Bill Text: NJ S2890 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Mandates access to periodic cancer screening examinations for professional firefighters not enrolled in SHBP, but who are eligible for SHBP by virtue of public employment.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-03-14 - Reported from Senate Committee, 2nd Reading [S2890 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-S2890-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator LINDA R. GREENSTEIN
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Mandates access to periodic cancer screening examinations for professional firefighters not enrolled in SHBP, but who are eligible for SHBP by virtue of public employment.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act mandating access to periodic cancer screening examinations for full-time paid firefighters not enrolled in the State Health Benefits Program, and amending P.L.2021, c.478.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 1 of P.L.2021, c.478 (C.52:14-17.29ii) is amended to read as follows:
1. a. A firefighter employed as a full-time paid employee of a fire department or unit of this State or a political subdivision of this State shall be provided a cancer screening examination conducted by a physician not less than three years after the start of the firefighter's employment as a firefighter and every three years thereafter during the course of the firefighter's employment. The examination shall include screening for, at a minimum and when applicable, the following cancers:
(1) colon;
(2) lung;
(3) bladder;
(4) oral;
(5) thyroid;
(6) skin;
(7) blood;
(8) breast;
(9) cervical
(10) testicular; and
(11) prostate.
b. Subsection a. of this section shall apply to a firefighter enrolled in the State Health Benefits Program as occupational coverage. For the purpose of this subsection, employment as a full-time paid employee of a fire department or unit of this State or a political subdivision of this State shall be a pre-existing condition.
c. (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, beginning January 1, 2023 and for each plan year thereafter, a public employer that does not participate in the State Health Benefits Program shall provide health care benefits coverage for its employees that offers cancer screening examinations consistent with the requirement of subsection a. of this section. A public employer that does not participate in the State Health Benefits Program shall be eligible for [reimbursement] payment from the State for [its] the cost of providing benefits coverage for such examinations upon proof satisfactory to the Department of the Treasury that the examination has been performed by a physician; provided, however, at no time shall the cost being [reimbursed] remitted to the public employer by the State for the full examination required under subsection a. of this section exceed $1,250 per three-year period for each firefighter.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, rule, or regulation to the contrary, beginning on the effective date of P.L. , c. (pending before the Legislature as this bill), a public employer that participates in the State Health Benefits Program shall provide coverage for cancer screening examinations consistent with the requirement of subsection a. of this section for an employee who is eligible for other health care coverage and waives coverage under the State Health Benefits Program to which the employee is entitled by virtue of employment with the employer. Such public employer shall be eligible for payment from the State for the cost of providing such examinations upon proof satisfactory to the Department of the Treasury that the examination has been performed by a physician; provided, however, at no time shall the cost being remitted to the public employer by the State for the full examination required under subsection a. of this section exceed $1,250 per three-year period for each firefighter.
No co-payment, deductible, coinsurance, or out-of-pocket expense shall be required for such examinations.
A public employer shall maintain adequate records to facilitate the reimbursement authorized pursuant to this subsection.
For the purpose of this subsection, employment as a full-time paid employee of a fire department or unit of this State or a political subdivision of this State shall be a pre-existing condition. There shall be an appropriation from the State General Fund in each annual appropriations act of such funds as necessary for the purposes of this section.
(cf: P.L.2022, c.109, s.1)
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill mandates access to periodic cancer screening examinations for firefighters who waive employer-sponsored health care coverage, but are eligible for coverage under the State Health Benefits Program (SHBP) by virtue of employment with a public employer that participates in the SHBP. Current law entitles a firefighter enrolled in the SHBP, or a firefighter employed by a public employer that does not participate in the SHBP, to a cancer screening examinations every three years and specifies that the State will reimburse providers or such public employers an amount not to exceed $1,250 per three-year period. The bills extends these reimbursement provisions to firefighters who waive employer-sponsored health care coverage, but are eligible for coverage under the SHBP by virtue of employment with a public employer that participates in the SHBP.
