Good morning and welcome to Monday's New York Health Care newsletter, where we keep you posted on what's coming up this week in health care news, and offer a look back at the important news from last week.

Hospitals have just three more weeks to figure out how they will follow Gov. Kathy Hochul’s directive that they reopen 850 beds for psychiatric patients that are currently offline.

Hospitals must send the state a plan for bringing all their psychiatric beds back online by Feb. 10 and implement it by April 1, according to a memo from the Department of Health and Office of Mental Health that has not previously been reported. After that, the Office of Mental Health will start “immediate enforcement,” the memo said.

“While COVID-19 and other public health threats remain present across New York, hospitals must continue their efforts to return to their duly licensed operations,” the memo said. “Restoring these beds to active status is a crucial component of the State’s plan to increase the availability of acute inpatient mental health services.”

It’s not the first time that Hochul has tried to get hospitals to reopen psych beds that have been offline due to the pandemic, inadequate staffing, construction or other reasons. Last February she announced a similar plan to restore over 1,000 beds statewide by raising Medicaid reimbursement rates by 20 percent — a $27.5 million investment. But by the end of the year, 850 beds were still offline.

Hochul raised the stakes this time around. She said hospitals could be fined up to $2,000 per day for each bed they fail to keep online.

The Greater New York Hospital Association, which lobbies on behalf of local hospitals, has signaled its support for bringing the beds back into service. But the association’s president, Kenneth Raske, privately told state health officials that a number of “environmental factors” could affect hospitals’ ability to meet the April 1 deadline.

In a Jan. 13 letter obtained by POLITICO, Raske told the heads of the state Department of Health and Office of Mental Health that hospitals have yet to see last year’s 20 percent Medicaid rate increase because it hasn’t yet been approved by the federal government. Even then, the increase will apply only to fee-for-service volume — not the 80 percent of hospital discharges that fall under Medicaid managed care plans, he said.

Raske recommended that the Hochul administration provide hospitals with capital funding to reopen inpatient beds and additional workforce investments to grow the ranks of psychiatric providers.

“In the immediate term, the necessary staff to safely reopen inpatient capacity, including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, social workers, and other specialty providers, are very difficult to find,” Raske wrote. “This issue will impede their ability to reopen the beds quickly absent using costly agency staff, which cost a multiple of full-time, employed staff, and do not serve as a realistic labor pool for this purpose.”

If Hochul takes that advice, it will likely show up in her soon-to-be-released executive budget proposal for fiscal 2024.

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IN OTHER NEWS:

— The Mother Cabrini Health Foundation is committing $165 million in grants to hundreds of organizations and programs addressing the health needs of vulnerable and low-income New Yorkers, the nonprofit announced today.

The grants include $14 million to increase mental and behavioral health services, $9 million to increase access to health care resources and $7 million to improve long-term care for older adults and people with disabilities.

ON THE AGENDA THIS WEEK:

— The Public Health and Health Planning Council’s Committee on Establishment and Project Review and its Special Committee on Codes, Regulations and Legislation meet Thursday starting at 10 a.m.

— The HHC Capital Corporation hosts its semiannual meeting Thursday at 1 p.m.

— NYC Health + Hospitals’ Board of Directors host its monthly public meeting Thursday at 3 p.m.

CANNABIS CRACKDOWN: New York City officials seem to be taking a very different approach from the state when it comes to dealing with unlicensed weed shops, POLITICO’s Mona Zhang reports.

Cannabis NYC has emphasized educational efforts, noting that the city is supporting “all New Yorkers starting or transitioning into a legal cannabis business.”

State officials, meanwhile, have been warning that people caught selling cannabis without a license will jeopardize their ability to join the regulated market.

NOW WE KNOW — Immediate CPR and defibrillation helped Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin beat the odds and survive cardiac arrest.

TODAY’S TIP — This is the top phrase used in successful relationships, according to psychologists. You’re welcome!

STUDY THIS — Only 19 percent of hospitals are complying with new federal price transparency requirements, researchers find.

— CityMD promises to refund patients for surprise Covid-19 testing bills, Gothamist reports.

— Ontario is turning to private clinics to address growing problems with Canada’s publicly funded health care system, The Wall Street Journal reports.

— NYU Langone researcherspulled out of a trial investigating the use of an old tuberculosis vaccine to treat children with Type 1 diabetes, The New York Times reports.

— The health care industry is pushing back on the Biden administration’s plans to finalize Covid-19 protections for its workers, Megan R. Wilson reports.

— Via POLITICO’s Ben Leonard: A new study finds there was no increased overdose risk from pandemic waivers to treat opioid addiction virtually.

— Bipartisan bill would double fines for smoking weed on New Jersey beaches, Matt Friedman reports.