Re-birth of health planning in New York State

Re-Birth of Health Planning in New York State

Many consider New York as the birthplace of healthcare planning. Beginning with efforts in Rochester NY in 1961, followed by passage of the first-in-the-nation Certificate of Need law, New York went on to support its network of local planning agencies for eight years following the ending of federal support for planning in 1987. Yet in 1995, newly-elected Governor George Pataki withdrew state funding for the eight Health Systems Agencies; within a year, five of the agencies closed. Today, there are only two agencies left, and only the Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency in Rochester continues to fully function. The new Governor, Elliot Spitzer, however, has included $7 million in his 2008-2009 budget to re-establish local health planning agencies. The new agencies, however, are envisioned less as “system managers” as in the HSA model. Rather, the agencies will be mechanisms for facilitating the provision of services to underserved populations, integrating consumer needs into health services as well as assessing and reviewing issues of health system performance. The presenters will contrast the new model from the traditional model and will discuss the methods and tools which one such agency will use to meet the new vision of local health planning.