Bill Text: NJ A2465 | 2012-2013 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Permits licensed facilities currently providing inpatient psychiatric services to add inpatient psychiatric beds without obtaining certificate of need.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-02-21 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee [A2465 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2012-A2465-Introduced.html

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ASSEMBLY, No. 2465

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

215th LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED FEBRUARY 21, 2012

 

 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  HERB CONAWAY, JR.

District 7 (Burlington)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Permits licensed facilities currently providing inpatient psychiatric services to add inpatient psychiatric beds without obtaining certificate of need.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  

An Act concerning inpatient psychiatric services and amending P.L.1992, c.160.

 

     Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

     1.    Section 19 of P.L.1992, c.160 (C.26:2H-7a) is amended to read as follows:

     19.  Notwithstanding the provisions of section 7 of P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-7) to the contrary, the following are exempt from the certificate of need requirement: 

     Community-based primary care centers;

     Outpatient drug and alcohol services;

     Hospital-based medical detoxification for drugs and alcohol;

     Ambulance and invalid coach services;

     Mental health services which are non-bed related outpatient services;

     Residential health care facility services;

     Capital improvements and renovations to health care facilities;

     Additions of medical/surgical, adult intensive care and adult critical care beds in hospitals;

     Additions of psychiatric beds, and the replacement of adolescent acute psychiatric beds with adult acute psychiatric beds or the reverse, in licensed facilities providing inpatient psychiatric services prior to or on the date of enactment of P.L.  , c.  (pending before the Legislature as this bill);

     Replacement of existing major moveable equipment;

     Inpatient operating rooms;

     Alternate family care programs;

     Hospital-based subacute care;

     Ambulatory care facilities;

     Comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation services;

     Special child health clinics;

     New technology in accordance with the provisions of section 18 of P.L.1998, c.43 (C.26:2H-7d);

     Transfer of ownership interest except in the case of an acute care hospital; 

     Change of site for approved certificate of need within the same county;

     Additions to vehicles or hours of operation of a mobile intensive care unit;

     Relocation or replacement of a health care facility within the same county, except for an acute care hospital; 

     Continuing care retirement communities authorized pursuant to P.L.1986, c.103 (C.52:27D-330 et seq.); 

     Magnetic resonance imaging;

     Adult day health care facilities;

     Pediatric day health care facilities;

     Chronic or acute renal dialysis facilities; and

     Transfer of ownership of a hospital to an authority in accordance with P.L.2006, c.46 (C.30:9-23.15 et al.).

(cf: P.L.2006, c.46, s.10)

 

     2.    This act shall take effect on the 45th day after enactment.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill would permit licensed facilities that are currently providing inpatient psychiatric services to add psychiatric beds without meeting the certificate of need (CN) requirement, in the same manner that hospitals may add medical/surgical beds without a certificate of need.

     The bill would allow existing facilities already providing inpatient psychiatric services to be more responsive to the increasing public demand for mental health services, while still requiring facilities that are not providing inpatient psychiatric services to go through the CN process.

     The bill would also allow facilities that are already providing inpatient psychiatric services to replace adolescent acute psychiatric beds with adult acute psychiatric beds and vice versa without having to obtain a CN.

     The bill takes effect on the 45th day after enactment.

     The need for this bill is predicated upon the following:

·   Recent testimony before legislative committees has indicated that significant barriers to access quality mental health services exist in New Jersey;

·   The deepening economic crisis nationwide, and here in New Jersey, has resulted in the closing of hospitals and their psychiatric programs, leading to a backlog in the system that treats persons in mental health crisis;

·   This situation is further exacerbated by a shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds, which has resulted in a reduced capacity to be responsive to the public need for mental health services;

·   The State regulatory system, including the CN program, does not have the flexibility to adapt to the critical demand for mental health services among those persons in urgent need of such care; and

·   It is, therefore, necessary to allow facilities already providing inpatient psychiatric services to expeditiously increase their licensed psychiatric bed capacity and to move between adolescent and adult acute psychiatric beds, without obtaining a CN, in order to respond to the public demand for high-quality psychiatric services in the same manner that general hospitals, under current law, can increase their medical-surgical licensed bed capacity to respond to increased public demand for acute care hospital services.