ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
[First Reprint]
ASSEMBLY, No. 588
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: NOVEMBER 24, 2025
As amended by the committee, this bill codifies current Department of Health regulations concerning the provision of pharmaceutical services in long-term care facilities, and establishes an additional requirement to aid in preventing certain conflicts of interest.
Under the bill and current regulations, each long-term care facility is to have a consultant pharmacist and either a provider pharmacist or, if the facility has an in-house pharmacy, a director of pharmaceutical services. A New Jersey licensed pharmacist is to serve as director of pharmaceutical services or as consultant pharmacist. The pharmacist is required to comply with federal and State statutes, rules, regulations, and currently accepted standards of practice.
The bill and current regulations provide that each long-term care facility is to have an interdisciplinary pharmacy and therapeutics committee, appointed by and reporting to the administrator of the facility and consisting of at least the administrator, a representative of the nursing staff, and the facility’s consultant pharmacist, with oversight as needed by the facility’s medical director. The committee may include a licensed pharmacist representing the provider pharmacy. The committee is to hold meetings at least quarterly. Records, including the dates of meetings, attendance, activities, findings, and recommendations, are to be maintained by the committee.
Under the bill and current regulations, the long-term care facility is to appoint a consultant pharmacist who is not also the director of pharmaceutical services or pharmacist provider. The bill establishes an additional requirement for consultant pharmacists to attest that the consultant pharmacist does not have an affiliation with either the facility’s director of pharmaceutical services or the facility’s pharmacist provider. The bill specifies that, following the appointment of the consultant pharmacist, the consultant pharmacist is to avoid all real or potential conflicts of interest with the facility’s director of pharmaceutical services or the facility’s pharmacist provider.
As amended and reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No.588 (1R) is identical to Senate Bill No.1965 (1R), which was also reported by the committee on this date
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amendments revise the title to correspond to bill’s definition of “long-term care facility.”