DRUG COSTS: The state’s Department of Financial Services, which regulates entities including insurance companies and banks, launched an online portal Monday to allow New Yorkers to more easily submit complaints about high drug prices. The portal, called DFS connect, attempts to streamline the process for patients to report skyrocketing drug costs of 50% or more in a year, as well as complaints about pharmacy benefit managers – the middlemen that negotiate drug prices between health plans and drug manufacturers. The portal builds on the state’s efforts to crack down on pharmacy benefit managers; DFS has received 300 complaints about the middlemen since 2022 and has recovered $1.3 million for individuals and independent pharmacies, the agency said.
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH FUNDING: The city has received $33 million from the state through the Behavioral Health Centers of Excellence program, which aims to incentivize hospitals and health plans to boost mental health capacity, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday. The funding builds on $41 million from the program last year, which the city used to restore hospital psychiatric beds at New York City Health + Hospitals and increase the workforce in outpatient mental health settings. The public hospital system will use the new funding to continue to expand inpatient and outpatient behavioral health capacity, focusing on substance use services, said H+H spokeswoman Stephanie Buhle.
NURSE CONTRACT: More than 900 nurses at Northwell Health’s South Shore University Hospital on Long Island voted to ratify a contract that increases staffing levels and wages, the union New York State Nurses Association said Monday. Nurses voted over the weekend to accept the three-year contract, which requires the hospital to add 19 nurses to severely understaffed units and raise pay by between $16,000 to $20,000, according to the union. The contract comes a few weeks after the nurses threatened to go on strike if Northwell refused to boost staffing and increase their pay.
