Assembly committee releases bills to curb facility-linked financial control over long‑term care residents

The New Jersey General Assembly committee voted on May 7, 2025, to release A588 and A1888 with committee amendments, advancing measures that aim to limit conflicts of interest when long‑term care facilities or their affiliates acquire financial control over residents.

The bills would revise the statutory definition of a long‑term care facility and prohibit facility‑connected individuals from acting as a principal's attorney in fact in certain circumstances, while adding contract‑ and notice‑related provisions and an explicit carve‑out allowing family members to serve as an attorney in fact. "We support what this bill is trying to accomplish," John Endyke of the Health Care Association of New Jersey said in testimony.

Supporters told the committee the measures are consumer‑protection reforms to reduce financial exploitation of vulnerable residents. "I couldn't think of more common‑sense legislation," Dan Jercovic of the New Jersey chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys said, arguing facility owners or administrators should not act as fiduciaries for residents. John Lemiro of the New Jersey Association for Justice told the committee the bill would "deter abuse and defend those who cannot defend themselves."

Industry witnesses and some committee members urged narrower drafting. Endyke said the association represents more than 300 long‑term care and assisted‑living providers and asked that the bill be clarified to apply only to nursing facilities, not assisted living. Christine Stearns of the New Jersey Hospital Association and other speakers asked the committee to consider replacing a proposed single standardized admission contract with required standard contract terms, arguing that a one‑size‑fits‑all agreement could be impractical for assisted‑living settings. John Endyke said the notice requirement that a resident "has a right to an attorney" could also become an advertising burden at facility entrances.

Committee amendments recorded in testimony did two things the witnesses noted: they defined "family member" to include "spouse, domestic partner, partner in a civil union, child, parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, grandparent, or grandchild," and they revised the definition of "long‑term care facility" to include long‑term acute care hospitals and all beds in skilled nursing facilities licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health as long‑term care facilities. Several witnesses asked the committee to reconsider inclusion of certain hospital settings in that definition.

The committee recorded motions to amend and to release the bills. For A588 the committee moved and released the bill with committee amendments (motion by Assemblyman Stanley, second by Assemblywoman Peter Paul; recorded votes in the transcript show the listed members voting yes). For A1888 the committee also released the bill as amended (motion by Assemblyman Stanley, second by Assemblywoman Peter Paul); one member voiced a recorded no vote during the roll call on the amended release and several members voted yes. The Senate companion, S1962 (first reprint), was also released as identical to the amended Assembly version.

The record shows the committee intends to continue working with stakeholders on technical clarifications. Witnesses said they had already shared suggested edits with sponsors and Senate authors and expected follow‑up drafting. No final statutory text was enacted at the hearing; the committee votes released amended bills to the full legislature.

The committee hearing included multiple public commenters, trade associations, and elder‑law attorneys. The parties emphasized two recurring tensions: protecting residents from potential exploitation by providers and avoiding regulatory or contractual mandates that, they said, could be impractical for assisted‑living settings or for facilities that provide multiple levels of care.

Next steps: the released bills will move to the Assembly floor for further consideration and, if passed, would require any regulatory implementation to align with the definitions adopted in the final bills.