September 11, 2020

On September 9 Governor Cuomo announced (in a press release) that the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) had taken action to extend emergency regulations requiring New York health insurers to waive cost-sharing associated with emergency room visits, in-network telehealth visits, in-network outpatient provider office visits, in-network urgent care center visits,and in-network laboratory tests when the purpose of the visit or test is to diagnose COVID-19, and waiving cost-sharing for in-network telehealth services for any healthcare service covered under a policy, including mental health and substance use disorder treatment until November 9, 2020.  Governor Cuomo first announced the State’s directive requiring New York insurers to waive cost-sharing for COVID-19 testing and telehealth services in March 2020. 

Note:  This announcement covers different territory than either the recent continuation of the Executive order that embeds our current telehealth flexibilities (extended through October 4), or the recent extension of the waiver of co-pays for mental health outpatient services for essential workers (extended through September 28).