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The New Jersey Department of Human Services provides access to mainstream medical care to children and adults. Services are tailored to the needs of families in a variety of situations, whether it be an elderly Medicaid recipient, a low-income worker in a job without health benefits, an individual with a developmental disability, or a family whose child experiences a catastrophic illness.

The Department strives to ensure that all of New Jersey’s residents have access to affordable, quality health care, through Medicaid or one of the programs described below, or by funding community health programs and hospitals.

DHS works in cooperation with Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and locally-based health care organizations throughout the state to help provide this care. The Department’s primary resource of health care information and access to services is through the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services (DMAHS).

Health care services include the following:

The Catastrophic Illness in Children Relief Fund provides eligible families with financial assistance to help them cover medical expenses that were previously incurred because their child became catastrophically ill or injured. Covered expenses include, but are not limited to, special ambulatory care, acute or specialized in- or out-patient hospital care, medical equipment, medically-related home modifications, home health care and medical transportation.

Health Care for People with Disabilities : Under managed care, beneficiaries enroll in one of five Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), which manages their health care and offers special services in addition to the wide array of benefits to which beneficiaries are entitled. For people with disabilities, the move to managed care began in October, 2000, under a program, entitled, New Jersey Care 2000+, when it became mandatory for approximately 90,000 New Jersey Medicaid beneficiaries who are aged, blind and disabled to enroll.

The Department helps these Medicaid beneficiaries enroll in the HMOs. Under contract with DHS, these HMOs provide a larger menu of services that are better coordinated, and more customized to consumers’ special needs, than those normally found in the fee-for-service system.

Many services needed by people with developmental or other disabilities, from surgery to dental care and preventive services, are more available and accessible. The managed care package for the developmentally disabled population also covers mental health and substance abuse services.

Medicaid is an entitlement program that provides health insurance for more than 600,000 very low-income parents, children and people who are aged, blind or disabled. It pays for hospital, doctor, prescription drug, nursing home and many other health care benefits.

Health Insurance for Families and Children is provided through the NJ FamilyCare program, which helps financially eligible families obtain health insurance to cover the cost of routine physician visits, prescriptions, hospitalizations, lab tests, x-rays, eyeglasses for themselves and for their children and dental care for most children and for some adults .

The Office for Prevention of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities is a public educational resource to help educate New Jerseyans about those factors that can cause mental retardation or other developmental disabilities, with a strong focus on prevention. Educational efforts include, but are not limited to, information for pregnant women about substance abuse and its effects on the unborn fetus, dangers of ingesting lead paint, and other environmental causes of disabilities.