NJ Patient Care and Access Coalition

Thanks to the efforts of NJPCAC Board member Dr. Nadeem Baig, the Coalition was awarded a grant of $15,000 from the Digestive Health Physicians Association (DHPA) for the Coalition’s “ongoing advocacy efforts … to modernize New Jersey’s physician self-referral law.”

The DHPA created its State Health Policy Action Fund “to support legislative and regulatory efforts on the state level.” The DHPA was specifically interested in “the need to modernize state physician self-referral laws to promote access to care furnished in independent gastroenterology practices.”

Dr. Baig applied for the grant on behalf of the Coalition and cited our effort In 2017, to lobby for passage of legislation that made New Jersey one of the first two states in the country to modernize its self-referral law—known as the Codey Act. The Codey Act amendments were enacted into law in Summer 2017 and took effect in early 2018. NJPCAC continues to work with the Department of Health to promulgate regulations for the new law.

The amended Codey Act created a new exception from the self-referral prohibition for referrals made in furtherance of an Alternative Payment Model (APM) submitted to and approved by the DOH.