ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
ASSEMBLY, No. 1760
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JUNE 3, 1996
The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably an Assembly Committee Substitute for Assembly Bill No.1760.
This Assembly Committee Substitute for Assembly Bill No.1760 strengthens the reporting requirements of the State cancer registry to allow for more complete and precise statistical data. The substitute requires that all abstracting work performed by a health care facility be performed by a certified tumor registrar to provide for greater accuracy and consistency. The substitute allows the Department of Health (DOH) to contract out its registry services to those health care facilities which lack the capability to comply with the reporting requirements on a timely basis. The DOH will also conduct registry services at facilities which fail to correct deficiencies discovered on audit. These facilities will reimburse the DOH for all costs related to the services rendered. In addition, the substitute requires health insurers and all third party health care payers to report cancer cases pursuant to rules established by the DOH.
The substitute establishes a penalty of up to $500 per unreported cancer case to any health care facility, provider or insurer that fails to comply with the State cancer registry's reporting requirements and a penalty of up to $1,000 per day to any health care facility that fails to report electronically by December 1, 1996. The substitute dedicates all monies recovered through these penalties to the State cancer registry.
The substitute appropriates $400,000 to the DOH to improve the reporting and analysis capabilities of the State cancer registry, including cancer incidence and epidemiological research associated with the Toms River, New Jersey, childhood cancer investigation.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The bill appropriates $400,000 from the State General Fund to the Department of Health to improve the reporting and analysis capabilities of the State cancer registry.