At the state’s request, Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center will hire a financial consultant to help produce a blueprint that shows the Hudson County for-profit hospital will be viable through 2014.
The financial consultant — which the state must approve and the hospital must pay for — also will furnish missing financial audits and an annual report, according to a letter from the Health Department that noted the hospital has agreed to the state’s terms.
Since December, the health department has twice fined the hospital $6,000 for failing to turn over these records. Both fines were paid but the hospital has not yet filed a 2011 annual report, health department spokeswoman Donna Leusner said.
But the consultant’s responsibilities go much farther than requiring the hospital to turn over reports, according to the May 24 letter from Deputy Health Commissioner William Conroy and made public today. The consultant must evaluate the Secaucus hospital’s financial projections and determine whether the owners will be able to achieve a 1 percent profit margin starting in December and maintain it through 2017, the letter said.
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One-third of New Jersey’s 71 hospitals operate in the red, industry officials say.
“Finally, Meadowlands agrees to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Department that it has the funds on hand, or available to it, in an amount sufficient to continue operations through December 31, 2014,” according to the letter.
Meadowlands President and CEO Lynn McVey today said the step was taken “to provide a layer of transparency to our financial management. We fully expect financial credibility and stability will be clearly exhibited.”
“Of course, we will be open to any recommended improvements that an independent professional review might suggest. It’s been our own cycle of continuous improvements that have turned this hospital around from the county’s worst, to the county’s best,” McVey added.
A union leader and the director of a consumer legal advocacy group that has urged the Christie administration since 2011 to appoint a monitor, praised the agreement.
“We are glad that the department has finally heeded the public call for more transparency and accountability,” said Renee Steinhagen of the New Jersey Appleseed Public Interest Law Center. Although the center “believes that a monitor whose mandate is broader than financial affairs must be appointed to the facility in order to protect the public’s interest, the mandatory retention of an independent financial consultant is a step in the right direction.”
Ann Twomey, president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union, agreed. The hospital, she added, “has been adversely affected by staffing cuts and layoffs, patient safety violations, violations of employee rights, drastic changes in employee working conditions, failure to pay employee health care costs as required, and the hospital owner’s refusal to provide financial statements to the Department of Health.”
Date: May 29, 2013