Muhlenberg not even mentioned in hospital aid cuts

Is Muhlenberg becoming invisible? Plainfielders will find no comfort whatsoever in the fact that Muhlenberg is not even mentioned in today's stories about the proposal to chop $143 million off proposed charity care reimbursement to the state's hospitals in the coming fiscal year.

With scarce resources allocated on a tiered level -- Tier 1 hospitals giving the largest percentage of charity care and will get slight increases; those who give less charity care are either having their reimbursement cut or eliminated altogether.

Because the state is set up to look at the situation on a county-by-county basis, Trinitas in Elizabeth, the county's largest charity care provided will get an $8.8 million increase.

Muhlenberg, whose market area straddles three counties, isn't even on the radar.

Probably for two reasons --

1. The above-mentioned County focus
2. It's an indication the decision to close Muhlenberg is moot

This does not mean that JFK is doing any better -- according to the Courier story, it is looking at a gap of over $5 million.

All the talk of 'safety net' hospitals utterly leaves out of the picture Muhlenberg. To my mind, Muhlenberg is the POSTER CHILD for a 'safety net' hospital. Am I wrong?

So, here's the way it looks to me: Plainfield and its hospital population are being redlined once again, this time by the State.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Has Assemblyman Green simply stood by and let this happen?

---

Ledger: "Urban hospitals to take huge hit in charity aid"
Gannett: "NJ budget proposes deep cuts in aid to hospitals"

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.