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S 6494 NY
Passed One Chamber

Requires health insurance policies to include coverage for doula services as required coverage for maternity care

NY · session 2025-2026 · Senate · bill

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Introduced Mar 14, 2025

Latest action (Apr 29, 2026) REFERRED TO INSURANCE

Summary

Requires health insurance policies to include coverage for doula services as required coverage for maternity care.

Sponsor (1)

2 coauthors / cosponsors
  • Samra Brouk Democratic · cosponsor
  • Brad Hoylman-Sigal · cosponsor

Action history (12)

  1. Mar 14, 2025 REFERRED TO WOMEN'S ISSUES · upper
  2. May 20, 2025 1ST REPORT CAL.1141 · upper
  3. May 21, 2025 2ND REPORT CAL. · upper
  4. May 22, 2025 ADVANCED TO THIRD READING · upper
  5. Jun 13, 2025 COMMITTED TO RULES · upper
  6. Jan 7, 2026 REFERRED TO WOMEN'S ISSUES · upper
  7. Mar 25, 2026 1ST REPORT CAL.640 · upper
  8. Mar 26, 2026 2ND REPORT CAL. · upper
  9. Mar 30, 2026 ADVANCED TO THIRD READING · upper
  10. Apr 29, 2026 PASSED SENATE · upper
  11. Apr 29, 2026 DELIVERED TO ASSEMBLY · upper
  12. Apr 29, 2026 REFERRED TO INSURANCE · lower

Text versions (2)

The published texts of this bill as it moves through the legislature. Each links to the official document on the state legislature site. Data from OpenStates.

  • S6494 · HTML
  • S6494 · PDF

Full text

Full text imported from assembly.state.ny.us

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New York State Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie

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Bill No.: Summary Actions Committee&nbspVotes Floor&nbspVotes Memo Text LFIN Chamber&nbspVideo/Transcript S06494 Summary: BILL NO S06494 &nbsp SAME AS SAME AS A05140

&nbsp SPONSOR CLEARE &nbsp COSPNSR BROUK, HOYLMAN-SIGAL &nbsp MLTSPNSR &nbsp Amd §§3216, 3221 & 4303, Ins L &nbsp Requires health insurance policies to include coverage for doula services as required coverage for maternity care.

Go to top S06494 Text:

STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________

6494

2025-2026 Regular Sessions

IN SENATE

March 14, 2025 ___________

Introduced by Sen. CLEARE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Women's Issues

AN ACT to amend the insurance law, in relation to requiring health insurance policies to include coverage for doula services as required coverage for maternity care

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows:

1 Section 1. Item (i) of subparagraph (A) of paragraph 10 of subsection 2 (i) of section 3216 of the insurance law, as amended by chapter 238 of 3 the laws of 2010, is amended to read as follows: 4 (i) Every policy which provides hospital, surgical or medical coverage 5 shall provide coverage for maternity care, including hospital, surgical 6 or medical care to the same extent that hospital, surgical or medical 7 coverage is provided for illness or disease under the policy. Such 8 maternity care coverage, other than coverage for perinatal compli- 9 cations, shall include inpatient hospital coverage for mother and for 10 newborn for at least forty-eight hours after childbirth for any delivery 11 other than a caesarean section, and for at least ninety-six hours after 12 a caesarean section. Such coverage for maternity care shall include the 13 services of a doula and the services of a midwife licensed pursuant to 14 article one hundred forty of the education law, practicing consistent 15 with section sixty-nine hundred fifty-one of the education law and 16 affiliated or practicing in conjunction with a facility licensed pursu- 17 ant to article twenty-eight of the public health law, but no insurer 18 shall be required to pay for duplicative routine services actually 19 provided by both a licensed midwife and a physician. 20 § 2. Item (i) of subparagraph (A) of paragraph 5 of subsection (k) of 21 section 3221 of the insurance law, as amended by chapter 238 of the laws 22 of 2010, is amended to read as follows: 23 (i) Every group or blanket policy delivered or issued for delivery in 24 this state which provides hospital, surgical or medical coverage shall

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09185-01-5

S. 6494 2

1 include coverage for maternity care, including hospital, surgical or 2 medical care to the same extent that coverage is provided for illness or 3 disease under the policy. Such maternity care coverage, other than 4 coverage for perinatal complications, shall include inpatient hospital 5 coverage for mother and newborn for at least forty-eight hours after 6 childbirth for any delivery other than a caesarean section, and for at 7 least ninety-six hours after a caesarean section. Such coverage for 8 maternity care shall include the services of a doula and the services of 9 a midwife licensed pursuant to article one hundred forty of the educa- 10 tion law, practicing consistent with section sixty-nine hundred fifty- 11 one of the education law and affiliated or practicing in conjunction 12 with a facility licensed pursuant to article twenty-eight of the public 13 health law, but no insurer shall be required to pay for duplicative 14 routine services actually provided by both a licensed midwife and a 15 physician. 16 § 3. Subparagraph (A) of paragraph 1 of subsection (c) of section 4303 17 of the insurance law, as amended by chapter 238 of the laws of 2010, is 18 amended to read as follows: 19 (A) Every contract issued by a corporation subject to the provisions 20 of this article which provides hospital service, medical expense indem- 21 nity or both shall provide coverage for maternity care including hospi- 22 tal, surgical or medical care to the same extent that hospital service, 23 medical expense indemnity or both are provided for illness or disease 24 under the contract. Such maternity care coverage, other than coverage 25 for perinatal complications, shall include inpatient hospital coverage 26 for mother and for newborn for at least forty-eight hours after child- 27 birth for any delivery other than a caesarean section, and for at least 28 ninety-six hours following a caesarean section. Such coverage for mater- 29 nity care shall include the services of a doula and the services of a 30 midwife licensed pursuant to article one hundred forty of the education 31 law, practicing consistent with section sixty-nine hundred fifty-one of 32 the education law and affiliated or practicing in conjunction with a 33 facility licensed pursuant to article twenty-eight of the public health 34 law, but no insurer shall be required to pay for duplicative routine 35 services actually provided by both a licensed midwife and a physician. 36 § 4. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 37 it shall have become a law and shall apply to all policies and contracts 38 issued, renewed, modified, altered or amended on or after such date. 39 Effective immediately the addition, amendment or repeal of any rule or 40 regulation necessary for the implementation of this act on its effective 41 date are authorized to be made and completed on or before such date.

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