POLICY Archives - Center for Elder Law & Justice

submitted by Megan Poynter, Law Student updated October 2nd, 2020 Federal Policy: CDC Eviction Moratorium On September 1, 2020 the Centers for Disease Control in partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services issued an Agency Order eviction moratorium with broad reaching qualifications extending until December 31, 2020. This protection is meant to be a floor – state policy can and…

submitted by Lindsay Heckler, Esq. On September 17, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new nursing home visitation guidelines that replace and supersede all previous rules pertaining to nursing home visitation. The CMS guidance was issued shortly after the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) issued its own update to…

submitted by Christopher Phillips, Esq. On July 24, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a proposed rule, entitled Making Admission or Placement Determinations Based on Sex in Facilities Under Community Planning and Development Housing Programs. The proposed rule would permit emergency homeless shelters to admit individuals based solely on their biological…

submitted by Bria Lewis, Esq. and Liam McMahon On September 15, 2020, the NYS Department of Health released updated guidelines for Skilled Nursing Facility Visitation. The first update to visitation guidelines is facilities must have no new confirmed staff or resident COVID-19 reported cases for 14 days. (The prior threshold for visitation was 28 days.)…

A.4416C (Gottfried) / S.3460A (Rivera) provides important consumer protections to residents and their families by deterring the worst abuses in Adult Care Facilities. The Center for Elder Law & Justice is urging our state legislators to support A.4416C / S.3460A in an effort to improve Adult Care Facilities, benefiting the lives of New Yorkers residing…

We welcome the July 10th announcement and corresponding guidance issued by the NYS Department of Health (“DOH”) to reopen visitation to nursing homes and adult care facilities. We are pleased to see that “visitors” is not limited, and includes family members, loved ones, long-term care ombudsmen, and resident advocacy organizations. Visitors play an essential component…

The Department of Health (DOH) announced on July 10 that that outside visitation and limited indoor visitation and activities can resume in nursing homes and adult care facilities so long as the facility meets specific benchmarks. We discuss what those benchmarks are and the limitations on visitation below. We encourage residents and families who have…

submitted by Kevin M. Quinn On June 30, 2020, Governor Cuomo signed into law the New York Tenant Safe Harbor Act (the Act), which provides further protections to tenants suffering from financial hardship because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Act prohibits courts from ever evicting residential tenants who failed to pay their rent during the…

submitted by Lindsay Heckler, Esq. and Liam McMahon, Paralegal Call to action: use your voice to improve long-term care! There have been longstanding issues with transparency and communication on the guidance issued to nursing home and adult care facility providers by New York State and the New York State Department of Health. To assist the…

submitted by Kevin Quinn, Esq. The following memo was sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo to ask for passage of S.8113-A / A.10521-A, to issue a moratorium on utility termination of services during periods of pandemics and/or state of emergencies.