New Jersey S 3128: Requires counties to make available voluntary medical identification cards containing relevant patient health information.

Bill Text

S3128 

SENATE, No. 3128 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

� 

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Senator NICHOLAS P. SCUTARI

District 22 (Somerset and Union)

SYNOPSIS

���� Requires county health departments to maintain 
reserve stock of opioid antidotes to dispense to certain entities on interim 
basis to ensure uninterrupted supply.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT 

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative 
Counsel.

�� 

An Act concerning overdose prevention and opioid 
antidote availability, and amending P.L.2013, c.46.

���� Be It 
Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of 
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� Section 3 of P.L.2013, 
c.46 (C.24:6J-3) is amended to read as follows:

���� 3.��� As used in this act:

���� "Commissioner" means 
the Commissioner of Human Services.

���� �County health department� 
means the agency that has been established and organized in each county, 
pursuant to section 6 of the �Local Health Services Act,� P.L.1975, c.329 
(C.26:3A2-6), for the purpose of providing health services that are required to 
protect the health of citizens within its area of jurisdiction.

���� "Drug overdose" 
means an acute condition including, but not limited to, physical illness, coma, 
mania, hysteria, or death resulting from the consumption or use of a controlled 
dangerous substance or another substance with which a controlled dangerous 
substance was combined and that a layperson would reasonably believe to require 
medical assistance. 

���� "Emergency medical 
response entity" means an organization, company, governmental entity, 
community-based program, or healthcare system that provides pre-hospital 
emergency medical services and assistance to opioid or heroin addicts or 
abusers in the event of an overdose.� "Emergency medical response 
entity" includes, but is not limited to, a first aid, rescue and ambulance 
squad or other basic life support (BLS) ambulance provider; a mobile intensive 
care provider or other advanced life support (ALS) ambulance provider; an air 
medical service provider; or a fire-fighting company or organization, which 
squad, provider, company, or organization is qualified to send paid or 
volunteer emergency medical responders to the scene of an emergency.

���� "Emergency medical 
responder" means a person, other than a health care practitioner, who is 
employed on a paid or volunteer basis in the area of emergency response, 
including, but not limited to, an emergency medical technician, a mobile intensive 
care paramedic, or a fire fighter, acting in that person's professional 
capacity.

���� �First responder� means a 
law enforcement officer, paid or volunteer firefighter, emergency medical 
responder, or any other individual who, in the course of that individual�s 
employment, is dispatched to the scene of an emergency for the purpose of providing 
medical care or other assistance.

���� �First response entity� 
means an organization, company, governmental entity, community-based agency or 
program, or other organized group that employs two or more first responders, 
whether on a paid or volunteer basis, for dispatch to emergency scenes.

���� "Health care 
practitioner" means a prescriber, pharmacist, or other individual whose 
professional practice is regulated pursuant to Title 45 of the Revised 
Statutes, and who, in accordance with the practitioner's scope of professional 
practice, prescribes or dispenses an opioid antidote.

���� "Medical assistance" 
means professional medical services that are provided to a person experiencing 
a drug overdose by a health care practitioner, acting within the practitioner's 
scope of professional practice, including professional medical services that 
are mobilized through telephone contact with the 911 telephone emergency 
service.

���� "Opioid antidote" 
means any drug, regardless of dosage amount or method of administration, which 
has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 
the treatment of an opioid overdose.� "Opioid antidote includes, but is 
not limited to, naloxone hydrochloride, in any dosage amount, which is 
administered through nasal spray or any other FDA-approved means or methods.

���� "Patient" means a 
person who is at risk of an opioid overdose or a person who is not at risk of 
an opioid overdose who, in the person's individual capacity, obtains an opioid 
antidote from a health care practitioner, professional, or professional entity 
for the purpose of administering that antidote to another person in an 
emergency, in accordance with subsection c. of section 4 of P.L.2013, c.46 
(C.24:6J-4).� "Patient" includes a professional who is acting in that 
professional's individual capacity, but does not include a professional who is 
acting in a professional capacity.

���� "Prescriber" means a 
health care practitioner authorized by law to prescribe medications who, acting 
within the practitioner's scope of