Bill > S949

Introduced Session

This bill extends the Medical Malpractice Liability Insurance Premium Assistance Fund for five years and reestablishes the collection of annual surcharges for the fund for the five-year period. The primary purpose of the fund is to provide medical malpractice liability insurance premium subsidies to health care providers who, as a class of providers, are most severely impacted by high medical malpractice premium rates. In addition, monies from the fund are allocated for various health care purposes, including funds: to the Health Care Subsidy Fund for charity care subsidies to hospitals, to the NJ FamilyCare Program, and to provide student loan expense reimbursement for certain obstetrician/gynecologists. The surcharges apply to all employers subject to the "unemployment compensation law," ($3 per employee each year), and to practicing physicians, podiatrists, chiropractors, dentists, optometrists, and attorneys licensed in this State ($75 each year). The bill repeals sections 29 and 30 of P.L.2004, c.17. The provisions of section 29, concerning student loan expense reimbursement for certain obstetricians/gynecologists, had expired three years after the effective date of P.L.2004, c.17, and this bill reenacts those provisions as section 3 of the bill. The provisions of section 30 concerning NJ FamilyCare coverage for certain pregnant women whose income is up to 100% of the federal poverty level, are no longer necessary since eligibility for Medicaid was expanded in 2005 to cover parents and children whose income is up to 133% of the federal poverty level. The monies from the Medical Malpractice Liability Insurance Premium Assistance Fund that had been allocated in 2004 to the coverage of pregnant women will now be allocated to the NJ FamilyCare Program.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Raymond Lesniak (D)*,  Joe Vitale (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Commerce Committee (on 02/04/2010)