eligibility for plans comparable to Medicare part D; provides for analysis of health plans by the department of health to determine whether such health plans meet or exceed the Medicare part D standard; requires the department of health, in consultation with the department of financial services, to notify prescription drug insurers of the provisions of this act.

Increases the amount of years of military service credit a member may purchase from three years to four years; provides that the provisions of such act shall not be subject to the requirement that the state shall make an equal payment to the retirement system.

Authorizes Kurt Nolan to receive certain credit under sections 384-d and 384-e of the retirement and social security law for prior employment at the Saratoga county sheriff's office and the New York state university police.

Establishes an optional twenty-five year retirement plan for employees of the New York Power Authority with the job title of mechanic, technician, electrician, equipment operator, power plant operator, utility security officer, or lineperson.

Relates to providing language access services to individuals relating to the tax abatement program for rent-controlled and rent-regulated property occupied by senior citizens or persons with disabilities and senior citizen and disabled homeowners.

Enacts into law major components of legislation necessary to implement the state health and mental hygiene budget for the 2026-2027 state fiscal year; repeals the state Medicaid spending cap and related processes (Part A); extends certain health provisions (Part B); extends certain provisions of law relating to the health care reform act; extends provisions relating to the distribution of pool allocations and graduate medical education; extends provisions relating to health care initiative pool distributions; extends payment provisions for general hospitals; extends provisions relating to assessments on covered lives (Part C); relates to insurance coverage for medical malpractice paid for by funds from the hospital excess liability pool; extends portions of the New York Health Care Reform Act of 1996 (Part D); makes technical corrections and updates (Part F); relates to automated external defibrillators (Part G); enhances requirements for notices of material transactions (Part H); establishes an office of the state medical indemnity fund ombudsperson and a medical indemnity fund advisory panel to advocate for, assist and represent the interests of qualified plaintiffs; relates to the effectiveness of certain provisions relating to payments from the New York state medical indemnity fund (Part I) relates to temporary health care services agencies and protecting individuals engaged to provide health care services by such agencies (Part J); relates to providing approval to operate a mobile integrated and community paramedicine program; extends authorization for the community-based paramedicine demonstration program; authorizes certified nurse practitioners and licensed physicians to prescribe and order a non-patient specific regimen for administering immunizations to an emergency medical services practitioner; extends hospital services outside the facility and into patients' residences (Part K); restores capital rate reductions for nursing homes; adjusts premiums for the Medicaid buy-in for working persons with disabilities (Part L); relates to the definition of healthcare services for purposes of the amount payable for certain services provided to certain eligible persons who are also beneficiaries under part B of title XVII of the federal social security act or are also qualified Medicare beneficiaries; extends the cooling off period for health maintenance organization plan contracts with hospitals from two months to one hundred twenty days (Part M); increases hospital, nursing home and certified home health agency fee-for-service reimbursement rates (Part O); directs the commissioners of the department of health, office of mental health, office for people with developmental disabilities, office of addiction services and supports, office of temporary and disability assistance, office of children and family services and the directors of the state office for the aging and office of victim services to establish a state fiscal year 2026-2027 targeted inflationary increase for projecting for the effects of inflation upon rates of payments, contracts, or any other form of reimbursement for certain programs and services; requires such commissioners and director to provide funding to support a 4% targeted inflationary increase for such programs and services (Part P); relates to integrated behavioral health services programs (Part Q); changes "substance use" to substance-related and addictive disorder claims for purposes of the insurance law and public health law (Part R); relates to minimum amounts of certain state aid to the city of New York (Part T); extends government rates for behavioral services and referencing the office of addiction services and supports (Part U); enacts the "New York affordable drug manufacturing act" to direct the commissioner of health to enter into partnerships to increase competition for generic prescription drugs (Part V); relates to establishing the "340B prescription drug anti-discrimination act"; prohibits pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers from discriminating against covered entities and New York state pharmacies based on participation in the drug discount program authorized by section 340B of the federal public health service act (Part W); establishes the New York state abortion clinical training program within the department of health for the purpose of training health care practitioners in the performance of abortion and related reproductive health care services; requires the commissioner of health to submit a report to the governor and the legislature (Part X); expands the purposes of the drug treatment and public education fund to include prevention and recovery programs; requires reporting to be made available on the office of addiction services and supports' website (Part Y); extends for two years the requirement for OPWDD to give a 90-day notice to the Senate, Assembly, and labor organizations of any closures or transfer of a state operated individualized residential alternative (Part Z); extends the care demonstration program (Part AA); makes permanent coverage for services provided by school-based health centers for medical assistance recipients (Part BB); establishes the "recovery ready workplace act" which provides for the certification of an employer to become a recovery ready workplace (Part CC); provides that for a substance use disorder outpatient treatment episode of care by a provider licensed, certified or otherwise authorized by the office of addiction services and supports, an insured shall only be responsible for a cost sharing fee not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars (Part DD); limits the reimbursement amount of certain overpayment of Medicaid claims where such overpayment was due to the provider's submission of records which were not in accordance with program requirements at the time but which were in accordance with requirements as of the date of the claim (Part EE); provides that any person may give consent for reproductive health care, including contraception and abortions, for themself and without providing a reason (Part FF); authorizes the commissioner of health to approve certain reimbursement rates for certain programs established by not-for-profit and public skilled nursing facilities in upstate New York nursing home regions that are designed to work collaboratively on efforts to improve nursing home efficiency, staffing, and quality of care (Part GG); provides that services to medical assistance recipients suffering from traumatic brain injuries or qualifying for nursing home diversion and transition services shall be provided outside of managed programs (Part HH); directs the department of health to annually report on food security trends (Part II); requires the office for the aging to make an annual report on the budget expenditures on behalf of the senior population of the state every April first (Part JJ); establishes a gender-affirming care access program to provide support and increase access to gender-affirming care including certain medical and surgical care (Part KK); requires the Medicaid inspector general to comply with standards relating to the audit and review of medical assistance program funds (Part LL); expands health care services provided by telehealth to include services delivered through a facility licensed under article twenty-eight of the public health law that is eligible to be designated or has received a designation as a federally qualified health center, including those facilities that are also licensed under article thirty-one or article thirty-two of the mental hygiene law (Part MM).

Directs the senior center council to engage in statewide planning of both a programmatic and fiscal nature to ensure the long-term sustainability and viability of senior centers in all areas of the state.

Requires a second notification to persons previously eligible for a senior real property tax exemption.

Removes the twenty-five year requirement for tier three escalation for service retirement of members of the New York city fire department pension fund.

Establishes a senior housing task force for the purposes of conducting a state-wide assessment of senior housing needs taking into consideration the various geographical areas and different needs of the seniors in those areas and resources available in those different areas.

Sets up rules and regulations for the operation of lease-hold retirement communities located in a county with a population of more than one million inhabitants that only borders one other county, to provide adequate housing for senior citizens wishing to retire and locate in a lease-hold retirement community; grants owners of homes in lease-hold retirement communities the right to sell their homes by methods common to sales of residential property; requires that owners of lease-hold retirement communities offer owners of homes the option to sign a long-term ninety-nine year lease.

Shifts the conducting of the income verification process for the purposes of the senior citizen tax exemption from municipalities to the department of taxation and finance.

Provides for adjustment of the maximum income threshold for eligibility for the senior citizen rent increase exemption (SCRIE), disability rent increase exemption (DRIE), senior citizen homeowners' exemption (SCHE), and disabled homeowners' exemption (DHE) by any increase in the consumer price index (CPI).

Relates to establishing the "340B prescription drug anti-discrimination act"; prohibits pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers from discriminating against covered entities and New York state pharmacies based on participation in the drug discount program authorized by section 340B of the federal public health service act.