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October 10, 2022 On Wednesday, a Federal Appeals Court in New Orleans ruled against Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a policy enacted under President Obama that protected undocumented people brought to the U.S. at a ...

October 6, 2022 Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.7780, the Mental Health Matters Act. The legislation would require certain federal actions to increase mental and behavioral health care. Among other provisions, the bill would create various grants to increase th...

October 4, 2022 Governor Phil Murphy recently signed a proclamation declaring this week, October 2 through October 8, 2022, as Mental Illness Awareness Week in New Jersey. The proclamation highlighted a number of challenges relating to mental illness that New Jersey is facing, as we...

October 3, 2022 The House pass the Mental Health Matters Act (H.R.7780), which would hold employer-based health plans more accountable for improper denials of mental health and substance use benefits. The legislation also "would give the Department of Labor to enforce plan requirement...

September 29, 2022 The Biden-Harris Administration, through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced last week that more than $1.6 ...

September 27, 2022 On September 26, 2022, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), announced it is making additional data publicly available that will provide more information about the ownership of all Medic...

September 26, 2022 Earlier this week, the New Jersey Departments of Health and Environmental Protection have released the first supplement to the 2020 New Jersey Scientific Report on Climate Change, which presented the latest and most reliable scientific information on the current and...

September 22, 2022 In February of 2019, Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation to raise the minimum wage in New Jersey from $8.85 to $10 an hour later that year. The same legislation put New Jersey on the path to have a $15 minimum wage by 2024. On January 1, 2020, the minimum wage...

September 20, 2022 The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General has issued a Notice of Availability of Funds for Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2021 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Site-based Program (COSSAP) Category 2: Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) Sites...

September 15, 2022 On September 7, 2022, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor ruled in favor of a group claiming that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, requirements to cover HIV prevention drugs violate their religious freedoms. In his ruling, District Judge O'Conno...

September 13, 2022 On Friday, September 9, 2022, the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC) issued temporary guidance for identifying and taking action against workplace impairment, specifically from cannabis. As stated in the guidance, the NJ-CRC "is charged with pres...

September 12, 2022 The Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) has announced changes to the Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Fee for Service (FFS) Initiatives Contract Enhancement Package (Vivitrol) to include Buprenor...

September 8, 2022 On September 7, 2022, a multi-state settlement agreement was reached between e-cigarette manufacturer JUUL and 34 states and territories within the U.S. The initial lawsuit filed against JUUL was led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. The suit alleged that...

September 7, 2022 As the school year is beginning around the State of New Jersey, most districts in the state have dropped their mask requirements for students and teachers, and have relaxed their COVID-19 guidelines, including those regarding testing. Nearly all school districts ha...

September 6, 2022 On Wednesday, August 31, 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration proposed a new rule to overhaul the enrollment processes for Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Basic Health Programs (BHPs), and eliminate arbitrary coverage caps for children ...

September 1, 2022 Staffing shortages are affecting many facets of life for New Jerseyans and Americans across the country. One of the latest impacts comes regarding childcare in the state. As stated in a report from Advocates for Children in New Jersey, a staffing shortage in chi...

August 29, 2022 In anticipation of the public health emergency ending, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is helping state governments, other partner organizations and current Medicaid/Children's Health Insurance ...

August 25, 2022 On Monday, Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced that New Jersey, along with a coalition of state attorneys general, have reached an agreement in principle with opioid maker Endo International PLC for its role in the opioid crisis. The agreement would pr...

August 23, 2022 As reported in the National Council of Nonprofits' newsletter, nonprofit employees have a little over two months to take advantage of the temporary Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver. The PSLF program forgives the balance of most federal student loans af...

August 22, 2022 The National Council for Wellbeing passed along the following important updates shared yesterday by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the Certified Community Behavioral Health ...