SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE, Nos. 992 and 1121

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: JUNE 20, 1996

 

      The Senate Health Committee reports favorably a Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Nos. 992 and 1121.

      This Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill Nos. 992 and 1121 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 their deficiencies in reporting of diagnosed cancer cases that are discovered on audit. The substitute provides that a facility will have 30 days to correct the deficiencies after they are discovered by an audit. A facility 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 that would apply 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 for any health care facility that fails to report cases of cancer electronically, by December 1, 1996. The substitute dedicates all monies recovered through these penalties to the State cancer registry.

      Finally, 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.

      This substitute is identical to the Assembly Committee Substitute for Assembly, No. 1760 (Holzapfel and Wolfe).