Bill > A1213

Introduced Session

This bill requires a hospital licensed in the State to install and operate an electronic monitoring device in the room of an incapacitated patient if requested to do so by the patient or the patient's legal representative. Under the bill, "incapacitated" means a patient who is unconscious, who is immobile, or who lacks sufficient capacity to verbally communicate with hospital staff. "Electronic monitoring device" means a video surveillance camera, video telephone, or Internet video surveillance device. The bill requires a hospital to: 1) inform an incapacitated patient and the patient's legal representative during the patient's admission of the patient's right to request an electronic monitoring device; 2) cover all costs associated with the electronic monitoring device; and 3) store all video footage recorded by a requested electronic monitoring device, such that the hospital is able to provide a patient or the patient's legal representative with access to the video footage up until the 60th day following the patient's discharge from the hospital. The hospital may require a request for the installation of an electronic monitoring device to be made in writing. The hospital is prohibited from refusing to admit an individual to the facility, or removing a patient from the facility, because of a request for an electronic monitoring device. Under the bill, the installation and operation of an electronic monitoring device must be conducted within plain view; and protect the privacy rights of other patients and visitors, to the extent reasonably possible. In the case of a patient who shares a room with another patient, the use of an electronic monitoring device is subject to the written consent of the other patient or that patient's legal representative. Additionally, a hospital may post a notice stating that a room is being monitored by an electronic monitoring device. The provisions of the bill are to be implemented in accordance with all State and federal health information privacy laws and regulations. Finally, the bill provides that a person who willfully, and without the consent of a patient or the patient's legal representative, hampers, obstructs, tampers with, or destroys an electronic monitoring device or the accompanying video footage is guilty of a crime of the third degree (punishable by a term of imprisonment between three to five years, a fine not exceeding $15,000, or both).

AI Summary

Alexander Schnall (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Health Infrastructure Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document