N.J. Admin. Code § 8:85-2.1 : HEALTH — LONG-TERM CARE SERVICES — NURSING FACILITY SERVICES —2.1 - Nursing facility services; eligibility

(a) Eligibility for nursing facility (NF) services will be determined by the professional staff designated by the Department, based on a comprehensive needs assessment that demonstrates that the beneficiary requires, at a minimum, the basic NF services described in 8:85-2.2.
1. Individuals requiring NF services may have unstable medical, emotional/behavioral and psychosocial conditions that require ongoing nursing assessment, intervention and/or referrals to other disciplines for evaluation and appropriate treatment. Typically, adult NF residents have severely impaired cognitive and related problems with memory deficits and problem solving. These deficits severely compromise personal safety and, therefore, require a structured therapeutic environment. NF residents are dependent in several activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, toilet use, transfer, locomotion, bed mobility, and eating).
i. Children requiring NF services exhibit functional limitations identified either in terms of developmental delay requiring nursing care over and above routine parenting or are limited in terms of specific age-appropriate physical and cognitive activities, functional abilities (ADL) or abnormal behavior, as demonstrated by performance at home, school or recreational activities.
(1) Children who have achieved developmental milestones within appropriate time frames and who require only well child care and/or treatment of acute, time limited illnesses or injuries shall not be eligible for NF services.
2. NF residents shall be those individuals who require services which address the medical, nursing, dietary and psychosocial needs that are essential to obtaining and maintaining the highest physical, mental, emotional and functional status of the individual. Care and treatment shall be directed toward development, restoration, maintenance, or the prevention of deterioration. Care shall be delivered in a therapeutic health care environment with the goal of improving or maintaining overall function and health status. The therapeutic environment shall ensure that the individual does not decline (within the confines of the individual's right to refuse treatment) unless the individual's clinical condition demonstrates that deterioration was unavoidable.
(b) All Medicaid participating NFs shall provide or arrange for services in accordance with statutory and regulatory requirements under 42 CFR 483 and Department of Health and Senior Services licensing rules at N.J.A.C. 8:39. Reimbursement of NF services is discussed in N.J.A.C. 8:85-3.
(c) NF services shall be delivered within an interdisciplinary team approach. The interdisciplinary team shall consist of a physician and a registered professional nurse and may also include other health professionals as determined by the individual's health care needs. The interdisciplinary team performs comprehensive assessments and develops the interdisciplinary care plan.

N.J. Admin. Code § 8:85-2.1

Recodified from N.J.A.C. 10:63-2.1 and amended by R.2005 d.389, effective 1/17/2006.
See: 36 N.J.R. 4700(a), 37 N.J.R. 1185(a), 38 N.J.R. 674(a).
In introductory paragraph (a), substituted "professional staff designated by the Department", substituted "beneficiary" for "recipient" and changed reference to "N.J.A.C. 8:85-2.2"; in (a)1, added "(bathing, dressing, toilet use, transfer, locomotion, bed mobility, and eating)"; in (b), added "and Senior Services" and changed reference to "N.J.A.C. 8:85-3".
Amended by R.2007 d.391, effective 12/17/2007.
See: 38 N.J.R. 4795(a), 39 N.J.R. 5338(a).
In the introductory paragraphs of (a) and (a)1, substituted "that" for "which"; and in the introductory paragraph of (a)1, deleted the last two sentences.