Clarifies the provision of donate life registration to certain insured persons

• Democratic5
• Republican1

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Jamaal Bailey says this is needed

Originally enacted in 2012, Lauren's Law provided that individuals applying for a New York State driver's license would be asked about organ donation registration. The law has been amended numerous times to expand opportunities for individuals to register to become an organ donor, opening additional "doorways to donation." Most recently, Lauren's Law was expanded in 2022 (Chapter 758 of the Laws of 2022) to require health insurers to ask applicants for insurance if they would like to be added to the Donate Life Registry. While the question appears straightforward, Lauren's Law does not provide clarity about what health insurers are required to do if the enrollee responds yes. Once the expansion was enacted, the Donate Life Registry and the health insurance industry set out to implement the new law. Working together, insurers and the registry embraced the challenge of finding the most efficient and effective way to ensure more New Yorkers had the opportu- nity to become donors. This journey was not without its obstacles - changing technology and limited financial resources created challenges - and opportunities. As the world has moved away from paper, so has the registry and the insurance industry. In an effort to create a seamless experience for the enrollee, thereby increasing the chance that the individual responds yes to the Lauren's Law question, a system had to be developed which allowed health insurers to package the enrollee's infor- mation and transmit it to the registry, without additional hoops, data fields, or questions. Developing this system has taken time and creative thinking. Over time, the registry conceptualized a system that is not only user friendly, but also efficient. It allows the registry to make the best use of limited resources to capture new donors cost-effectively using technology. This bill clarifies that only major medical or comprehensive health insurance enrollees will be asked about registration. This clar- ification is consistent with the original intent of the underlying chap- ter, and necessary because of the way in which the vast majority of individuals are provided other, supplemental health insurance products, such as disability, accident, or hospital indemnity insurance. For those products, the carrier providing the insurance does not possess the personal information necessary for registration as an organ donor at the time the individual is provided coverage. As a result, the insurer is not able to seamlessly transmit the information to the registry. Notably, the insurers who provide these supplemental health insurance benefits are not the entities enrolling applicants in the benefits programs. When an employee enrolls for their supplemental benefits during the annual benefit enrollment period, it is a third-party bene- fits administrator (ADP or Workday, for example) or the employer itself that is doing the enrollment, not the insurer. Fortunately, limiting the registration law to comprehensive health insurance should not affect the number of new registrations as individuals who are enrolling for supple- mental health benefits will likely be enrolling for comprehensive health insurance at the same time, and will therefore have already been presented the opportunity to become an organ donor. As an added benefit, the clarification presented in this legislation will also potentially reduce duplicate entries that might otherwise need to be resolved by the registry. The clarifying language in this bill is consistent with many sections of the Insurance Law which recognize the distinguish between major medical or comprehensive health insurance and other types of health insurance products.

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.