ALBANY COUNTY — Albany County’s proposed health consortium was announced this month following the introduction of a bill in the Albany County Legislature to set up the consortium.

While not yet rolled out, a county-wide health consortium is supposed to lower costs for towns, villages, and school districts in the county.

Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill, earlier this month, that will limit health-insurance companies’ freedom to impose “step-therapy” protocols on their insured patients. The new law will also give doctors a clearer and faster path to appealing those protocols when they are applied.