BILL NUMBER: S6889

SPONSOR: SALAZAR
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public health law, in relation to requiring anti-
bias training for every medical student, medical resident and physician
assistant student in the state

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To improve health care outcomes and care through educating medical
students about implicit and explicit biases.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends Article 2 of the public health law is amended by adding
a new Title 3-A, Anti-Bias Training, which contains a new Section 245,
titled Training in bias awareness and elimination procedures.

Section 245 Subdivision A establishes the mandate that all medical
              

students, medical residents, and physician assistant students in New
York State take part in orientation programs that have been approved by
the New York State Department of Health for awareness of and the elimi-
nation practices for both implicit and explicit bias.

Subdivision B states that the individual must provide documentation of
having completed the training.

Subdivision C states that the New York State Department of Health should
consult with the New York State Division of Human Rights and the New
York State Board of Medicine to develop guidelines for the training.

Subdivision D states that a year after the effective date of the law,
the New York State Department of Health must send a report to the Gover-
nor and the New York State Legislature on the progress of these train-
ings.

Section 2 establishes the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In recent years, the health care community has shifted its focus to
further address health inequity and its impact on individuals from
traditionally marginalized communities, including people of color,
people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning,
and/or gender non-conforming (LGBTQ/TGNC), and those who are female.
Research has shown that people have implicit attitudes to wards many
different topics, such as race, gender, age, disability, and sexual
orientation, and several general patterns of bias have repeatedly been
shown in the research, such as socially-dominant groups often having
implicit bias against subordinate groups.* Research provides us informa-
tion that illustrates these inequities, like:

      -Black, non-Latina women are the most likely to experience
       maternal mortality or maternal morbidity
      -According to the Brookings Institution, childbirth-related deaths
       disproportionately affect Black women, regardless of their income
       or education
      -National surveys of individuals who are transgender reveal that
       one-third of those who saw a health care provider had at least
       one negative experience related to being transgender, and nearly
       one-quarter reported that they did not seek the health care they
       needed due to fear of being mistreated as a transgender person
      -According to the Gay Men's Health Crisis, despite the declining
       rate of new infections per year, New York leads the nation in the
       number of new HIV cases, and 20% of people do not know they are
       infected
      -In 2016, 77 percent of new HIV diagnoses and AIDS-related deaths
       in NYC were among African Americans and Hispanics

Currently, not all medical students in the state of New York receive
implicit bias training, which could hamper the goal of health equity for
all. This bill mandates that all medical students in New York State must
take part in trainings regarding implicit and explicit bias, so that
they can be aware of and eliminate practices for both implicit and
explicit bias. It is critical to have well-trained and culturally compe-
tent providers who are educated about implicit bias to ensure the fairer
treatment of all individuals, and to ensure medical outcomes are not
skewed because of bias, whether implicit or explicit.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act will take effect 180 days after enactment.
* See, e.g., Hall WJ, Chapman MV, Lee KM, et al. Implicit Racial/Ethnic
Bias Among Health Care Professionals and Its Influence on Health Care
Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Am J Public Health.
2015;105(12):e60-e76. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302903; Hoffman KM, Trawal-
ter S, Axt JR, Oliver MN. Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment
recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between
blacks and whites. Proc Nall Acad Sci U S A.  2016;113(16):4296-4301.
doi:10.1073/pnas.1516047113.