Bill Text: NJ A222 | 2010-2011 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes NJ FamilyCare coverage buy-in program for certain small employers.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-01-12 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee [A222 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2010-A222-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
214th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2010 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman JOAN M. QUIGLEY
District 32 (Bergen and Hudson)
Assemblyman JOSEPH CRYAN
District 20 (Union)
Assemblyman ALBERT COUTINHO
District 29 (Essex and Union)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblymen Diegnan and Prieto
SYNOPSIS
Establishes NJ FamilyCare coverage buy-in program for certain small employers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel
An Act concerning the NJ FamilyCare Program and amending P.L.2005, c.156.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Section 5 of P.L.2005, c.156 (C.30:4J-12) is amended to read as follows:
5. a. The purpose of the program shall be to provide subsidized health insurance coverage, and other health care benefits as determined by the commissioner, to children under 19 years of age and their parents or caretakers and to adults without dependent children, within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available for the program.
The program shall require families to pay copayments and make premium contributions, based upon a sliding income scale. The program shall include the provision of well-child and other preventive services, hospitalization, physician care, laboratory and x-ray services, prescription drugs, mental health services, and other services as determined by the commissioner.
b. The commissioner shall take such actions as are necessary to implement and operate the program in accordance with the State Children's Health Insurance Program established pursuant to 42 U.S.C.s.1397aa et seq.
c. The commissioner:
(1) shall, by regulation, establish standards for determining eligibility and other program requirements, including, but not limited to, restrictions on voluntary disenrollments from existing health insurance coverage;
(2) shall require that a parent or caretaker who is a qualified applicant purchase coverage, if available, through an employer-sponsored health insurance plan which is determined to be cost-effective and is approved by the commissioner, and shall provide assistance to the qualified applicant to purchase that coverage, except that the provisions of this paragraph shall not be construed to require an employer to provide health insurance coverage for any employee or employee's spouse or dependent child;
(3) may, by regulation, establish plans of coverage and benefits to be covered under the program, except that the provisions of this section shall not apply to coverage for medications used exclusively to treat AIDS or HIV infection; and
(4) shall establish, by
regulation, other requirements for the program, including, but not limited to,
premium payments and copayments, and may contract with one or more appropriate
entities, including managed care organizations, to assist in administering the
program. The period for which eligibility for the program is determined shall
be the maximum period permitted under federal law.
d. The commissioner shall establish procedures for determining eligibility, which shall include, at a minimum, the following enrollment simplification practices:
(1) A streamlined application form as established pursuant to subsection k. of this section;
(2) Require new applicants to submit no more than one recent pay stub from the applicant's employer, or, if the applicant has more than one employer, no more than one from each of the applicant's employers, to verify income. In the event the applicant cannot provide a recent pay stub, the applicant may submit another form of income verification as deemed appropriate by the commissioner. If an applicant does not submit income verification in a timely manner, before determining the applicant ineligible for the program, the commissioner shall seek to verify the applicant's income by reviewing available Department of the Treasury or Department of Labor and Workforce Development records concerning the applicant, or such other records as the commissioner determines appropriate.
The commissioner may establish such retrospective auditing or income verification procedures as he deems appropriate, such as sample auditing and matching reported income with records of the Department of the Treasury or the Department of Labor and Workforce Development or such other records as the commissioner determines appropriate.
If the commissioner elects to match reported income with confidential records of the Department of the Treasury, the commissioner shall require an applicant to provide written authorization for the Division of Taxation in the Department of the Treasury to release applicable tax information to the commissioner for the purposes of establishing income eligibility for the program. The authorization, which shall be included on the program application form, shall be developed by the commissioner, in consultation with the State Treasurer;
(3) Online enrollment and renewal, in addition to enrollment and renewal by mail. The online enrollment and renewal forms shall include electronic links to other State and federal health and social services programs;
(4) Continuous enrollment;
(5) Simplified renewal by sending an enrollee a preprinted renewal form and requiring the enrollee to sign and return the form, with any applicable changes in the information provided in the form, no later than 30 days after the date the enrollee's annual eligibility expires. The commissioner may establish such auditing or income verification procedures as he deems appropriate, as provided in paragraph (1) of this subsection; and
(6) Provision of program eligibility-identification cards that are issued no more frequently than once a year.
e. The commissioner shall take, or cause to be taken, any action necessary to secure for the State the maximum amount of federal financial participation available with respect to the program, subject to the constraints of fiscal responsibility and within the limits of available funding in any fiscal year. In this regard, notwithstanding the definition of "qualified applicant," the commissioner may enroll in the program such children or their parents or caretakers who may otherwise be eligible for the Medicaid program in order to maximize use of federal funds that may be available pursuant to 42 U.S.C. s.1397aa et seq.
f. Subject to federal approval, a child shall be determined ineligible for the program if the child was voluntarily disenrolled from employer-sponsored group insurance coverage within six months prior to application to the program.
g. The commissioner shall provide, by regulation, for presumptive eligibility for the program in accordance with the following provisions:
(1) A child who presents himself for treatment at a general hospital, federally qualified or community health center, local health department that provides primary care, or other State licensed community-based primary care provider shall be deemed presumptively eligible for the program if a preliminary determination by hospital, health center, local health department or licensed health care provider staff indicates that the child meets program eligibility standards and is a member of a household with an income that does not exceed 350% of the poverty level;
(2) The provisions of paragraph (1) of this subsection shall also apply to a child who is deemed presumptively eligible for Medicaid coverage pursuant to P.L.1968, c.413 (C.30:4D-1 et seq.);
(3) The parent or caretaker of a child deemed presumptively eligible pursuant to this subsection shall be required to submit a completed application for the program no later than the end of the month following the month in which presumptive eligibility is determined;
(4) A child shall be eligible to receive all services covered by the program during the period in which the child is presumptively eligible; and
(5) The commissioner may, by regulation, establish a limit on the number of times a child may be deemed presumptively eligible for NJ FamilyCare.
h. The commissioner, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education, shall administer an ongoing enrollment initiative to provide outreach to children throughout the State who may be eligible for the program.
(1) With respect to school-age children, the commissioner, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education and the Secretary of Agriculture, shall develop a form that provides information about the NJ FamilyCare and Medicaid programs and provides an opportunity for the parent or guardian who signs the school lunch application form to give consent for information to be shared with the Department of Human Services for the purpose of determining eligibility for the programs. The form shall be attached to, included with, or incorporated into, the school lunch application form.
The commissioner, in consultation with the Commissioner of Education, shall establish procedures for schools to transmit information attached to, included with, or provided on the school lunch application form regarding the NJ FamilyCare and Medicaid programs to the Department of Human Services, in order to enable the department to determine eligibility for the programs.
(2) The commissioner or the Commissioner of Education, as applicable, shall:
(a) make available to each elementary and secondary school, licensed child care center, registered family day care home, unified child care agency, local health department that provides primary care, and community-based primary care provider, informational materials about the program, including instructions for applying online or by mail, as well as copies of the program application form.
The entity shall make the informational and application materials available, upon request, to persons interested in the program; and
(b) request each entity to distribute a notice at least annually, as developed by the commissioner, to households of children attending or receiving its services or care, informing them about the program and the availability of informational and application materials. In the case of elementary and secondary schools, the information attached to, included with, or incorporated into, the school lunch application form for school-age children pursuant to this subparagraph shall be deemed to meet the requirements of this paragraph.
i. Subject to federal approval, the commissioner shall, by regulation, establish that in determining income eligibility for a child, any gross family income above 200% of the poverty level, up to a maximum of 350% of the poverty level, shall be disregarded.
j. (1) The commissioner shall establish a NJ FamilyCare coverage buy-in program through which a parent or caretaker whose family income exceeds 350% of the poverty level may purchase coverage under NJ FamilyCare for a child under the age of 19, who is uninsured and was not voluntarily disenrolled from employer-sponsored group insurance coverage within six months prior to application to the program.
The commissioner shall establish the premium and cost sharing amounts required to purchase coverage, except that the premium shall not exceed the amount the program pays per month to a managed care organization under NJ FamilyCare for a child of comparable age whose family income is between 200% and 350% of the poverty level, plus a reasonable processing fee.
(2) The commissioner shall establish a NJ FamilyCare coverage buy-in program through which a private nonprofit or private charitable employer that employed an average of at least two but not more than 25 full-time employees in New Jersey during the preceding calendar year and receives more than 50% of its revenues from the State or federal government, or both, may purchase coverage under NJ FamilyCare for an eligible employee and the employee's spouse who are uninsured and were not voluntarily disenrolled from employer-sponsored group insurance coverage within six months prior to application to the program.
The commissioner shall establish the premium and cost sharing amounts required to purchase coverage under the buy-in program established pursuant to this paragraph. The employer may require the employee to assume a reasonable share of the premium for this coverage.
As used in this paragraph:
"Eligible employee" means a full-time employee whose gross family income does not exceed 200% of the poverty level.
"Full-time employee" means an employee who works 25 or more hours a week. The term includes a sole proprietor, a partner of a partnership, or an independent contractor, but does not include employees who work less than 25 hours a week, work on a temporary or substitute basis or are participating in an employee welfare arrangement established pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.
k. The commissioner, in consultation with the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, shall develop a streamlined application form for the NJ FamilyCare and Medicaid programs.
(cf: P.L.2005, c.156, s.5)
2. The Commissioner of Human Services, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), shall adopt rules and regulations to effectuate the purposes of this act.
3. This act shall take effect on the 180th day after enactment, but the Commissioner of Human Services may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of the act.
STATEMENT
This bill establishes a NJ FamilyCare coverage buy-in program for certain small employers.
Specifically, the bill amends the "Family Health Care Coverage Act" (N.J.S.A.30:4J-8 et seq.), which established the NJ FamilyCare Program, to require the Commissioner of Human Services to establish a NJ FamilyCare coverage buy-in program through which a private nonprofit or private charitable employer that employed an average of at least two but not more than 25 full-time employees (i.e., who work 25 or more hours a week) in New Jersey during the preceding calendar year and receives more than 50% of its revenues from the State or federal government, or both, may purchase coverage under NJ FamilyCare for an eligible employee and the employee's spouse who are uninsured and were not voluntarily disenrolled from employer-sponsored group insurance coverage within six months prior to application to the program.
The commissioner is to establish the premium and cost sharing amounts required to purchase coverage under the buy-in program established pursuant to this bill. The employer may require the employee to assume a reasonable share of the premium for this coverage.
The bill defines "eligible employee" to mean a full-time employee whose gross family income does not exceed 200% of the federal poverty level. The term includes a sole proprietor, a partner of a partnership, or an independent contractor, but does not include employees who work less than 25 hours a week, work on a temporary or substitute basis or are participating in an employee welfare arrangement established pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.
The bill takes effect on the 180th day after enactment, but authorizes the Commissioner of Human Services to take anticipatory administrative action in advance as necessary for its implementation.
