BILL NUMBER: S1966A

SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the administrative code of the city of
New York, in relation to the medical board of the New York city employ-
ees' retirement system

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL::

This bill would increase both the number of medical boards and physi-
cians employed on medical boards of the New York City Employees' Retire-
ment System.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one of this bill amends subdivision a of New York City Adminis-
trative Code section 13-123 to grant the New York City Employees'
Retirement System (NYCERS) medical board, the Commissioner of Health and
the Commissioner of Citywide Administrative Services up to eight
appointments for physicians to serve on the medical board. It provides
that any three physicians from this pool of appointments may form a
              

group to evaluate applicants for disability pensions.

Section two of this bill provides that this act shall take effect imme-
diately.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

There is currently a delay for NYCERS members applying for disability
pensions to be seen by a medical board. That delay causes these appli-
cants to have to wait an inordinate amount of time to have their appli-
cations acted upon by the retirement system board. By increasing the
number of physicians that could evaluate applicants, these delays would
be ameliorated and the retirement system board could render a decision
in a more timely manner.

Under current law, the medical board of NYCERS is made up of three
original physicians: one appointee form the Commissioner of Health
(DOH), one appointee from the Commissioner of the Department of Citywide
Administrative Services (DCAS), and one from the board itself. Each of
the appointees may also appoint between one and four alternate physi-
cians for when an applicant comes before the board with a specialized
medical issue beyond the scope of practice of the original three. For
these cases, whenever the board so directs, an alternate board may be
formed consisting of three alternate physician appointees, or a combina-
tion of alternate and original appointees - so long as one of the physi-
cians on this alternate board has been appointed by DOH, one by DCAS,
and one by the original medical board. NYCERS has relayed to the sponsor
that this system is both convoluted and overly restrictive in its abili-
ty to place appointees on the board with a wide range of medical back-
grounds.

Our bill simplifies and facilitates the appointment of physicians by
creating a single pool of up to 24 doctors, three of which can form a
medical board at any time to evaluate an applicant. The original medical
board of three physicians is maintained, and the board Commissioner of
DOH, and Commissioner of DCAS are each granted up to eight appointees
for a maximum of 24 physicians that can break out into groups of three
to form a board. This will both make it easier to recruit physicians
with a particularized specialty and reduce wait times for current NYCERS
members applying before the board to receive their benefits.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2018: S.7186 - 3rd Reading Calendar

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.