Sponsored by:
Senator M. TERESA RUIZ
District 29 (Essex and Hudson)
Senator NICHOLAS P. SCUTARI
District 22 (Somerset and Union)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Burgess
SYNOPSIS
Codifies authority for certain health care providers to provide abortions and clarifies certain operational requirements for abortion facilities.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning abortion, amending P.L.1991, c.378 and P.L.1971, c.136, and supplementing Title 45 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. (New section) The Legislature finds and declares that:
a. Targeted restrictions on abortion providers, also referred to as TRAP laws, are medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers that are implemented to make delivering and accessing healthcare more difficult.
b. TRAP laws are common in states hostile to abortion; however, New Jersey still has not updated statutory law to expressly address these restrictions.
c. Many of these outdated restrictions have already been revised through regulation by the Board of Medical Examiner, so New Jersey Legislature must now solidify those updated regulations into statute in order to secure access to abortion and all reproductive healthcare now and in the future.
d. Medically unnecessary facility requirements increase the cost of healthcare delivery, create burdensome barriers to patients trying to access abortion care, and require the New Jersey Department of Health staff to enforce regulations that do not improve or promote patient health. Removing unnecessary requirements would increase and ease access to reproductive health care and allow providers to focus their resources on the needs of their patients.
e. Expanding the type of health care providers who can provide abortion services is critical to increasing access to safe, timely, affordable and respectful abortion care.
f. Through regulation, this expansion has already been in effect in the State since 2021 allowing tens of thousands of medical professionals to be trained to provide abortion services.
g. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the State to codify the expansion of the types of health care providers who can provide abortions in the State in order to ensure that people can access affordable, high quality health care in their own communities by a provider of their choice and to meet the current and increasing unmet need for abortion and other reproductive health services and to ensure access to reproductive health care in New Jersey.
2. Section 12 of P.L.2017, c.136 (C.26: 2H-12) is amended to read as follows:
12. a. No health care service or health care facility shall be operated unless it shall: (1) possess a valid license issued pursuant to this act, which license shall specify the kind or kinds of health care services the facility is authorized to provide; (2) establish and maintain a uniform system of cost accounting approved by the commissioner; (3) establish and maintain a uniform system of reports and audits meeting the requirements of the commissioner; (4) prepare and review annually a long range plan for the provision of health care services; and (5) establish and maintain a centralized, coordinated system of discharge planning which assures every patient a planned program of continuing care and which meets the requirements of the commissioner which requirements shall, where feasible, equal or exceed those standards and regulations established by the federal government for all federally-funded health care facilities but shall not require any person who is not in receipt of State or federal assistance to be discharged against his will.
b. (1) Application for a license for a health care service or health care facility shall be made upon forms prescribed by the department. The department shall charge a single, nonrefundable fee for the filing of an application for and issuance of a license and a single, nonrefundable fee for any renewal thereof, and a single, nonrefundable fee for a biennial inspection of the facility, as it shall from time to time fix in rules or regulations; provided, however, that no such licensing fee shall exceed $10,000 in the case of a hospital and $4,000 in the case of any other health care facility for all services provided by the hospital or other health care facility, and no such inspection fee shall exceed $5,000 in the case of a hospital and $2,000 in the case of any other health care facility for all services provided by the hospital or other health care facility. No inspection fee shall be charged for inspections other than biennial inspections. Any surgical practice required to apply for licensure by the department as an ambulatory care facility pursuant to P.L.2017, c.283 shall be exempt from the initial and renewal license fees required by this section. The application shall contain the name of the health care facility, the kind or kinds of health care service to be provided, the location and physical description of the institution, and such other information as the department may require.
(2) A license shall be issued by the department upon its findings that the premises, equipment, personnel, including principals and management, finances, rules and bylaws, and standards of health care service are fit and adequate and there is reasonable assurance the health care facility will be operated in the manner required by this act and rules and regulations thereunder.
(3) The department shall post on its Internet website each inspection report prepared following an inspection of a residential health care facility, as defined in section 1 of P.L.1953, c.212 (C.30:11A-1) or licensed pursuant to P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-1 et seq.), that is performed pursuant to this subsection, along with any other inspection report prepared by or on behalf of the department for such facility.
If an inspection reveals a serious health and safety violation at a residential health care facility, the department shall post the inspection report, including the name of the facility and the owner of the facility, on its website no later than 72 hours following the inspection. If a license of a residential health care facility is suspended, the department shall post the suspension on its website no later than 72 hours following the suspension. The department shall update its website to reflect the correction of a serious health and safety violation, and the lifting of a suspension.
The department shall notify, as soon as possible, the Commissioner of Human Services, or the commissioner's designee, and the director of the county board of social services or county welfare agency, as appropriate, in the county in which a residential health care facility is located, of a serious health and safety violation at the facility and of any suspension of a license to operate such facility.
If the inspection responsibilities under this subsection with respect to such facility are transferred or otherwise assigned to another department, that other department shall post on its Internet website each inspection report prepared following an inspection of such facility performed pursuant to this subsection, along with any other inspection report prepared by or on behalf of that department for such facility, and shall comply with the other requirements specified in this subsection.
c. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.1998, c.43)
d. The commissioner may amend a facility's license to reduce that facility's licensed bed capacity to reflect actual utilization at the facility if the commissioner determines that 10 or more licensed beds in the health care facility have not been used