Bill Text: NJ A4785 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires certain facilities to develop cohorting plan to address outbreak of contagious disease.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-12-06 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee [A4785 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2018-A4785-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman HOLLY T. SCHEPISI
District 39 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires certain facilities to develop cohorting plan to address outbreak of contagious disease.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning contagious diseases and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. As used in this act, "long-term care facility" means a nursing home, assisted living residence, comprehensive personal care home, residential health care facility, or dementia care home licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.).
b. Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, or order to the contrary, a long-term care facility shall develop and implement a plan, to be submitted to and approved by the Department of Health, in a manner to be determined by the Department of Health, to cohort at-risk patients in the event of an outbreak of a life-threatening, contagious disease, or of a similar health emergency at the facility, until the cessation of the outbreak or emergency, and to meet staffing and facility demands as are necessary to implement the plan to cohort at-risk patients.
c. The Department of Health shall not issue a license to a long-term care facility unless the facility has fulfilled the requirements of subsection b. of this section. A long-term care facility that is licensed by the Department of Health on or before the effective date of this act shall fulfill the requirements of subsection b. of this section within 180 days of the effective date of this act as a condition of the long-term care facility's licensure.
2. The Department of Health shall, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), adopt rules or regulations as are necessary to effectuate the provisions of this act.
3. This act shall take effect 180 days after the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill requires certain facilities to develop a cohorting plan to address an outbreak of a contagious disease. Under the bill, a long-term care facility is to develop and implement a plan, to be submitted to and approved by the Department of Health, in a manner to be determined by the Department of Health, to cohort at-risk patients in the event of an outbreak of a life-threatening, contagious disease, or of a similar health emergency at the facility, until the cessation of the outbreak or emergency, and to meet staffing and facility demands as are necessary to implement the plan to cohort at-risk patients.
The bill provides that the Department of Health is not to issue a license to a long-term care facility unless the facility has complied with the bill's provisions. A long-term care facility that is licensed by the Department of Health on or before the effective date of this bill is to comply with the bill's provisions within 180 days of the effective date of this act as a condition of the facility's licensure.
