BUSINESSNew Jersey requires health plans to cover annual physicalsThe state's doctors are now able to offer wellness exams knowing that health plans will cover them.By Julie A. Jacob, amednews staff. Feb. 19, 2001. A New Jersey state law that recently went into effect requires commercial health plans to include comprehensive annual wellness physicals and disease screenings as part of their basic coverage. The New Jersey Health Wellness Promotion Act was signed into law in April 2000, but the New Jersey Dept. of Banking and Insurance had to develop regulations for implementation before it went into effect. Those regulations were issued in November 2000, which means that state health plans must now begin complying with the law. Although dozens of states have laws mandating all sorts of benefits for health plan members -- minimum hospital stays, various disease screenings, physical exams for children and so on -- the comprehensiveness of New Jersey's law "goes a couple of steps further in terms of specificity than other state laws," said Richard Cauchi, a senior policy analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It is fair to describe it as a first in some sense. "It appears to be the only state requiring annual, free physicals for adults," added Cauchi. The law requires that commercial health plans provide the following as part of their standard coverage:
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Copyright 2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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