New YorkA 95152025-2026 Regular SessionHouse

Relates to requirements for the provision of medication for medical aid in dying

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

8 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 2 costs, 4 mixed.

Terminally ill adults face eligibility limits

Patients seeking medical aid-in-dying medication must live in New York, be at least 18, and be under a physician's care. Their illness must be incurable, irreversible, and medically confirmed. Doctors must expect it to cause death within six months, with or without treatment. The written request must state that a consulting doctor and a mental health professional confirmed the terminal illness and prognosis.

Facility bans require patient transfer options

Private facilities can adopt aid-in-dying bans based on sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions central to their operations. Bans can cover prescribing, dispensing, ordering, or taking the medication in the facility or while the patient lives there. They can extend to related facilities majority-owned, operated, or controlled by the same corporate entity. Facilities must tell patients before admission or as soon as reasonably possible afterward. A patient requesting transfer to use aid-in-dying medication must be moved promptly to a reasonably accessible facility that permits it. Workers who violate a ban after written notice can face facility sanctions. These facility rules include hospices, even without inpatient care or a hospice residence, but do not restrict patients' access at home.

Patients face five-day medication waiting period

Pharmacies must wait five days after an aid-in-dying prescription is written before filling it. Earlier filling is allowed when the attending doctor documents that the patient may die before the five days end. The doctor must also confirm that all other aid-in-dying requirements are complete. The prescription must list when it was written and the first date and time it can be filled. Patients must take the medication themselves; health care professionals cannot administer it, even with consent. Patients can cancel their request at any time and must receive advice about having someone present when taking the medication.

Patients get access with request safeguards

Patients must make an oral request and submit a written request to the attending doctor. Patients physically unable to make an oral request can use a familiar alternative communication method. Oral requests must be audio- or video-recorded and permanently kept in the medical record. The written form covers age, capacity, terminal illness, voluntary choice, risks, alternatives, and the right to cancel. It explains that death may occur in about three hours but can take longer, and records family notification preferences. Adult witnesses cannot be the patient's domestic partner, health care proxy agent, power-of-attorney agent, financial beneficiary, or capacity evaluator. Interpreters also cannot be those partners, agents, or financial beneficiaries; facility owners, operators, employees, and contractors are generally barred. Employees or contractors may interpret at the patient's request if trained or if interpretation is part of their job. The standardized form requires witness and interpreter declarations.

Patients need written decision capacity checks

Before prescribing, a qualified mental health professional must independently assess whether the patient can make an informed aid-in-dying decision. The evaluator must be a New York-licensed psychiatrist meeting board certification or eligibility standards, or a licensed psychologist. The written findings go to both doctors; the attending doctor must forward them if the consulting doctor is chosen later. The consulting doctor must also confirm capacity in writing to the patient and attending doctor; a referral cannot replace this. A finding that the patient lacks capacity bars the prescription, but applies only to this decision—not general decision-making ability.

Insurers cannot steer patients through denials

Insurers and other health care payers cannot include aid-in-dying medication availability information in treatment coverage denials. This includes pharmacy benefit managers and third-party administrators. They also cannot send unsolicited availability information, but can answer requests from patients or their attending doctors acting at their request. General materials describing coverage of the medication and related professional services remain allowed. These communication limits do not require coverage or set what patients pay.

Patients get counseling and hardship telehealth

The attending doctor must examine the patient, review records, and check terminal illness, capacity, voluntary choice, and informed consent. The exam is in person unless the doctor documents extraordinary hardship: undue pain or suffering, extraordinary expense, or medically necessary transportation difficulties. Before using telehealth, the doctor must confirm that all other requirements are complete. Doctors must explain the prognosis, medication risks, likely outcomes, and alternatives, including hospice and palliative care and referrals. An attending doctor unwilling or unqualified to give required counseling must refer or transfer the patient to a willing doctor. The health department must consult providers statewide and post easy-to-read, culturally appropriate hospice and palliative care materials online. Attending doctors must give patients these materials, but delays in creating them cannot block otherwise eligible care. Before prescribing, doctors must obtain required consultations and written confirmations and record all required steps.

Doctors face discipline for care violations

Doctors who violate the aid-in-dying law or its regulations face professional misconduct proceedings under state education law. The act does not set a specific penalty. The act generally takes effect 180 days after becoming law, with some provisions taking immediate effect. Sections 1–10 take effect alongside the referenced companion 2025 aid-in-dying law. The act authorizes immediate rulemaking, including emergency rules, to prepare for implementation.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Amy Paulin
Democratic • House

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 117 • No: 90

Senate vote • 2/4/2026

FLOOR Vote

Yes: 34 • No: 28

House vote • 2/4/2026

Assembly floor vote

Yes: 83 • No: 62

Actions Timeline

SIGNED CHAP.1
2/6/2026House
DELIVERED TO GOVERNOR
2/6/2026House
RETURNED TO ASSEMBLY
2/4/2026Senate
PASSED SENATE
2/4/2026Senate
3RD READING CAL.49
2/4/2026Senate
SUBSTITUTED FOR S8835
2/4/2026Senate
REFERRED TO RULES
2/4/2026Senate
DELIVERED TO SENATE
2/4/2026House
PASSED ASSEMBLY
2/4/2026House
ORDERED TO THIRD READING RULES CAL.77
2/4/2026House
RULES REPORT CAL.77
2/4/2026House
REPORTED
2/4/2026House
REPORTED REFERRED TO RULES
2/4/2026House
REPORTED REFERRED TO CODES
2/4/2026House
REFERRED TO HEALTH
1/12/2026House

Bill Text

Original
1/12/2026
PDF

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