New Jersey needs an “early warning system” to monitor acute care hospitals, identify those in financial distress, and intervene in advance to protect communities’ access to care, according to the final report of the Governor’s Commission on Rationalizing Healthcare Resources. Citing the fact that five New Jersey hospitals have filed for bankruptcy since July 2006 and that 15 hospitals have closed in the past decade, the report states that a large number of hospitals are in poor financial health at a time when hospitals nationally are doing well.
The 200-page report, released Jan. 24, proposes dozens of steps that should be taken to stabilize New Jersey’s troubled hospital system. They deal with state oversight, hospital funding, hospital efficiency, transparency in hospital operations, and accountability for $3.7 billion in state money used to pay for health care in New Jersey. Read the report.
