Bill Text: NJ A4678 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Requires hospitals to inquire whether patients have substance use disorder and establish protocols for providing or referring to treatment.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-06-28 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Committee [A4678 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2024-A4678-Introduced.html

ASSEMBLY, No. 4678

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

221st LEGISLATURE

 

INTRODUCED JUNE 28, 2024

 


 

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman  BENJIE E. WIMBERLY

District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)

Assemblywoman  VERLINA REYNOLDS-JACKSON

District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)

 

 

 

 

SYNOPSIS

     Requires hospitals to inquire whether patients have substance use disorder and establish protocols for providing or referring to treatment.

 

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

     As introduced.

  


An Act concerning hospital patients with substance use disorder 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. A general acute care hospital licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) shall, when providing a health care service to an individual who is 18 years of age or older, inquire as to whether the individual has a substance use disorder or is in recovery from a substance use disorder. 

     b.    Each general acute care hospital licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.) shall, within 180 days of the effective date of this act, establish an official facility-wide protocol or unit-specific protocols for providing treatment or referral to treatment for patients who indicate that they have a substance use disorder or are in recovery from a substance use disorder.  Such protocols shall, at minimum, be available to the public upon request.

 

     2.    The Commissioner of Health shall, in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), adopt any rules and regulations as the commissioner deems necessary to carry out the provisions of this act.

 

     3.    This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month next following the date of enactment, except that the Commissioner of Health may take any anticipatory administrative action in advance as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

     This bill would require acute care hospitals to inquire whether a patient who is 18 years of age or older has a substance use disorder or is in recovery from a substance use disorder.  The bill also requires each hospital to establish appropriate protocols for providing treatment or referral to treatment for patients who indicate that they have a substance use disorder or are in recovery from a substance use disorder. Such protocols would be available to the public upon request.

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