Bill Text: NJ S2466 | 2022-2023 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires long-term care facilities to provide certain disability protection and advocacy agencies access to residents.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-05-09 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee [S2466 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2022-S2466-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator JOSEPH F. VITALE
District 19 (Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Requires long-term care facilities to provide certain disability protection and advocacy agencies access to residents.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning long-term care facilities 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 section:
"Advocacy organization" means any protection and advocacy system designated by the State pursuant to the provisions of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C. ss.15001 et seq.
"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 other provision of law to the contrary, a long-term care facility shall provide immediate access to any resident of the facility to an advocacy organization, immediately upon request by the organization.
2. The Commissioner of Health may adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), as may be necessary to implement the provisions of this act.
3. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living residences, comprehensive personal care homes, residential health care facilities, and dementia care homes, to provide immediate access to any resident of the facility to an advocacy organization immediately upon request by the organization. As defined in the bill, "advocacy organization" means any protection and advocacy system designated by New Jersey pursuant to the provisions of the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 2000.
This bill codifies as a matter of State law a federal requirement that long-term care facilities provide access to state-designated disability advocacy and protection agencies.
According to news reports, in March 2022, a legal advocacy organization was forced to seek a federal court order to exercise its legal right to have access residents in a nursing home with a long track record of violations of State and federal health and safety requirements. It is the sponsor's intent to ensure that advocacy organizations of this type always have the right to access long-term care facilities for the purpose of investigating allegations that residents are subject to abuse or neglect, in order to ensure long-term care facility residents receive a level and frequency of care that is appropriate to their needs, and that their rights are recognized and protected throughout their stay at the facility.
