Relates to community health assessment reporting

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Samra Brouk says this is needed

Article 6 of NYS Public Health Law requires local health departments (LHDs) to complete a community health assessment (CHA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). To fulfill this requirement, LHDs collect input from local community members, review locally collected public health data and collect information from stakeholders to inform the priority health needs of the jurisdiction they serve. The CHIP plan outlines actionable interventions that will be implemented to improve health outcomes. Partners involved in this process include hospitals, community-based organizations, businesses, local agencies (e.g. mental health, social services, offices of the aging). LHDs commonly work with non-profit hospitals who are required by the IRS to complete similar plans due to their non-profit status. Because LHDs and hospitals are required to complete these plans, and they hold vested interest in the health of communities, it is common to see hospitals and LHDs complete regional or local collaborative plans. The current challenge for the statutorily mandated frequency of the community health assessment process includes misalignment with the State Health Improvement Plan (NYS Prevention Agenda) process, lack of time for implementation of interventions and programs designed to address the community health priorities, lack of time to evaluate measurable outcomes from interventions between assessments and demand on resources that are focused on the assessment rather than on the community health improvement plan interventions. This change will align the community health assessment with the New York State Prevention Agenda, allow more time to focus on implementation of effective interventions and a continuous evaluation of changes in metrics and a reduction of resources that need to be expended to develop plans.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.