>By LINDY WASHBURN, STAFF WRITER
The governor restored $32 million to charity care funding for hospitals in Tuesday’s budget compromise, but executives at some hospitals say they’ll still be hurt by a budget that drastically reduces what they received last year.
The revised budget will include $604 million for care that hospitals provide the indigent, a drop of 15.5 percent from last year. Overall, hospitals statewide provided $946 million in charity care in 2007.
“I just don’t see how some of our hospitals will survive these cuts,” said Betsy Ryan, president of the New Jersey Hospital Association. “The needs of our charity care patients vastly outweigh the level of state support.”
Seven hospitals including Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, Barnert Hospital in Paterson, and PBI Regional Medical Center in Passaic have closed in the last 18 months. Ryan predicted more would fail with the cuts.
For hospitals that had seen their state payments for charity care “zeroed out” in Corzine’s initial proposal, the compromise offered a slight improvement: 10 cents for every dollar of charity care documented last year. But that figure still falls millions short of what many hospitals say they need.
While Englewood Hospital and Medical Center went from getting nothing in the proposed budget to $831,500 under the compromise, that is a far cry from the $8.3 million in charity care it provided last year. The hospital will take the biggest hit in Bergen County, with a loss of $2.6 million over last year.
“It’s drastic,” said Michael Pietrowicz, Englewood’s vice president. “It’s going to significantly impact services.”
Others expecting to receive 10 cents on the dollar for charity care costs are Holy Name Hospital in Teaneck, The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood and Chilton Memorial Hospital in the Pompton Plains section of Pequannock.
“To take more than $100 million out of the system at a time when all the hospitals are in a very strained financial environment doesn’t make sense,” said Michael Maron, president of Holy Name. His hospital will receive less than half a million dollars for care that cost $4.6 million last year.
Hackensack University Medical Center saw its fortunes improve with the budget compromise, as its projected cuts were eliminated. It is now slated to receive $14.6 million for charity care costs tallied last year at $32 million. The total includes $3.4 million for training medical residents.
Hackensack plans to turn many of its clinics over to North Hudson Community Action Corp. this summer, and it is not known how that will affect its reimbursement level.
St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center also will see its funding restored to this year’s level. It will receive 90 cents on the dollar for charity care costs documented last year at $64 million.
St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic saw a dramatic increase under the compromise. It is now projected to receive $12 million, compared with $2.6 million in Corzine’s initial proposal. It is the sole hospital in that city, following the closure of PBI.
A complicated formula devised in the compromise establishes “ceilings” and “floors,” so that funding at individual hospitals will not swing widely from last year. That capped Bergen Regional Medical Center’s reimbursement, for example, at about $28 million, trimming the $4.2 million increase it had expected to about $1.5 million, under the hospital association’s projections.
A spokeswoman for Bergen Regional, Donnalee Corrieri, said, “Until the final budget is presented and approved, we can only be hopeful that it will reflect the high percentage of charity care that we provide here.”
Similarly, Palisades General Hospital in North Bergen will see an increase in its charity care funding, but it will not keep up with the increase in charity care it provides, said its chief executive.
“The state requires us to take care of patients, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Bruce Markowitz, the Palisades president. “There should be an obligation on the state to pay for it.”
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By the numbers
Charity-care funding for North Jersey hospitals, under the proposed budget compromise:
Hospital Projected Cents
charity care on the dollar**
Bergen Regional* $26,916,692 75
St. Joseph’s Regional* 57,315,937 90
St. Mary’s Hospital 12,065,241 60
Palisades Medical Center 5,637,644 60
Hackensack* 11,184,217 35
St. Joseph’s Wayne 945,570 42
Holy Name Hospital 458,542 10
Englewood 831,510 10
Valley Hospital 386,005 10
*Hospital will receive additional state funding for graduate- medical education.**Cents on the dollar compares projected reimbursement to actual charity care provided in 2007, calculated at Medicaid rates.
Sources: New Jersey Hospital Association, unofficial projections
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E-mail: washburn@northjersey.com
(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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