Bill > A3385

Introduced Session

This bill prohibits incarcerated individuals from receiving public benefits from Medicaid, Work First New Jersey, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In general, current law prohibits incarcerated individuals from receiving benefits under these programs, but due to a lack of information sharing between relevant government agencies, inappropriate payments sometimes occur. In order to reduce these inappropriate payments, the bill requires the Department of Human Services (which administers the three programs) to establish information sharing procedures with the Department of Corrections, the Administrative Office of the Courts, and individual counties, as necessary, to obtain complete, up-to-date information, on at least a monthly basis, on individuals who are incarcerated in the custody of the State or a county. The bill also requires the department to compare, on at least a monthly basis, this information to its enrollment data the for Medicaid, Work First New Jersey, and SNAP programs, and immediately suspend the eligibility of any individual who is incarcerated and is ineligible to receive benefits in any of the programs. The bill also amends current law to eliminate the authority of the Commissioner of Human Services to extend eligibility for Medicaid to incarcerated individuals in the first month of their incarceration, and to clarify that payments to Medicaid managed care organizations for care or services for an incarcerated individual are prohibited. The bill also eliminates the commissioner's authority to extend Work First New Jersey eligibility to incarcerated individuals by regulation. This bill was inspired by the May 29, 2013 report by the Office of the State Comptroller, which identified improper payments totaling more than $12.6 million in these three programs between July 1, 2009 and April 30, 2011.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Jay Webber (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Children, Families and Food Security Committee (on 02/01/2024)

Official Document