N.Y. Public Health Law § 4600: Legislative findings and purpose

§ 4600. Legislative findings and purpose. The dramatic increase in the

numbers of elderly people, especially those seventy-five years of age

and older, coupled with the special housing and health care needs of

this growing segment of the population, requires the development of new

and creative approaches to help ensure the care of older people in

residential settings of their own choice. If carefully planned and

monitored, life care communities have the potential to provide a

continuum of care for older people that will provide an attractive

residential option for such persons, while meeting their long term care

needs for life. To ensure that the financial, consumer, and health care

interest of individuals who enroll in such communities will be

protected, such communities must be effectively managed and carefully

overseen.

The intent of the legislature, therefore, is to allow for the prudent

development of life care communities. The legislature further intends

to require that the relevant state agencies coordinate the regulation of

such communities in order to ensure that there are adequate safeguards

for those elderly who become residents and to assist in the orderly

development, of such communities. Although lead responsibility for the

interagency coordination of the regulation and establishment of such

communities is vested in the department of health, the legislature does

not intend that such communities become or be perceived as primarily

medically-oriented facilities. The legislature intends, instead, that

such communities be viewed as an attractive and innovative residential

alternative for older New Yorkers who are seeking to maintain, to the

extent possible, an independent and active life in a community in which

their long-term care needs will be met.