Bill > S2787

Introduced Session

This bill establishes the New Jersey Task Force on Long-Term Care Quality and Safety, which will be tasked with developing recommendations to make changes to the long-term system of care to drive improvements in person-centered care, resident and staff safety, improvements in quality of care and services, workforce engagement and sustainability, and any other appropriate aspects of the long-term system of care in New Jersey as the task force elects to review. Specifically, the task force is to focus on: developing factors to optimize the balance of services and supports; expanding home and community-based services; nursing home reforms, including new care models, optimizing nursing home size and configurations to foster resident wellness and infection control, increasing clinical presence in nursing homes, and identifying appropriate nursing home staffing levels and ratios based on resident acuity and special population needs; and broader reforms to the long-term system of care, including developing technology requirements to enable enhanced use of telemedicine and telehealth, establishing workforce engagement and advancement models, including career laddering options and structures, increasing the use of Medicaid managed care to drive improvements in quality and oversight of nursing homes, and establishing acuity adjustments for Medicaid managed care payments to nursing homes. The task force will comprise 21 members, including the Commissioner of Health, the Commissioner of Human Services, and the New Jersey Long-Term Care Ombudsman, or their designees, who will serve ex officio, and 18 public members representing various facets of the nursing home industry, with six each to be appointed by the Governor, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the General Assembly. The members of the task force are to be appointed, and the task force is to organize, no later than 45 days after the effective date of the bill. The members will select a chairperson and a vice-chairperson from among the public members. The chairperson may appoint a secretary to the task force, who need not be a member of the task force. The task force will meet at the call of the chairperson. Members of the task force will serve without compensation, but may be reimbursed for necessary expenditures incurred in the performance of their duties as members of the task force, within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the task force for its purposes. The Department of Health will provide administrative and staff support to the task force. The task force will be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of the employees of any State, county, or municipal department, board, bureau, commission, or agency as it may require and as may be available for its purposes. No later than one year after its organization, the task force will be required to prepare and submit a report to the Governor and to the Legislature concerning its recommendations. The task force will dissolve, and the bill will expire, 30 days following the date on which the task force submits its report.

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Richard Codey (D)*,  Ronald Rice (D)*,  Nellie Pou (D),  Teresa Ruiz (D), 

Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Hearing (10:00 8/21/2020 Registration Form) (on 08/21/2020)