Bill
S 3750
DHS can levy civil penalties on authorized and licensed providers for licensing violations and care failures, creating a fund to support quality-improvement efforts.
Status: Introduced Oct 7, 2024; reported favorably with committee amendments by the Senate Health, Human Services & Senior Citizens Committee (5/19/2025); referred to Senate Budget & Appropriations. Current status shown as “REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE.”
Purpose
- Strengthen enforcement and accountability for providers that serve adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD).
- Create a dedicated fund — the Residential Facility Quality of Care Improvement Fund — to collect fines and finance quality-improvement and regulatory activities.
Key definitions
- “Authorized provider”: provider authorized by the Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) through contracts or fee-for-service.
- “Licensed provider”: provider licensed by the Department of Human Services (DHS) to operate community-based residential programs.
- “Administrative neglect”: the failure of an authorized or licensed provider to protect the health, safety, or well‑being of an individual with developmental disabilities (includes failures in oversight, monitoring, staff training, etc.).
- “Moderate” and “major” injury: defined by treatment needs (major = hospital-required).
Major provisions and changes
- New authority for DHS to assess and collect civil penalties against authorized and licensed providers for violations of licensing rules (N.J.A.C.10:44A-1.1 et seq.), the bill, or implementing regulations.
- Specific penalty structure (as amended):
- Unlicensed operation of a residential setting (or operating a day habilitation program without certification): written warning for first offense; up to $10,000 for second and subsequent offenses; DDD may suspend payments for services in unlicensed settings.
- Licensed provider granted a second consecutive provisional license for the same location: penalty up to $10,000.
- Employing (or failing to remove) an individual on the Central Registry of Offenders Against Individuals with Developmental Disabilities or child abuse registry: up to $10,000.
- Failure to complete required criminal background checks or drug-testing requirements: corrective action / admission prohibition on repeat offenses; up to $10,000 per missed background check or for subsequent drug-testing violations.
- Substantiated findings by the DHS Office of Investigations for severe incidents (administrative neglect resulting in moderate/major injury, abuse, neglect with moderate/major injury, or exploitation): up to $25,000 per offense.
- Failure to conduct internal investigations or to submit complete investigation reports within 180 days: up to $10,000 per investigation. The bill sets minimum content requirements for such reports (impartial investigator, interviews, evidence summary, findings and justifications, guardian notifications, documentation of completion).
- Failure to submit a plan of correction that addresses all cited violations/concerns after an Office of Investigations case: up to $10,000.
- Providers demonstrating chronic noncompliance across time and sites may be assigned a Quality Management Team and may be fined up to $5,000 every three months until improvement is demonstrated (amendment limits continued fines until metrics/action show improvement).
- DHS must consider provider history/pattern of violations, cooperation with investigations and corrective plans, and steps taken to prevent recurrence when determining penalty amounts.
- Amend P.L.2010, c.5 to allow DHS to impose civil penalties for certain reporting violations (rather than only penalizing after criminal conviction).
- Establish a nonlapsing Residential Facility Quality of Care Improvement Fund in DHS to receive specified fines; fund to support quality improvement, licensing, administrative and regulatory actions.
Who is affected
- Authorized providers (DDD-contracted or fee-for-service agencies).
- Licensed residential providers for individuals with I/DD.
- Any person, firm, corporation, or association operating residential settings without required licenses, and operators of uncertified day habilitation programs.
- DHS (licensing, Office of Program Integrity & Accountability, Office of Investigations) and DDD (payment/authorization functions).
Procedural / other notes
- Providers retain appeal rights for penalties or termination actions.
- The bill supplements existing DHS licensing powers; it does not supplant negative licensing actions already permitted under regulation.
- Committee amendments refined definitions (e.g., “administrative neglect”), added investigatory/reporting minimums, narrowed some penalty triggers, and expanded applicability to uncertified day habilitation programs.
- Companion/related legislation noted (A-5634, A-7283, prior-session S bills). Sponsors include Senators Vitale and Cleare (primary) with additional cosponsors.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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