Bill Text: NJ S3749 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Allows individual entering assisted living or long-term care facility to terminate trash collection contract.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced) 2024-10-07 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Commerce Committee [S3749 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-S3749-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Senator ROBERT W. SINGER
District 30 (Monmouth and Ocean)
Senator PATRICK J. DIEGNAN, JR.
District 18 (Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Amato
SYNOPSIS
Allows individual entering assisted living or long-term care facility to terminate trash collection contract.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning trash collection contracts and supplementing Title 56 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. For purposes of this section:
"Assisted living facility" means an assisted living residence or comprehensive personal care home licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.).
"Dementia care home" means a community residential facility that: (1) provides services to residents with special needs, including, but not limited to, persons with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders or other forms of dementia; (2) is subject to the licensure authority of the Department of Health as a health care facility pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.); and (3) meets the requirements of section 19 of P.L.2015, c.125 (C.26:2H-150).
"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.).
"Physician" means a physician authorized by law to practice medicine in this or any other state and any other person authorized by law to treat sick and injured human beings in this or any other state.
"Service provider" means any person, business, or organization qualified to do business in this State that provides a trash collection service.
"Service recipient" means any individual who resides in this State and receives trash collection services from a service provider doing business in this State.
b. A service provider shall allow a service recipient to terminate a contract for trash collection services pursuant to subsection c. of this section.
c. (1) A service provider shall permit a service recipient to terminate, without incurring an early termination fee, the contract for those services after the service recipient receives a physician's order or develops a plan of care in collaboration with a physician responsible for the care of the service recipient, to relocate the service recipient to an assisted living or long-term care facility for a period of at least 90 days, if the service recipient relocates to an assisted living or long-term care facility that meets the description in the physician's order or the plan of care.
(2) The service recipient shall, unless waived or not required by the service provider, provide the service provider with no less than 45 days' notice prior to the requested date of the contract termination or cancellation; provided, however, a service provider shall waive the notice requirement and permit the termination within 48 hours if a physician's order requires immediate relocation to an assisted living or long-term care facility. The service provider shall provide a standard termination form to the service recipient upon request, which the service recipient and a physician shall utilize when requesting contract termination or cancellation pursuant to the provisions of this section. If the service recipient is unable to submit the standard termination form and a representative of the service recipient is requesting contract termination or cancellation pursuant to the provisions of this section, the representative shall submit to the service provider the standard termination form and a copy of the power of attorney, conservatorship, or guardianship documents verifying the representative's authority to act on behalf of the service recipient.
(3) A service provider may require written proof of a service recipient's relocation to an assisted living or long-term care facility. If the service provider requires written proof, then the delivery of a written notice to the service provider of the requested contract termination and a letter signed by the service recipient's physician, no later than 45 days prior to the requested date of termination, attesting that the requirements established pursuant to this subsection are met, shall be deemed sufficient proof.
2. This act shall take effect on the first day of the 12th month next following enactment
STATEMENT
This bill requires a trash collection service doing business in this State to allow a person who has entered a long term care or an assisted living facility to terminate a trash collection contract without incurring an early termination fee.
Unless otherwise waived by the trash collection service, the bill requires the person to give the service recipient no less than 45 days' notice prior to the requested date of the contract's termination or cancellation. However, if a physician's order requires the person's immediate relocation to a long-term care facility, this notice requirement would be waived, and the contract could be terminated within 48 hours. The trash collection service is to provide a standard termination form to the service recipient upon request, which the service recipient and a physician are to utilize when requesting contract termination or cancellation from the service. If a service recipient is unable to submit the standard termination form and a representative of the recipient is requesting contract termination or cancellation, the representative is to submit to the trash collection service the standard termination form and a copy of the power of attorney, conservatorship, or guardianship documents verifying the representative's authority.
The bill also allows a trash collection service to require written proof of a service recipient's relocation to a long-term facility. In this event, the bill provides that the delivery of a written notice to the trash collection service of the contract termination and a letter signed by the service recipient's physician no later than 45 days prior to the scheduled date of termination would be deemed to constitute sufficient proof.
