New York Laws
Article 31 - Regulation and Quality Control 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.