This bill aims to strengthen the prohibition against incarcerated individuals receiving benefits from Medicaid, Work First New Jersey, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It requires the Department of Human Services to implement information-sharing procedures with the Department of Corrections, the Administrative Office of the Courts, and local counties to ensure accurate and timely updates on the status of incarcerated individuals. The department will conduct monthly comparisons of this information with its enrollment data to promptly suspend benefits for those found to be ineligible due to incarceration.

Furthermore, the bill amends existing law by removing the authority of the Commissioner of Human Services to extend Medicaid eligibility to incarcerated individuals during their first month of incarceration and prohibits payments to Medicaid managed care organizations for services rendered to these individuals. It also eliminates the commissioner's ability to extend Work First New Jersey eligibility to incarcerated individuals through regulation. These amendments are in response to a report from the Office of the State Comptroller, which identified over $12.6 million in improper payments across these programs from 2009 to 2011.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 30:4D-6, 44:10-48