Bill Text: NJ A4446 | 2020-2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires certain provisions in State contracts for delivery of publicly financed mental health, behavioral health, and addiction services.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-10-29 - Substituted by S2708 [A4446 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2020-A4446-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman DANIEL R. BENSON
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
SYNOPSIS
Requires certain provisions in State contracts for delivery of publicly financed mental health, behavioral health, and addiction services.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning State contracts for social services and supplementing Title 30 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The Legislature hereby finds and declares that:
a. Publicly financed mental health, behavioral health, and addiction services are critical to the health, safety, and well-being of the people of New Jersey, and comprise an integral and essential component of the State's health and safety network in which the taxpayers invest significant resources and public funds.
b. The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic devastation resulting from its outbreak has, and will continue to cause, increased demand for the public provision of these services. Periods of economic shock, insecurity, social isolation, and pandemics increase demand for and reliance on these State-funded essential services.
c. The Legislature intends to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of essential mental health, behavioral health, and addiction services to its most vulnerable citizens and to ensure such services are delivered efficiently. The State has a proprietary interest in ensuring efficiency and quality in the delivery of these services through licensed community-based organizations and providers, with which the State contracts through the Department of Human Services and the Department of Children and Families. The State's proprietary interest in these services includes ensuring their uninterrupted delivery by contracted providers licensed by the State.
d. The COVID-19 pandemic forces recognition of the significant health and safety risks undertaken by the individuals who provide these essential health services to the public on behalf of the State. The State has a responsibility to ensure the workers delivering the services are provided adequate equipment, resources, and protections to ensure their safety, the safety of the recipients of these services, and the safety of the surrounding community. The providers contracted by the State to provide these services must ensure, as a condition of contracting with the State, ready access to rapid testing for the presence of COVID-19, adoption and adherence to policies for the prevention of infection by COVID-19 by workers and recipients, and the provision of adequate personal protective equipment.
e. In administering its
mental health, behavioral health, and addiction services public health program,
it is in the State's interest to ensure the individuals who are employed to
deliver the services are entitled to raise concerns, issues, and problems, and
have full exercise of their liberty of speech and conscience without fear of
reprisal or retaliation.
f. The aforementioned interests are best accomplished by requiring all contracts renewed or entered into after the effective date of this act between providers and the State, acting through the Department of Human Services and Department of Children and Families, and divisions thereof, for the provision and delivery of behavioral health, mental health, and addiction services to contain, as a material condition of its contract, terms requiring:
(1) adoption and adherence to a policy sufficient to ensure service providers, service recipients, and the surrounding community are protected from infection and the spread of COVID-19; and
(2) certification of a commitment to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of services caused by labor-management disputes, and the recovery of costs to the taxpayers caused by any such interruptions.
2. a. Any contract entered into or renewed by the Department of Human Services or the Department of Children and Families with a private contractor for the provision of mental health, behavioral health, or addiction services shall contain a commitment that the contracted services shall not be disrupted or delayed by labor disputes. The commitment shall provide for the execution of an agreement between the contractor and any labor organization that represents or seeks to represent the employees of the private contractor that meets the requirements set forth herein with respect to employees delivering the essential services contracted by the departments.
b. The commitment required pursuant to this section shall be a condition of contracting with the departments and may be satisfied through one or more of the following contractual commitments made on the part of the contractor through the term of the contract as a condition of receiving or renewing the contract:
(1) An agreement between the contractor and any exclusive representative labor organization representing the employees performing the contracted services that contains a provision prohibiting economic or industrial action on the part of all parties and includes a process for the resolution of disputes between them.
(2) An agreement between the contractor and any labor organization seeking to represent the employees performing the contracted services that includes a provision prohibiting the parties from causing, promoting, or encouraging economic, industrial, or other disruptive activity on the part of the contractor or employees performing services under the contract, and includes a procedure for resolution of disputes between parties.
(3) Any other agreement or binding obligation to be maintained through the term of the contract that provides a comparable commitment as paragraphs (1) or (2) of this subsection.
c. The contractual commitments required under this section shall be made a binding provision of any contract subject to this section. Any contract subject to this section that is awarded or renewed shall include a provision providing for reimbursement to the department of the actual costs to the department arising from the inadequacy of the commitment provided by the contractor.
d. Prior to awarding or renewing any contract subject to this section, the departments shall determine whether there has been any prior disruption in the provision of the services provided by the contractor.
The commissioners shall consider any submissions by any interested party in making the determination, that shall be provided to the contractor for response. If a dispute exists with respect to either condition, the commissioners shall refer the matter to the State Treasurer to conduct a hearing and make findings of fact which shall be considered by the commissioners in making any award or renewal.
e. Any interested person may provide notice to the commissioner of the pertinent department of a refusal by a contractor to adhere to its contractual commitments required by this act. Upon filing of such a notice, the commissioner shall commence an investigation and, upon finding of a failure or breach, shall cancel or decline to renew the contract. Such findings shall be reviewable, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.). The pertinent contract shall not be awarded or renewed until the conclusion of such proceedings, but may be maintained on a month-to-month basis. The provisions of this subsection shall be limited solely to the issue of adherence to the contractual commitment made by the contractor and accepted by the departments as a condition of the contract, and is neither exclusive nor preclusive as to any claim under the "Conscientious Employee Protection Act," P.L.1986, c.105 (C.34:19-1 et seq.), or the "New Jersey False Claims Act," P.L.2007, c.265 (C.2A:32C-1 et seq.).
f. As used in this section, "labor organization" means a labor organization that is the collective bargaining representative of not less than 1,000 employees in the State of New Jersey that serve in similar classifications or provide similar services as those provided by the employees performing the contract for the Department of Human Services or the Department of Children and Families.
3. a. A contract entered into or renewed after the effective date of this act for the services described in subsection a. of section 2 of this act shall contain a COVID-19 containment and mitigation commitment that adequately ensures the safety of the contractors' employees, service recipients, and surrounding community. The commissioners of the departments shall jointly adopt a model written commitment to which contractors shall ascribe to provide for regular COVID-19 testing, training, reporting, and the provision of adequate personal protective equipment.
b. Prior to awarding or renewing any contract subject to this section, the departments shall determine:
(1) whether there has been any prior disruption in the provision of the services provided by the contractor; and
(2) any prior failures to contain, limit, or mitigate the spread of COVID-19 among the contractor's employees or service recipients.
The commissioners shall consider any submissions by any interested party in making the determination, that shall be provided to the contractor for response. If a dispute exists with respect to either condition, the commissioners shall refer the matter to the State Treasurer to conduct a hearing and make findings of fact which shall be considered by the commissioners in making any award or renewal.
4. This act shall take effect on the 91st day following enactment and section 3 of this act shall expire on the 366th day following the end of the public health emergency and state of emergency declared by the Governor in Executive Order No. 103 of 2020.
STATEMENT
This bill ensures and improves the delivery of publicly financed mental and behavioral health and addiction services to the people of New Jersey. The bill does this by mitigating the possibility of interruption of service delivery and protecting service providers, service recipients, and the surrounding community from the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Publicly financed mental health, behavioral health, and addiction services are critical to the health, safety, and well-being of the people of New Jersey, and comprise an integral and essential component of the State's health and safety network in which the taxpayers invest significant resources and public funds. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislature intends to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of essential mental health, behavioral health, and addiction services to its most vulnerable citizens, and to ensure such services are delivered efficiently.
This bill requires that any
contract entered into or renewed by the Department of Human Services or the Department
of Children and Families with a private contractor for the provision of mental
health, behavioral health, or addiction services will contain a commitment that
the contracted services will not be disrupted or delayed by labor disputes.
The commitment may be satisfied by: (1) an agreement between the contractor and
any exclusive representative labor organization representing the employees
performing the contracted services that contains a provision prohibiting
economic or industrial action on the part of all parties and includes a process
for the resolution of disputes between them; (2) an agreement between the
contractor and any labor organization seeking to represent the
employees performing the contracted services that includes a provision prohibiting the parties from causing, promoting, or encouraging economic, industrial, or other disruptive activity on the part of the contractor or employees performing services under the contract, and includes a procedure for resolution of disputes between parties; or (3) any other agreement or binding obligation to be maintained through the term of the contract that provides a comparable commitment as paragraphs (1) or (2). The bill provides the departments the opportunity to discover prior disruptions in service from contractors and a means to address any disputes through the State Treasurer.
The bill also adds a temporary section requiring State contracts to contain a COVID-19 containment and mitigation commitment. The section allows for additional protections concerning COVID-19 in such contracts or a review of past failures to implement appropriate COVID-19 safety guidelines.
The bill would take effect on the 91st day following enactment and the section concerning contracts requiring a COVID-19 containment and mitigation commitment would expire one year following the end of the public health emergency and state of emergency declared by the Governor.
