On June 18, New York Governor David Paterson and State legislative leaders reached agreement on legislation designed to place reasonable limits on the ability of employers to require nurses to work longer than their regularly scheduled hours. The legislation (A.11711/S.8637), which is the product of intense negotiations between legislators, GNYHA, the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), and nurse unions, includes many provisions  supported by GNYHA members, including the ability to require a nurse to stay on duty if the employer determines that a staffing emergency exists, as long as it could not be planned for and does not regularly occur. The bill would also clarify that regularly scheduled work hours include pre-scheduled on-call time and the time necessary to give patient reports when shifts change. The bill also exempts home health agencies—a critical priority of GNYHA’s long term care affiliate, the Continuing Care Leadership Coalition (CCLC). The bill is expected to be approved by the full Legislature on June 23 and the Governor is expected to sign it into law shortly thereafter. The bill would take affect on July 1, 2009.