N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law § 31.01: Evaluation of services for the mentally disabled

§ 31.01 Evaluation of services for the mentally disabled.

(a) The commissioner shall ensure that all services for the mentally

disabled, whether provided by the department, by a local governmental

unit or by a provider of services, are periodically evaluated and that

departmental budget requests reflect such evaluations.

(b) In order to ensure that such evaluations and the resulting reports

and data generated are comparable for all services to the mentally

disabled throughout the state, the commissioner shall promulgate rules

and regulations requiring the development of evaluation criteria and

methods which shall include, but not be limited to:

(1) uniform definitions of services for the mentally disabled;

(2) uniform financial and clinical reporting procedures;

(3) requirements for the generation and maintenance of uniform data

for all individuals receiving services from any provider of services;

(4) uniform criteria for evaluating categories of need; and

(5) uniform standards for all comparable services and programs.

(c) A timetable for development and implementation of evaluation

criteria and methods shall be included in such rules and regulations to

ensure the orderly and adequate compliance by the department and its

facilities, local governmental units and providers of services. Such

timetable shall also include specific dates by which such evaluation

criteria and methods, and the evaluation reports and data developed with

such criteria and methods shall be included in the budget request

submitted to the department by the department facilities, local

governmental units and providers of services.

(d) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the commissioner,

or his designee, may require from any hospital, as defined under article

twenty-eight of the public health law, any information, report, or

record necessary for the purpose of carrying out the functions, powers

and duties of the commissioner related to the investigation of deaths

and complaints of abuse, mistreatment, or neglect concerning mentally

disabled individuals who receive services, or had prior to death

received services, in a facility as defined in section 1.03 of this

chapter, and have been treated at such hospitals.

(2) Any information, report, or record requested by the commissioner

or his designee pursuant to this subdivision shall be limited to that

information that the commissioner determines necessary for the

completion of his investigation.

(3) The information, report or record received by the commissioner or

his designee pursuant to this subdivision shall be subject to section

two thousand eight hundred five-m, section eighteen, as added by chapter

four hundred ninety-seven of the laws of nineteen hundred eighty-six and

article twenty-seven-F of the public health law, section 33.13 of this

chapter, and any applicable federal statute or regulation.