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Bill

A 1884

Establishes act of disseminating misinformation as professional misconduct for health care professionals.

2024-2025 Regular Session Introduced by Shanique Speight and 1 co-sponsor

The bill makes it professional misconduct for health care professionals to disseminate misinformation or disinformation to patients, enabling disciplinary action.

Reported out of Assembly Committee with Amendments and Referred to Assembly Regulated Professions Committee
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Bill Summary · A 1884

Summary — A1884 (Reprint AHE 9/23/24 1R)

Establishes dissemination of health misinformation or disinformation by a licensed health care professional as professional misconduct subject to disciplinary action.

Main purpose

The bill makes it professional misconduct for a health care professional to convey false health information (misinformation) or to deliberately convey false information with intent to mislead (disinformation) to a patient, and authorizes disciplinary action under New Jersey’s existing professional licensing statutes.

Key provisions

  • Classifies a health care professional’s dissemination of misinformation or disinformation as professional misconduct in violation of subsection e. of section 8 of P.L.1978, c.73 (C.45:1-21). Discipline is to proceed under P.L.1978, c.73 (C.45:1-14 et seq.).
  • Requires each applicable licensing board to adopt rules/regulations that:
    1. specify general causes that constitute grounds for misconduct under this section; and
    2. identify appropriate disciplinary actions based on the extent of the dissemination.
  • Definitions (as amended by committee):
    • “Disseminate” — conveyance of information, in the form of treatment or advice, by a health care professional to a patient under that professional’s care.
    • “Misinformation” — any health‑related claim of fact that is false. (Committee amendment removed the original qualifying language requiring contradiction of contemporary scientific consensus and the standard of care.)
    • “Disinformation” — misinformation deliberately disseminated with malicious intent or intent to mislead.
    • “Health care professional” — any individual licensed or certified to practice health care under Title 45 of the Revised Statutes.
  • Effective date: immediately upon enactment.

Who is affected

  • All individuals licensed or certified as health care professionals under Title 45 in New Jersey (e.g., physicians, nurses, allied health practitioners).
  • State professional and occupational licensing boards, which must promulgate implementing rules and determine discipline.

Procedural / timeline status

  • Introduced and referred to committee (document shows introduction and initial referral in early 2024).
  • Reported favorably with committee amendments by the Assembly Health Committee on September 23, 2024 (Reprint AHE 9/23/24 1R).
  • Subsequently referred to the Assembly Regulated Professions Committee; legislative records show further referral activity as of January 14, 2025.
  • Companion: S3700. Prior-session related bills: S9579 and A9300.

Potential implications (practical effects)

  • Empowers licensing boards to discipline practitioners for providing false health statements to patients, with specific penalties to be set by each board.
  • Board rulemaking will determine how “false” claims are identified and what sanctions apply, making implementation dependent on subsequent regulatory definitions and processes.

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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