NY’s MAID Law: Updates that Medical Providers and Facilities Should Know

As discussed in the firm’s prior publication, Medical Aid in Dying Is Now Legal in NY, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) on February 6, 2026. Since then, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has issued a form (DOH-5847) for patients to request MAID, frequently asked questions (FAQs), educational materials, guidance, and proposed reporting regulations.

Together, these materials provide important directions for providers and facilities as they prepare for the law’s August 5, 2026, effective date. Although hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centers, physicians, mental health professionals, pharmacists, nursing homes, residential health care facilities, home hospice programs, and other health care providers and facilities are not required to participate in MAID, they should take steps now to ensure compliance and operational readiness whether they opt in or out.

Requesting MAID

 MAID permits adults with decision-making capacity and a terminal illness to request a prescription from their attending physician for medication the patient may self-administer to aid in dying. “Attending physician” means the physician, including a hospitalist, who has primary responsibility for the patient’s care. Neither a physician assistant nor a nurse practitioner may serve as the attending physician under MAID.

The request must come directly from the patient; it may not be made by a health care agent, surrogate, power of attorney, family member, or any other individual, and it may not be made through an advance directive or living will. The patient must make both an oral request and a written request to the attending physician. If the patient is not physically capable of making an oral request, the patient may use an alternative method of communication familiar to the patient, such as sign language or a device that allows the patient to generate speech. The oral request must be recorded by audio or video and permanently stored in the medical record.

The required written request can be made on form DOH-5847, Request for Medication to End My Life, or a document substantially similar to the form, and must contain declarations from two witnesses and an interpreter, if an interpreter is used. The witnesses must confirm the patient’s identity, voluntariness, apparent decision-making capacity, and absence of coercion, and must attest under penalty of perjury that they are not disqualified from serving.

Witnesses may not be relatives, domestic partners, health care agents, powers of attorney, facility owners or personnel in which the patient is receiving treatment or resides; or individuals who would inherit from, or otherwise benefit financially from, the patient’s death. The attending physician, consulting physician, and required mental health professional also may not serve as witnesses. DOH’s FAQs further indicate that an interpreter may serve as a witness if the person otherwise satisfies the witness requirements.

Establishing Patient Eligibility

To qualify for MAID, a patient, among other things, must be a New York resident and attest to same. DOH has indicated that providers and facilities may develop a residency attestation to be attached to the DOH-5847 form.

Both the patient’s attending physician and a consulting physician must independently confirm the terminal diagnosis, prognosis, decision-making capacity, and that the request is voluntary. In addition, a mental health professional—a licensed psychologist, psychiatrist, or neurologist—must determine that the patient has decision-making capacity.

DOH’s physician guidance reinforces the attending physician’s role in confirming the terminal diagnosis and capacity; making required referrals; ensuring informed decision-making; documenting the required requests and determinations; and counseling the patient about feasible alternatives, including treatment, palliative care, hospice options, the risks and benefits of those option, and the patient’s legal rights to comprehensive pain and symptom management at the end of life. The attending physician must also inform the patient of the potential risks associated with taking the medication, the probable result of taking it, and the patient’s right to rescind the request at any time and in any manner.

Required Reporting to NYS DOH

The currently proposed regulations would require attending physicians who prescribe medication under MAID to report specified information electronically to DOH within five days of issuing the prescription, including practitioner, patient, diagnosis, prescription, care-setting, residence, and compliance-attestation information. They also would require that the prescription include the designation “MAID” and a notation that it may not be filled until five days after it is written.

In addition, the proposed regulations address death records by requiring the underlying terminal illness or condition, rather than MAID or the medication, to be recorded as the cause of death. Consistent with Public Health Law § 2899-p and DOH guidance, physicians should ensure that death-certificate documentation reflects the patient’s underlying terminal illness or condition.

The public comment period for the proposed regulations runs from June 3 through August 3, 2026, ahead of the law’s August 5, 2026, effective date.

Insurance Considerations

MAID also protects specified insurance coverages. Life insurance, annuity, health coverage, and professional malpractice insurance may not be denied, conditioned, or priced based on whether a patient requests or uses MAID, or whether a provider participates in MAID.

In addition, insurers and third-party payers are precluded from initiating communications to patients about the availability of MAID medication and related professional services unless the patient requests the information or the attending physician does so at the patient’s request. A denial of coverage for treatment also may not include information about MAID.

Participation Decisions, Policies, and Operational Readiness

Providers and facilities should decide before MAID’s effective date whether, and under what circumstances, MAID-related services may be requested, assessed, prescribed, dispensed, documented, or self-administered in their settings. Regardless of whether they participate, providers and facilities should be prepared to operationalize the law, ensure compliance, and address implementation issues.

Participating providers and facilities should, among other things, develop policies and procedures, training, documentation protocols, workflows, patient education materials, referral paths, as well as processes for using DOH-5847 and any residency attestation; assessing capacity and voluntariness; recording and storing oral requests; meeting reporting obligations; communicating institutional limits; managing interpreter and witness issues, including sign-language interpreter declaration requirements; addressing self-administration; and documenting required patient counseling.

Hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centers, nursing homes, residential health care facilities, and home hospice programs that decline to participate may prohibit MAID activities in their settings through a formally adopted policy based on sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions central to their operating principles. Those policies should be developed with appropriate clinical leadership, communicated to patients before admission or as soon as reasonably possible thereafter, and supported by procedures for transferring the patient and relevant medical records to a participating provider when required.