2023 New York Laws › PBH - Public Health › Article 2 - The Department of Health › Title 1 - Officers and Employees › 201 - Functions, Powers and Duties of the Department.

§  201.  Functions,  powers  and  duties  of  the  department.  1. The
department shall, as provided by law:
(a) supervise the work and activities of the local  boards  of  health
and  health  officers throughout the state, unless otherwise provided by
law;
(b) supervise and control  the  registration  of  births,  deaths  and
marriages;
(c) supervise the reporting and control of disease;
(d) engage in research into morbidity and mortality;
(e)  produce,  standardize and distribute diagnostic, prophylactic and
therapeutic products;
(f) conduct laboratory examinations for the diagnosis and  control  of
disease;
(g) promote education in the prevention and control of disease;
(h)  promote  or  provide  diagnostic  and  therapeutic  services  for
maternal and child health, communicable disease, medical rehabilitation,
cancer and other conditions and diseases affecting public health;
(i) except as  otherwise  provided  by  law,  license,  supervise  and
regulate maternity hospitals and homes and the occupation of midwifery;
(j)  license, supervise and regulate the manufacture, distribution and
use of narcotics;
(k) maintain and operate such state  hospitals,  institutions,  public
health centers and clinics as shall be established in the department;
(l)  supervise and regulate the sanitary aspects of water supplies and
sewage disposal and control the pollution of waters of the state;
(m) supervise and regulate the  sanitary  aspects  of  camps,  hotels,
boarding  houses,  public  eating  and drinking establishments, swimming
pools,  bathing  establishments  and  other  businesses  and  activities
affecting  public health and, in relation to hotels, boarding houses and
temporary residences as defined in the state sanitary code, inspect such
facilities (i) where inspections do not otherwise occur under the  state
uniform   fire   prevention  and  building  code,  (ii)  to  respond  to
complaints, or (iii) when otherwise necessary;
(n) exercise control over and supervise  the  abatement  of  nuisances
affecting or likely to affect public health;
(o)  advise  any  local  unit  of  government  and  the  public health
officials thereof within the state, in the performance of their official
duties and regulate the financial assistance granted  by  the  state  in
connection with all public health activities;
(p) receive and expend funds made available for public health purposes
pursuant to law;
(q)  license, supervise and regulate the practice of funeral directing
and embalming;
(r) supervise and regulate  the  public  health  aspects  of  ionizing
radiation  and  nonionizing  electromagnetic  radiation;  and may in its
discretion license activities within the state affecting  or  likely  to
affect  public  health  and relating to radioactive materials, excluding
special nuclear materials in quantities sufficient to  form  a  critical
mass  and  excluding the handling and disposal of radioactive wastes and
the release of radioactivity to the environment regulated by  the  state
department of environmental conservation;
(s)  administer  to  the medical and health needs of the ambulant sick
and needy Indians on the reservations;
(u) engage in research into the causes of rocky mountain spotted fever
and the prevention thereof and  develop  programs  for  the  control  of
ticks,  insects and anthropods which act as vectors of disease affecting
man, within funds made available for such purposes.
(v) act as the single state agency for medical assistance pursuant  to
section  three  hundred  sixty-three-a  of  the  social services law, as
amended by this chapter, with responsibility to supervise the  plan  for
medical  assistance  as  required  by  title  XIX  of the federal Social
Security  act,  or  its  successor,  and  to adopt regulations as may be
necessary to implement this plan.
(w)  make  available  to  the  council  on   children   and   families
information,  in  a  format  identified  by  the council, regarding home
visiting programs that meet the criteria as  required  by  section  four
hundred  twenty-nine  of  the  social services law regardless of whether
such program has a contract with or receive funding from the state. Such
information shall be provided in accordance with  the  requirements  set
forth  in  subdivision two of section four hundred eighty-three-h of the
social services law. Such information shall be made  available  no  less
than once a year.
(x) produce an annual report analyzing the costs related to the sexual
assault  examination  direct  reimbursement  program  as  created  under
subdivision thirteen of section six hundred thirty-one of the  executive
law  and  provide  such  report  to  the office of victim services on or
before September first of each year. Such report shall  be  provided  to
the  governor,  temporary president of the senate and the speaker of the
assembly.
(y) To develop a form by  which  a  coroner,  coroner's  physician  or
medical  examiner,  pursuant to section six hundred seventy-seven of the
county law, shall report to the division of veterans' services any death
which appears to be caused by suicide by a person who, to the  knowledge
of  the  coroner, coroner's physician or medical examiner, is a veteran.
This form shall at a minimum: (i) ensure compliance with  the  strictest
privacy  protections  and  encourage  data  aggregation  to  the  extent
feasible; (ii) provide the address to which the form is to be mailed  or
submitted  electronically; and (iii) include the county of residence and
the branch of service of deceased veterans during the reporting period.
2. The department shall continue to exercise  all  of  the  functions,
powers  and duties which have been prescribed by law and which are being
exercised by it when  this  chapter  takes  effect  together  with  such
functions,  powers  and duties as hereafter may be conferred and imposed
upon it by law.
3. All the provisions of this chapter shall apply  to  the  department
continued  by  this  chapter  and to the commissioner, the public health
council and any successor council, and to  the  divisions,  bureaus  and
officers in such department.