Senate Commerce Committee Statement to Senate, No. 684 — State of New Jersey (February 5, 2024)

Summary

The Senate Commerce Committee of the State of New Jersey, in a statement dated February 5, 2024, reports favorably Senate Bill No. 684. The bill requires a service provider doing business in the State to let a service recipient terminate a service contract without an early termination fee, generally on no less than 45 days' notice. If a physician's order requires immediate relocation to a long-term care facility, the notice requirement is waived and the contract could be terminated within 48 hours. The provider is to supply a standard termination form, and a representative may act with power of attorney, conservatorship or guardianship documents. Recipients must still return equipment and pay amounts owed for purchased equipment.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No.
684

STATE
OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: FEBRUARY
5, 2024

The Senate Commerce Committee reports favorably Senate
Bill No. 684.

The
bill requires a service provider doing business in this State to allow a
service recipient to terminate the service contract, as provided in the bill,
without incurring an early termination fee. Unless otherwise waived by the
service provider, the bill requires a service recipient to provide the service
provider with no less than 45 days’ notice prior to the contract termination or
cancellation. However, if a physician’s order requires immediate relocation to
a long-term care facility, this notice requirement would be waived, and the
contract could be terminated within 48 hours. The service provider is to
provide a standard termination form to the service recipient upon request,
which the service recipient and a physician are to utilize when requesting
contract termination or cancellation from the service provider. If a service
recipient is unable to submit the standard termination form and a
representative of the recipient is requesting contract termination or
cancellation, the representative is to submit to the service provider the
standard termination form and a copy of the power of attorney, conservatorship,
or guardianship documents verifying the representative’s authority.

The
bill also allows a service provider to require written proof of a service
recipient’s relocation to a long-term facility. In this event, the bill
provides that the delivery of a written notice to the service provider of the
contract termination and a letter signed by the service recipient’s physician,
no later than 45 days prior to the scheduled date of termination, would be
deemed to constitute sufficient proof.

The
bill further provides that nothing in the bill is to relieve a service
recipient of an obligation to return equipment to the service provider or to be
charged a lawful unreturned equipment charge, nor is a service recipient
relieved from any amounts owed for any equipment purchased by the service
recipient.

This bill was pre-filed for introduction in the
2024-2025 session pending technical review. As reported, the bill includes the
changes required by technical review, which has been performed.

File and source

File

2024-02-05_SCM_S684_S1.htm

Size

6,642 bytes

SHA-256

e3391944d295a197b20ecc6241aa341b805404ff1a77b6260ee4531c1188b29c

Our copy

2024-02-05_SCM_S684_S1.htm

Original

No public link identified.