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Albany Update 01.03.24
In this issue …
Governor Proposes Unfair Business Practices Expansion
Governor Hochul announced on January 2 that a measure will be included in the State of the State that will expand consumer laws in relation to what have been labeled as unfair business practices. The Governor stated in a media release, “While current law protects New Yorkers against deceptive business practices, New York is one of only eight states in the nation whose law fails to protect against unfair and abusive business practices. Amendments to expand consumer protection laws will transform how New York protects consumers, enhance the Attorney General’s ability to enforce consumer protections, and give the State additional tools to pursue bad actors.”
Language for the proposal has not yet been released. NYIA will provide members with the information as soon as it is available. It is important to note that there is current legislation, A7138 (Weinstein)/S795 (Comrie), NYIA has strongly opposed and named “Litigation Bomb” in relation to this issue. The bill would greatly expand prohibited business practices in an ambiguous and idiosyncratic manner and includes a private right of action, including for entities without any connection to the alleged harm. In addition, the Attorney General has been strongly vocal in support of advancing this type of measure.
Chapter Amendment on Claim Settlement After a Disaster Bill
NYIA has been informed that the Governor’s office and Legislature have reached agreement on a chapter amendment to A2078 (Stern)/S5201 (Skoufis). The bill has been delivered to the Governor but has not been acted upon yet. We have been told the likely scenario will be that the original legislation is signed in conjunction with the passage of the chapter amendment language during the 30-day period the Governor has to act on the bill.
While the amendments contain some improvements to the legislation, including more narrowly defining a natural disaster, a more flexible time period for commercial claims and a more flexible time period for non-commercial claims when the property cannot be accessed, NYIA continued to voice our grave concerns given the overall unreasonable limitations the bill will impose on insurance companies.
WCB Proposes Revised DME Fee Schedule
As NYIA reported on the last bi-weekly member conference call, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board published their proposed amendment to the DME fee schedule in the December 20 New York State Register. WCB proposes changing the description in relation to a handful of codes, adding 14 new codes and deleting what appears to be over 200 codes and 35 pricing and PAR changes. The board has said they are proposing these changes to reduce confusion as much as possible and make the process more cost and time efficient, stating that the proposal provides greater clarity and guidance.
There is a 60-day corresponding comment period for this proposed amendment. The comment period expires on Sunday, February 18, so comments can be submitted by close of business on Monday, February 19. You can submit comments to WCB by email to regulations@wcb.ny.gov. If you have comments you would like NYIA to submit please email Bob Farley at bfarley@nyia.org by Friday, February 9. We are interested in comments regarding the impact in workers compensation as well as in no-fault. The WCB is unlikely to acknowledge any information related to no-fault, but we want to be sure to point out any substantial impacts on auto insurance, particularly with DFS.