1. Review the patient’s file for identifying information. Utilize all admissions screening information from current and prior commitment(s), including prior investigations or investigations from other counties if included with the case file, to identify information listed below. However, past investigations alone shall not be the basis for establishing the current legal settlement of a patient. The successful respondent shall be required to visit the Office of the Essex County Counsel, located at the Hall of Records Building, 465 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Newark, NJ, on a monthly basis (or less frequent if deemed appropriate by the County) to obtain hard copy patient files and to return completed investigations and files concerning the following: • Residency data; • Legally responsible relatives (LRR); • Potential income; • Assets, including real and personal property; • Insurance coverage; • Medicaid coverage; • Other benefit information; and • Any other useful information. 2. Conduct database inquiries to verify patient’s identity, DOB, and SSN, and identify past addresses and property ownership. 3. Contact LRRs, other relatives, prior facilities, and any other sources as necessary to obtain/verify data. 4. When practical, interview the patient, spouse, parents, friends, and neighbors for residency data. 5. When necessary, contact facilities from past commitments to obtain residency/financial data. 6. Obtain written documentation, when possible. 7. Obtain residency/financial data from municipal, county, and federal agencies providing benefits to the patient, when necessary. 8. Obtain verbal information, where possible, however, unsubstantiated verbal information alone is not sufficient to establish legal settlement in a county. 9. A patient’s legal settlement in a specific county shall be based on documented information. When such documentation cannot be obtained, the patient’s legal settlement shall be found to be with the State of New Jersey and not a county therein. 10. All work sheets and investigation reports shall be safeguarded and properly stored on a secure computer server/hard drive with adequate backup. 11. The statutory references contained in the above RFP involve the investigation related to the establishment of a “legal settlement” (residence) in the County for the purpose of determining the County’s responsibilities regarding the commitment of persons with mental illness through the Office of the County Adjuster, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 30:4- 34. N.J.S.A. 30:4-49 provides that the legal settlement is such person’s continuous residence for a period of five years immediately preceding the date of application or commitment, excluding time spent in any charitable, or correctional institution or public hospital. The legal settlement remains with the County until a legal settlement is acquired in another county. N.J.S.A. 30:4-50. If the person leaves the State, the legal settlement remains in the County until he or she is away from New Jersey continuously for one year or more, at which time the person is deemed to have abandoned the State, thereby terminating the County’s responsibilities in connection with the commitment. N.J.S.A. 30:4-49.6, 50. 12. All investigations shall be peer reviewed prior to submission to the Office of the Essex County Counsel.
