SENATE HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES AND SENIOR CITIZENS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 5595

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  NOVEMBER 13, 2025

      The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 5595 (1R).

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.

     As reported by the committee, Assembly Bill No. 5595(1R) is identical to Senate Bill No. 4437, which was reported and amended by the committee on this date.