Medical cannabis was legalized in New Jersey under the 2010 Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, and became more widely available under the 2019 Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act. A 2020 referendum established that recreational marijuana is legal in New Jersey. With the legality of medical cannabis confirmed, New Jersey’s legislature and courts are left with the practical implications of the drug’s new status. Among them is when and under what circumstances an insurance company is required to reimburse a patient for medical cannabis. To date, insurance reimbursement for medical cannabis in New Jersey remains a patchwork quilt that yields counterintuitive results, and may remain that way for some time.

The enactment of New Jersey’s Compassionate Use Act was met with great fanfare due to the relief it afforded to patients with chronic or terminal conditions. A less noticed feature of the act was its provision that nothing within it “shall be construed to require a government medical assistance program or private health insurer to reimburse a person for costs associated with the medical use of cannabis.” See N.J. Stat. Ann. Section 24:6I-14. Stated differently, while medical cannabis is legally available to patients, they cannot expect their insurance carrier to pay for it.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]