The New York Patients' Bill of Rights: All 21 Hospital Rights and How to Use Them

What is the New York Patients’ Bill of Rights?

It is a list of 21 rights that the state Department of Health requires every New York hospital to give patients, published as Publication 1500. The current version on the Department’s site is dated 2/2019. Its legal basis is Public Health Law section 2803(1)(g) and the hospital regulation at 10 NYCRR 405.7, which is why a hospital cannot treat the list as a courtesy.

Ask for a copy at admission if you were not given one. The first right on the list is to understand the others: if you do not understand them, or need help, the hospital must provide assistance, including an interpreter. That makes the bill of rights the natural first page to ask for in your own language. Your right to a free interpreter.

This page groups the 21 rights by the moment you are likely to need them and gives the sentence that invokes each one.

The 21 rights, grouped by when you need them

During the stay: names, consent and refusing care

Ask who is in charge (right 5). Teaching hospitals rotate residents and attending physicians, and many patients leave without knowing who decided their care. Write the name down on the first day.

“Who is the attending physician responsible for my care, and how do I reach that doctor’s team?”

Informed consent (right 9) and refusal (right 11). Before a procedure you are owed the information needed to decide, including possible risks and benefits. You can refuse treatment, and the hospital must tell you how refusing may affect your health. Refusing one test does not mean refusing all care.

Staff and research (rights 6 and 12). You can ask the names and roles of anyone examining you and decline to be observed, for example by a group of students. You can refuse to take part in research after a full explanation.

Decisions when you cannot speak (right 10). The list covers do-not-resuscitate decisions and lets you designate someone to decide if you are too ill. The broader tool is a health care proxy, which the hospital can provide. The New York health care proxy form.

Leaving the hospital: discharge rights

Discharge is where the bill of rights does the most practical work. Right 14 gives you a part in discharge decisions, a written discharge plan and a written explanation of how to appeal a discharge. Right 7 lets you name a caregiver who is included in discharge planning and receives the information and instructions for care at home.

Name the caregiver early, not on the morning you are told you are leaving. The person who will change a dressing or manage new medications should hear the instructions directly.

If you think you are being discharged too soon, ask for the appeal explanation in writing and use it the same day. Do not sign anything you do not understand.

“I want to name [name] as my caregiver for discharge planning. Please include them and give me the written discharge plan and the instructions for appealing the discharge.”

If a hospital refuses or ends treatment.

Records and bills: rights 15 to 18

Your record (right 15). You can review your medical record at no charge and get a copy for a reasonable fee, and you cannot be refused a copy solely because you cannot afford it. How to get your medical records.

An itemized bill (right 16). Every charge, explained. An itemized statement is where duplicate charges and services you did not receive show up. How to ask for one.

Prices and plans (right 17). You can see the hospital’s standard charges and the health plans it participates with. Reading a hospital price file.

Surprise bills (right 18). You can challenge an unexpected bill through the Independent Dispute Resolution process. Surprise billing protections in New York.

None of these four rights lowers a bill by itself. The right that does is New York’s hospital financial assistance law, which is not on the list but applies at every hospital.

How to complain, in order

Right 19 protects you from reprisal for complaining and entitles you to a response from the hospital, in writing if you ask for it. If you are not satisfied, you may contact the state Department of Health, and the hospital must give you its phone number.