ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 5595

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 12, 2025

      The Assembly Health Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Assembly Bill No. 5595.

As amended, this bill permits individuals to establish voluntary nonopioid directives.

     Under the bill, an individual who is 18 years of age or older, an emancipated minor, or a patient’s authorized representative, as this term is defined in the bill, may execute a voluntary nonopioid directive stating that an opioid may not be administered or prescribed to the individual. 

     A voluntary nonopioid directive is to be made on a form that is to be developed by the Department of Health and published on the department’s Internet website.  Nothing in the bill is to prevent an opioid from being administered or prescribed to a patient if deemed medically necessary. 

     A health care professional, a health care facility, or an employee of a health care professional or health care facility is to be immune from disciplinary action by the Department of Health or a licensing agency or board for any act that was done to comply with the bill’s provisions.  Further, a health care professional, a health care facility, or an employee of a health care professional or health care facility is to be immune from any civil or criminal liability for failure to administer, prescribe, or dispense an opioid, and for the intentional or inadvertent administration of an opioid, to an individual who has a voluntary nonopioid directive, if the act or the failure was reasonable and done in good faith.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments provide that nothing in the bill is to prevent an opioid from being administered to a patient if deemed medically necessary.  The committee amendments establish immunity for the intentional administration of an opioid if the act was reasonable and done in good faith.