The New York State Department of Financial Services recently released an insurance regulations emergency adoptions of amendments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The amendments state:

The New York State Department of Financial Services recently released an insurance regulations emergency adoptions of amendments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• An audio-only visit falls within the meaning of telehealth.
• It prohibits health care plans that provide hospital, surgical, or medical expense insurance policies or contracts from imposing, and provides that no insured shall be required to pay copayments, coinsurance, or annual deductibles for covered in-network laboratory tests to diagnose COVID-19 and for visits to diagnose COVID-19 at the certain locations, including through telehealth
• It is required that authorized insurers and health maintenance organizations that issue a policy or contract that provides hospital, surgical, or medical care coverage, excluding grandfathered health plans, to provide coverage, with no cost-sharing, of COVID-19 immunizations and the administration thereof immediately upon the earliest of the date on which certain recommendations are issued.

Mayor DeBlasio has announced that NYC will fully reopen on July 1, 2021. Currently around 41% of the adult population within New York State has been fully vaccinated. Restaurants, gyms, shops, hair salons and arenas will open at full capacity. Smaller theaters could reopen over the summer and Broadway is on track for opening by September. Schools will be back at “full strength” in the fall. We are grateful for all of our physicians who continuously work hard to provide support to the community within the midst of this pandemic. Thank you for your services.

ECAP and CCACO have been working with SOMOS Community Care in providing vaccinations for New Yorkers under the New York State and City Initiatives for vaccinations.

ECAP/CCACO provider Dr. Kin Lui is the lead doctor at this State pop-up site in Bayside for Governor Cuomo's Vaccinate New York initiative. Under the leadership of Dr. Henry Chen, many of our ECAP/CCACO providers are very actively participating in the State and City initiatives for the vaccination of New Yorkers in the communities of color, new immigrant communities, and underserved neighborhoods.

The providers are Drs. George Hall, David Zhang, Ruliang Xu, Li Lu, Yanfeng Chen, Yanhan Huang, Kin Lui, Paul Yang, Chun Tung Wong, Christopher Chow, Kevin Tin, Di Zhou, John Yiu, Cong He, Agnes So, etc, and many of their office staff including NP/PAs.

ECAP and CCACO are the key components of SOMOS Community Care.