ASSEMBLY, No. 501

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 1996 SESSION

By Assemblyman ROBERTS

An Act concerning certificate of need application fees and amending and supplementing P.L.1971, c.136.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. Section 10 of P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-10) is amended to read as follows:

    10. a. Application for a certificate of need shall be made to the department, and shall be in such form and contain such information as the department may prescribe. The department shall charge a nonreturnable fee for the filing of an application for a certificate of need according to the following schedule, except as provided in subsection b. of this section. The minimum fee for the filing of an application shall be $5,000. For a project whose total cost is greater than $1 million but less than $10 million, the fee shall be $5,000 plus .05% of the total project cost, and for a project whose total cost is $10 million or more, the fee shall be $5,000 plus 1.0% of the total project cost, except that, the maximum fee for the filing of an application shall be $100,000. Upon receipt of an application, copies thereof shall be referred by the department to the appropriate local advisory board and the State Health Planning Board for review.

    These appropriate boards shall provide adequate mechanisms for full consideration of each application submitted to them and for developing recommendations thereon. Such recommendations, whether favorable or unfavorable, shall be forwarded to the commissioner within 90 days of the date of referral of the application. A copy of the recommendations made shall be forwarded to the applicant.

    Recommendations concerning certificates of need shall be governed and based upon the principles and considerations set forth in section 8 of P.L.1971, c.136 (C.26:2H-8).

    No member, officer or employee of any planning body shall be subject to civil action in any court as the result of any act done or failure to act, or of any statement made or opinion given, while discharging his duties under this act as such member, officer, or employee, provided he acted in good faith with reasonable care and upon proper cause.

    b. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection a. of this section to the contrary, in the case of a certificate of need application by a health care facility or service which qualifies for an expedited review process as provided by regulation of the department, the department shall charge a nonreturnable application filing fee as follows. The minimum fee for the filing of an application shall be $1,250. For a project whose total cost is greater than $1 million, the fee shall be $1,250 plus .0125% of the total project cost, and for a project whose total cost is $10 million or more, the fee shall be $1,250 plus .25% of the total project cost, except that, the maximum fee for the filing of an application shall be $25,000.

(cf: P.L.1991, c.187, s.36)

    2. (New section) A health care service licensed by the Department of Health as an assisted living residence or a comprehensive personal care home shall qualify for the expedited certificate of need application review process established by regulation of the department.

    3. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill reduces from the current $5,000 minimum to $1,250 the minimum certificate of need application fee for certificate of need (CN) applications which have been designated by the Department of Health as subject to an expedited review process. The bill provides for a similar percentage reduction in the fee for these CN applications for projects which have a total cost exceeding $1 million, as well as in the maximum CN application fee that may be charged. The bill also stipulates that health care services licensed by the department as assisted living residences and comprehensive personal care homes shall qualify for the expedited CN application review process.

    This bill is intended to facilitate the development and availability of this level of long-term care in an environment which is less restrictive and costly than nursing home care. These two types of services are designed to provide a homelike setting and permit their recipients to enjoy greater independence and dignity than they would have in an institutional setting.

Reduces certificate of need application fee for applications which qualify for expedited review.