Bennet Zurofsky, Esq., the attorney representing POP in the matter of the closing of Plainfield's Muhlenberg Hospital by Solaris Health System, has written Commissioner Heather Howard asking that the matter be reconsidered.
His letter of July 23 is a followup to one of July 17 to the State Health Planning Board, after which he learned the SHPB had already forwarded its recommendation to the Commissioner and that the SHPB was no longer able to reconsider.
Zurofsky outlines the reasons he believes Commissioner Howard is compelled to re-examine the matter, including that a law passed merely days after the June 6 SHPB hearing in Plainfield established a process for using a $44M emergency fund to stabilize situations just like that of Muhlenberg.
I have posted the documents online (the files are far too large to be emailed) where all can review them.
Here is the 'statement of the sponsors' (with line numbers) which sums up the new law's main points --
8 STATEMENTReviewing the materials, two items jumped out --
9
10 This bill amends the “New Jersey Health Care Facilities
11 Financing Authority Law” to expand the purposes of the authority’s
12 hospital asset transformation program, which is established
13 pursuant to N.J.S.A.26:2I-7.
14 Specifically, this bill would authorize the authority, subject to
15 the approval of the State Treasurer, to provide, in connection with
16 the hospital asset transformation, any nonprofit health care
17 organization in the State with the funds to:
18 • satisfy the outstanding bonded indebtedness or any other
19 outstanding indebtedness of any hospital in the State;
20 • pay the costs of transitioning a general hospital to a nonprofit,
21 non-acute care health care-related facility, including, but not
22 limited to, construction, renovation, equipment, information
23 technology and working capital;
24 • pay the costs related to transitioning acute care and related
25 services from the hospital at which inpatient acute care
26 services are to be terminated to an existing nonprofit general
27 hospital, including, but not limited to, construction,
28 renovation, equipment, information technology and working
29 capital;
30 • pay the costs associated with the closure of a general hospital;
31 • pay the costs of the acquisition of a general hospital in the
32 State for the purposed of either (i) moving an existing general
33 hospital’s services into the acquired hospital and closing the
34 acquirer’s inpatient acute care services, or (ii) closing its
35 inpatient acute care services;
36 • pay capitalized interest;
37 • fund a debt service reserve fund;
38 • pay the costs associated with the issuance of any bonds for any
39 of the aforementioned purposes; or
40 • pay other costs specifically related to the closure or transition
41 of inpatient acute care services as identified in the contract
42 with the Treasurer.
- Per Zurofsky's final brief of 6/10/08, he notes that the Reinhardt Commission supplied the software necessary for a rational analysis of closing decisions to HHS; there is no indication I can find anywhere that Commissioner Howard ordered the software be used to analyze the CN application by Solaris to close Muhlenberg.
- Sponsors of the bill (S2790/A4349), which passed both the Assembly and the Senate on June 21, were none other than Sen. Ray Lesniak and Assemblymen Neil Cohen and Joe Cryan -- all of Union County.
But for whose benefit? Muhlenberg's? Or Solaris'?
It all depends on which end of the tube you are looking down, I guess.
Could that be why Assemblyman Green is not listed as a primary sponsor of the bill?
View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment