This is complicated. Technical and conventional definitions of chemotherapy aside, your Sprycel should be covered by that definition. They would be hard pressed to prove it did not fall under that definition.
The real question is if your insurance is subject to this legislation.
1) The law, as I understand it based on similar conversations with state insurance department in CT who has the same law, is not written to protect you the patient. The law defines how an insurance company must behave. So it doesn't matter if you live in NY, it matters where the insurance policy is underwritten. This is basically a contract law and if your health insurance policy was not underwritten in NY, then it doesn't apply. If you have personal insurance and live in NY, then it is likely a NY policy, but if you work for a national or international company operating in NY, there is no guarantee the health insurance policy was written in NY. You need to find out where the policy was written to determine what state laws it is subject to. Keep in mind it is possible that if it wasn't written in NY that the state it was written in may also have a chemo parity law, but you will have to look into that.
2) Depending where you work, you may or may not have an actual health insurance policy. Many large companies, municipalities, and unions have "group coverage". Group coverage is not the same thing as a health insurance policy, although most people do not know this. With a group policy the employer pools the employees into a group and premiums are paid from the group into a fund that covers costs. The plans are managed by national insurance providers like Cigna, but the terms of what is covered is worked out with the employer. These types of plans are not subject to this law. Since it is not really insurance, they are not subject to insurance laws at all, they are governed at the federal level by the department of labor. In order for these policies to be forced to cover oral chemo, we need pending federal legislation passed that would require group plans to have parity with IV chemo. So far, that legislation has not passed and US Congress people are sadly more influenced by their insurance company donors than they are their suffering constituents. All is not lost however, as more states continue to pass these laws, eventually the federal law will have to catch up. But for today, this is still a question.
So yes your major medical may have to start covering your Sprycel, but it all depends on what kind of coverage you actually have (traditional insurance policy vs. group plan) and where it was contracted.
Hope it works in your favor......
*Full disclosure, I am not a lawyer or anything like that. I have however worked as a treasurer for a large company that managed a group plan and am familiar with the way it works.. As a patient, I have had conversations with members of the CT Insurance department who have explained this all to me.
that forbids insurance companies from charging higher co-pays for oral chemotherapy drugs than is charged for traditional chemotherapy. The legislation describes oral chemo as "... a prescribed, orally administered anticancer medication used to kill or slow the growth of cancerous cells ..."