ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

ASSEMBLY, No. 6166

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JANUARY 5, 2026

      The Assembly Health Committee reports favorably an Assembly Committee Substitute for Assembly Bill No. 6166.

      The substitute bill requires health insurers (health, hospital and medical service corporations; commercial individual and group health insurers; health maintenance organizations; health benefits plans issued pursuant to the New Jersey Individual Health Coverage and Small Employer Health Benefits Programs; the State Health Benefits Program; and the School Employees’ Health Benefits Program) and the State Medicaid Program to provide coverage, without requiring any cost sharing, for expenses incurred in the provision of immunizations that have in effect a recommendation from the New Jersey Department of Health.  The substitute bill requires the department, in making its recommendations, to consider the recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the federal Department of Health and Human Services and, as appropriate, the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American College of Physicians.

      Current law requires health insurers to provide this coverage for immunizations that have in effect a recommendation from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

      The substitute bill revises certain references to Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in statutory and regulatory law.  Specifically, the bill replaces references to Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations concerning vaccinations and immunizations with references to the recommendations of the Department of Health.

      The substitute bill requires the head of each State agency to adopt such rules and regulations, as the head of the State agency may deem necessary, in order to replace any references to the immunization or vaccination recommendations or guidance of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in rule or regulation with references to the recommendations of, and guidance issued by the State Department of Health.