Without Funds, N.J. Hospitals Face Crisis – California too

The numbers on charity care speak for themselves. In California there’s something similar going on too with hospitals being closed, perhaps not to the same tune as what is happening in New Jersey. Some hospitals have been saved by being purchased by a company like Prime Healthcare , and if not for the purchase, they too may have been closed. But that may not be the ultimate answer either, although the hospitals are returned to a profitable status, by cutting non-profitable areas and staff, they avoid closure; but then other areas erupt such as over billing with the State filling complaints against Prime, who’s bottom line is collecting from the insurance companies, but patients get stuck in the middle to help in the effort to convince the insurance company to pay, as it does take a certain amount of revenue to run a hospital and open the doors.

Seniors no doubt have to travel longer distances for healthcare as well. New Jersey has had 6 hospitals close in the last 18 months. The latest figures estimate that 50% of the nation’s hospitals border on insolvency. Tenet in California has recently been selling some of their hospitals as well and I would venture to say they may not be the ones leading in the profit departments. So we come back to the same old statement, “will somebody please pay the bill”….BD

Although everyone agrees New Jersey's health-care system is a mess, no one is quite certain where to place blame. But there is plenty of finger-pointing in all directions. The New Jersey Hospital Association said that 77 hospitals provided $1.3 billion in charity care, but got back just $716 million from the state. Over the past 15 years, the group said, hospitals have had to absorb $6 billion in losses on charity-care cases.