STATE OF NEW JERSEY
218th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2018 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator PAUL A. SARLO
District 36 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Requires DOH to license certain qualifying hospitals providing elective angioplasty services.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning the licensure of certain qualifying hospitals and supplementing Title 26 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. As used in this act:
"Bona fide shared governance" means a financial, operational, and clinical overlap between a mentor hospital and its mentee hospital, both of which are part of the same health care network. An affiliation agreement between a mentor hospital and a mentee hospital shall not constitute shared governance unless the mentee hospital is a fully integrated part of the mentor hospital's system.
"Mentee hospital" means an acute care hospital that:
a. is part of a health care network and does not perform on-site coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgical procedures but receives such surgical back-up from its mentor hospital;
b. has not been licensed by the Department of Health to participate in the Cardiovascular Patient Outcomes Research Team Elective Angioplasty Study (C-PORT-E) clinical trial; and
c. maintains bona fide shared governance with a mentor hospital.
"Mentor hospital" means an acute care hospital located within New Jersey that:
a. is part of a health care network and holds an unconditional license to perform cardiac surgery issued by the Department of Health;
b. meets the minimum 350 open heart surgery operation per year requirement set forth in N.J.A.C. 8:43G-7.2;
c. reports quality data to the Department of Health; and
d. provides on-site coronary artery bypass graft surgical backup to its healthcare network hospitals, including its mentee hospital, over which it assumes primary, exclusive, and ultimate responsibility for the oversight of all clinical, programmatic, staffing, and volume requirements, as well as quality outcomes in the performance of elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by the mentee hospital.
2. A general hospital may apply to the Commissioner of Health for a license to provide elective angioplasty services in the State. The commissioner shall issue a license to any hospital that:
a. is not currently licensed as a cardiac surgery facility;
b. holds licensure to participate in the Atlantic C-PORT-E clinical trial as of the effective date of this act or is a mentee hospital that is licensed by the department as a primary percutaneous coronary intervention provider;
c. demonstrates the ability to perform a minimum of 200 elective angioplasty procedures per year, with each interventional cardiologist performing at least 75 elective angioplasty procedures per year;
d. establishes a transportation plan and protocol, which has been approved by the commissioner, for patients who require transportation to, and receipt at, a licensed cardiac surgery center in the event the patient experiences a cardiac emergency or procedure-related complications; and
e. meets such other requirements as the commissioner may establish by regulation.
3. The Commissioner of Health may adopt rules and regulations, in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), as the commissioner deems necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.
4. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Commissioner of Health to issue a license to certain general hospitals to perform elective angioplasty procedures. Specifically, the legislation would permit the Commissioner of Health to license hospitals currently participating in the Atlantic Cardiovascular Patient Outcomes Research Team Elective Angioplasty Study (C-PORT-E) clinical trial or a mentee hospital that is licensed as a primary percutaneous coronary intervention provider and maintains a shared governance with a mentor hospital.
Angioplasty is a procedure used to widen clogged arteries and help remove blockages, restoring blood flow and potentially reducing the risk of an adverse cardiac event. In 2012, the C-PORT-E study concluded that there is no increased risk of death or complications from an elective angioplasty performed at a facility that does not have cardiac surgery capabilities, as compared with a licensed cardiac surgery facility.
It is the sponsor's belief that expanding elective angioplasty licensure to hospitals currently enrolled in the C-PORT-E study and hospitals in the same healthcare network as a licensed cardiac surgery facility advances the access to care for New Jersey consumers and the delivery of high quality care.