reglab/housing_qa huggingface dataset:
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-2 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-2 - Definitions relative to maternal mortality and morbidity.

26:6C-2 Definitions relative to maternal mortality and morbidity.  2. As used in this act: "Committee" means the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, established pursuant to section 4 of this act, which is responsible for annually reviewing and reporting on maternal death rates and the causes of maternal death in the State, and which is further responsible for providing recommendations to improve maternal care and reduce adverse maternal outcomes. "Department" means the Department of Health.  "Maternal death" means a pregnancy-associated death. "Maternal Mortality Case Review Team" means the interdisciplinary team of experts that is operating in the Department of Health as of the effective date of this act, and which is being replaced by the committee established pursuant to this act. "NJMCQC" means the New Jersey Maternal Care Quality Collaborative, established pursuant to section 3 of P.L.2019, c.75 (C.26:6C-3). "Pregnancy-associated death" means the death of a woman, which occurs while the woman is pregnant, or during the one-year period following the date of the end of the pregnancy, irrespective of the cause of death. "Pregnancy-related death" means the death of a woman, which occurs while the woman is pregnant, or during the one-year period following the date of the end of the pregnancy, regardless of the duration of the pregnancy, and which results from any cause related to, or aggravated by, the pregnancy or its management, but excluding any accidental or incidental cause. "Report of maternal death" means a report of a suspected maternal death, which is filed with the department, pursuant to the processes established under subsection a. of section 7 of this act, and which is to be forwarded to the committee for the purposes of investigation, as provided by subsection b. of that section. "Severe maternal morbidity" means the physical and psychological conditions that result from, or are aggravated by, pregnancy, and which have an adverse effect on the health of a woman.  "State registrar" means the State registrar of vital statistics, who is responsible for supervising the registration of, and maintaining, death records in the State, in accordance with the provisions of R.S.26:8-1 et seq.  L.2019, c.75, s.2.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-5 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-5 - Committee; organization, meetings, support staff.

26:6C-5 Committee; organization, meetings, support staff.  5. a. The committee shall organize as soon as practicable following the appointment of a majority of its members, and shall annually elect a chairperson and vice-chairperson from among its members. The chairperson may appoint a secretary, who need not be a member of the committee.  b. The committee shall meet pursuant to a schedule to be established at its first meeting, and it shall additionally meet at the call of its chairperson or the Commissioner of Health; however, in no case shall the committee meet less than four times a year.  c. A majority of the total number of members appointed to the committee shall constitute a quorum for the conducting of official committee business. A vacancy in the membership of the committee shall not impair the right of the committee to exercise its powers and duties, provided that a majority of the currently appointed members are available to conduct business. Any recommendations of the committee shall be approved by a majority of the members present. d. The members of the committee shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for travel and other necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of their official duties, within the limits of funds appropriated or otherwise made available for such purposes.  e. The Department of Health shall employ, at a minimum, the following support staff for the committee: a program manager, a clinical nurse case abstractor; two maternal child health epidemiologists, a case abstraction manager, and any other staff the Commissioner of Health shall deem necessary. The Department of Health shall also provide such administrative staff support to the committee as shall be necessary for the committee to carry out its duties. L.2019, c.75, s.5.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-7 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-7 - Duties of committee upon organization relative to reporting, recordkeeping of maternal deaths.

26:6C-7 Duties of committee upon organization relative to reporting, recordkeeping of maternal deaths.  7. a. Within 90 days after the committee's organizational meeting, the committee shall:  (1) develop a mandatory maternal death reporting process, pursuant to which health care practitioners, medical examiners, hospitals, birthing centers, and other relevant professional actors and health care facilities will be required to confidentially report to the Department of Health on individual cases of maternal death. In developing a mandatory maternal death reporting process pursuant to this paragraph, the committee may, as deemed to be appropriate, review and incorporate elements of the maternal death reporting process that is used by the Maternal Mortality Case Review Team as of the effective date of this act; and (2) develop a voluntary maternal death reporting process, pursuant to which the family members of a deceased woman, and any other interested members of the public, will be permitted, but not required, to confidentially report to the Department of Health on individual cases of perceived maternal death. At a minimum, the process developed pursuant to this paragraph shall require the department to: (a) post on its Internet website a hyperlink, a toll-free telephone number, and an email address, which may each be used for the voluntary submission of public reports of maternal death; and (b) publicize the availability of these resources to professional organizations, community organizations, social service agencies, and members of the public. b. The department shall keep a record of all reports of maternal death that are submitted thereto through the reporting processes that are established by the committee pursuant to paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection a. of this section. The department shall also ensure that a copy of each such report of maternal death is promptly forwarded to the committee, so that the committee may properly execute its investigatory functions and other duties and responsibilities under this act.  L.2019, c.75, s.7.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-9 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-9 - Reports.

26:6C-9 Reports.  9. a. Within one year after its organization, and annually thereafter, the committee shall prepare, and submit to the Department of Health, to the Governor, and, pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), to the Legislature, a report containing the committee's findings on the rates and causes of maternal deaths occurring in the State during the preceding year, and providing recommendations for legislative or other action that can be undertaken to: (a) improve the quality of maternal care and reduce adverse maternal outcomes in the State; (b) increase the availability of, and improve access to, social and health care services for pregnant women; and (c) reduce or eliminate racial and other disparities in maternal care and treatment, both during, and in the year after, pregnancy. Each annual report, with the exception of the first report prepared under this section, shall additionally identify the extent to which the committee's prior recommendations have been successfully implemented in practice, and the apparent impact that the implementation of such recommended changes has had on maternal care in the preceding year.  b. The report that is annually prepared pursuant to this section shall be based on:  (1) the case summaries that were prepared by the committee over the preceding year, pursuant to subsection b. of section 8 of this act;  (2) the statistical data that was forwarded to the committee, during the preceding year, by the Maternal Data Center, pursuant to section 14 of this act; and  (3) any other relevant information, including information from the committee's prior annual reports, or information on any collaborative maternal health arrangements that have been established by health care providers, professional organizations, local government units, or other relevant actors or entities in the preceding year, in response to the committee outreach authorized by subsection c. of section 8 of this act, or by paragraph (9) of subsection a. of section 6, of this act. c. Upon receipt of the committee's annual report pursuant to this section, the department shall post a copy of the report at a publicly accessible location on its Internet website, and shall take appropriate steps to otherwise broadly publicize the committee's findings and recommendations. The Commissioner of Health shall also adopt rules and regulations, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), to implement the recommendations contained in the report, to the extent that such recommendations can be implemented through administrative rule-making action.  L.2019, c.75, s.9.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-11 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-11 - Confidentiality.

26:6C-11 Confidentiality.  11. a. (1) Except as otherwise provided by subsection b. of this section, all proceedings and activities of the Maternal Mortality Review Committee; all opinions of the members of the committee, which are formed as a result of the committee's proceedings and activities; and all records obtained, created, or maintained by the committee, including written reports and records of interviews or oral statements, shall be confidential, and shall not be subject to public inspection, discovery, subpoena, or introduction into evidence in any civil, criminal, legislative, or other proceeding.  (2) In no case shall the committee disclose any personally identifiable information to the public, or include any personally identifiable information in a case summary that is prepared pursuant to subsection b. of section 8 of this act, or in an annual report that is prepared pursuant to section 9 of this act.  (3) Members of the committee shall not be questioned in any civil, criminal, legislative, or other proceeding regarding information that has been presented in, or opinions that have been formed as a result of, a meeting or communication of the committee; however, nothing in this paragraph shall prohibit a committee member from being questioned, or from testifying, in relation to publicly available information or information that was obtained independent of the member's participation on the committee. b. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit the committee from publishing, or from otherwise making available for public inspection, statistical compilations or reports that are based on confidential information, provided that those compilations and reports do not contain personally identifying information or other information that could be used to ultimately identify the individuals concerned. L.2019, c.75, s.11.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-12 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-12 - Annual compilation of statistics.

26:6C-12 Annual compilation of statistics.  12. a. (1) On an annual basis, and using the death records that have been filed during the preceding year, the Maternal Mortality Review Committee shall work collaboratively with the Maternal Data Center in the Healthcare Quality and Informatics Unit, NJMCQC's Maternal Health epidemiologists and other staff to identify: (a) the total number of maternal deaths that have occurred in the State during the year, and during each quarter of the year; (b) the average Statewide rate of maternal death occurring during the year; (c) the number and percentage of maternal deaths that occurred during the year in each of the Northern, Central, and Southern regions of the State; (d) the number and percentage of maternal deaths, on a Statewide and regional basis, that constituted pregnancy-associated deaths, and the number and percentage of maternal deaths, on a Statewide and regional basis, that constituted pregnancy-related deaths; (e) the areas of the State where the rates of maternal death are significantly higher than the Statewide average; and (f) the rate of racial disparities in maternal deaths occurring on a Statewide and regional basis.  (2) The results of the annual analysis that is conducted pursuant to this subsection shall be posted at a publicly accessible location on the Internet website of the Department of Health, and shall also be promptly forwarded to the NJMCQC. b. In order to accomplish its duties under this section, the Maternal Mortality Review Committee shall: (1) for the purposes of determining the total number of pregnancy-associated deaths, review each woman's death record, and match the death record with a certificate of live birth, or with a fetal or infant death record, for the woman's child, in order to confirm whether the woman died during pregnancy, or within one year after the end of pregnancy; and (2) for the purposes of determining the total number of pregnancy-related deaths, review each woman's death record, and identify each such death record in which the death is reported to have resulted from an underlying or contributing cause related to pregnancy, regardless of the amount of time that has passed between the end of the pregnancy and the death.  The Maternal Mortality Review Committee may also use any other appropriate means or methods to identify maternal deaths. Such means or methods may include, but need not be limited to, use of the case ascertainment system devised by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  L.2019, c.75, s.12.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-13 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-13 - Maternal Data Center.

26:6C-13 Maternal Data Center.  14. a. The Department of Health shall establish a Maternal Data Center in the Healthcare Quality and Informatics Unit that shall develop protocols and requirements for the submission of maternal mortality, morbidity and racial and ethnic disparity data indicators; collect this information from relevant health care facilities in the State; conduct rapid-cycle data analytics; develop reports and a public facing dashboard; and disseminate the information collected to the NJMCQC, the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, participating health care facilities, and other stakeholders as identified by the NJMCQC. Each participating facility shall have full access to data reported to the Maternal Data Center, provided that any data accessible to participating facilities shall be de-identified, and further provided that nothing in this subsection shall authorize the disclosure of any confidential or personal identifying information for any patient. b. The Maternal Data Center shall employ a director, three research scientists; a technical assistant; and other staff as necessary to implement the requirements pursuant to subsection a. of this section. L.2019, c.75, s.14.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-14 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-14 - Establishment, collection of fees.

26:6C-14 Establishment, collection of fees.  15. The Commissioner of Health shall establish and collect maternal data center membership fees from health care facilities, as defined by the Commissioner of Health, that are licensed to provide maternal care services in the State and that enter into a written agreement with the Department of Health to participate in the Maternal Data Center pursuant to section 14 of this act. The membership fee shall be required of each licensed facility participating in the Maternal Data Center, and in no case shall the amount of the fee exceed $10,000 per facility per year. Each participating facility shall pay its annual membership fee on a date as shall be required by the commissioner. The revenue from these fees shall be used to fund the Maternal Data Center to implement the requirements pursuant to section 14 of this act. The commissioner shall be authorized to seek out and accept such other sources of funding as may be available from appropriate public and private sources for the purposes of the Maternal Data Center. L.2019, c.75, s.15.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-15 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-15 - "Maternal Data Center Fund."

26:6C-15 "Maternal Data Center Fund."  16. a. There is established the "Maternal Data Center Fund" as a nonlapsing, revolving fund in the Department of Health. The fund shall be comprised of membership fees collected from facilities licensed to provide maternal care services that enter into a written agreement with the Department of Health to participate in the Maternal Data Center pursuant to section 15 of this act as well as any other funds collected by the department pursuant to section 15 of this act. b. The Commissioner of Health shall deposit all membership fees and other funds collected pursuant to section 15 of this act into the fund. Monies credited to the fund may be invested in the same manner as assets of the General Fund, and any investment earnings on the fund shall accrue to the fund and shall be available subject to the same terms and conditions as other monies in the fund. c. Commencing July 1, 2019, and annually thereafter, monies in the fund shall be appropriated by the Legislature to the Department of Health for the purposes of operating and maintaining the Maternal Data Center pursuant to section 14 of this act. L.2019, c.75, s.16.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:6C-16 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:6C-16 - Rules, regulations.

26:6C-16 Rules, regulations.  17. The Commissioner of Health shall adopt rules and regulations pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), to effectuate the purposes of this act. L.2019, c.75, s.17.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:7-16 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:7-16 - Burial permit

26:7-16. Burial permit  Any person who cremates any dead human body without first having received a permit for burial or other final disposition issued according to the laws or regulations of this or any other State shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. L.1950, c. 256, p. 895, s. 6.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:7-18.1 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:7-18.1 - Time lapse after death

26:7-18.1. Time lapse after death  No person shall cremate a dead human body unless at least 24 hours have elapsed from the time of death as recorded on the death certificate to the time of cremation. L.1983, c. 385, s. 1.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:7-18.2 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:7-18.2 - Disposition of unclaimed cremains.

26:7-18.2 Disposition of unclaimed cremains.  2. a. Except as provided by subsection b. of this section, a person may dispose of the cremains of a dead human body which have not been claimed by a relative or friend of the deceased within one year from the date of cremation upon certification, to the commissioner's satisfaction, that a diligent effort has been made to identify, locate and notify a relative or friend of the deceased within that one-year period. A diligent effort shall include a certified letter, return receipt requested, mailed to the person who authorized the cremation. As used in this section, "cremains" means that substance which remains after the cremation of a dead human body. b. A funeral director, licensed pursuant to P.L.1952, c.340 (C.45:7-32 et seq.), shall grant a qualified veterans' organization the right to receive the cremains of a veteran, or the cremains of an eligible spouse or eligible dependent of a veteran, which have not been claimed by a relative or friend of the deceased within one year after cremation upon certification, to the commissioner's satisfaction, that a diligent effort, as defined in subsection a. of this section, has been made to identify, locate and notify a relative or friend of the deceased within that one-year period.  A qualified veterans' organization which takes possession of cremains pursuant to this section shall dispose of the cremains by scattering them at sea or by interring them on land in a dignified manner at the State-operated, Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans' Memorial Cemetery, a State-operated veterans' memorial cemetery, a national veterans' memorial cemetery, or a local veterans' memorial cemetery, if the individual is eligible for interment at those facilities.  As used in this section, "qualified veterans' organization" means a veterans' organization that qualifies as a section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(19) tax exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Code, or a federally chartered Veterans' Service Organization.  c. A funeral home or mortuary, or an agent of the funeral home or mortuary, or a funeral director, or qualified veterans' organization, shall not be liable for damages in any civil action arising out of the disposal of cremains pursuant to this section unless the damages are the result of gross negligence or willful misconduct. L.1983, c.385, s.2; amended 2009, c.14, s.1; 2021, c.37, s.1.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:7-18.3 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:7-18.3 - Rules and regulations

26:7-18.3. Rules and regulations  The Commissioner of the Department of Health may promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act, pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c. 410 (C. 52:14B-1 et seq.). L.1983, c. 385, s. 3.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:7-19 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:7-19 - Penalties for violations

26:7-19. Penalties for violations  Any person who violates any of the provisions of this act except section six, or who violates any rule or regulation of the State Department made pursuant to this act, or who shall refuse to comply with any lawful order or direction of the department, shall be liable to the following penalties: a. For each first offense a penalty of fifty dollars ($50.00); b. For each second offense a penalty of one hundred dollars ($100.00); c. For each third and every subsequent offense a penalty of two hundred dollars ($200.00). L.1950, c. 256, p. 896, s. 9.
NJ Rev Stat § 26:7-20 (2021)
2021 New Jersey Revised Statutes|Title 26 - Health and Vital Statistics|Section 26:7-20 - Payment of penalty deemed equivalent to conviction

26:7-20. Payment of penalty deemed equivalent to conviction  Payment of a penalty for any alleged violation of this act or any rule or regulation of the State Department made pursuant thereto, either before or after the institution of proceedings for the collection thereof, shall be deemed equivalent to a conviction of the violation for which such penalty was claimed. L.1950, c. 256, p. 897, s. 10.