State of New Jersey
Executive Order #31

Acting Governor Richard J. Codey

WHEREAS, New Jersey is home to 1.4 million adults 60 years of age who deserve the right to independence, dignity and choice as they grow older; and

WHEREAS, the citizens of New Jersey are entitled to a long-term care system where they can make their own long-term care decisions; and

WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey must support a long-term care reform agenda to ensure a more equitable distribution of funding between home- and community-based services and institutionalization; and

WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey is currently in the second year of a three-year federally funded Aging and Disability Resource Connection initiative, which is being implemented on a pilot basis in Atlantic and Warren counties; and

WHEREAS, the State of New Jersey, through its Aging and Disability Resource Connection initiative, is implementing a clinical assessment tool and fast track eligibility process in a test environment in Atlantic and Warren counties; and

WHEREAS, the clinical assessment tool shall be linked to levels of care, which will then generate a service care plan as well as identify funds to support an individual's choice for long-term care services;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICHARD J. CODEY, Acting Governor of the State of New Jersey, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and by the Statutes of this State, do hereby ORDER and DIRECT:

  1. The Department of Health and Senior Services shall begin a process in State Fiscal Year 2006 to develop and implement a pilot global budget long-term care program. The new long-term care system for older adults shall have improved access and consumer-directed care across all settings and an array of home- and community-based services from which to choose.
  2. The Department of Health and Senior Services, in partnership with the Department of Human Services, shall develop a pilot fast track eligibility program with presumptive eligibility in Warren and Atlantic Counties.
  3. This Order shall take effect immediately.

GIVEN, under my hand and seal this 21st day
of April in the Year of Our Lord, Two Thousand
and Five, and of the Independence of the United
States, the Two Hundred and Twenty-Ninth.

/s/ Richard J. Codey
Acting Governor

[seal]

Attest:

/s/ Paul T. Fader

Chief Counsel to the Governor