New Jersey Hospitals May Lose Millions in State Funding for 2015-16

Several New Jersey hospitals will lose considerable amounts of state funding next year if Governor Chris Christie’s proposed 2015-16 budget gets approved without a hitch.

Will your local hospital be one of them?

Most hospitals across the state lost funding in the proposed budget, but two local hospitals managed to buck the trend: Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, with a proposed $216,611 gain, and the St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, with a proposed $1,633,215 gain.

Other area hospitals weren’t so lucky and suffered significant proposed cuts:

· University Hospital, Newark: $19,610,665

· St. Michael’s Medical Center, Newark: $10,738,518

· St. Mary’s Hospital – Passaic: $5,475,077

· Newark Beth Israel Medical Center: $5,080,871

· East Orange General Hospital: $3,359,743

· Hackensack UMC – Mountainside: $664,120

If the proposed budget passes, University Hospital in Newark would suffer its second straight year of cuts, having lost $23,148,319 last year. St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic would likewise suffer a second straight year of cuts, having lost $526,659 in 2014-15.

WHY THE POTENTIAL CUTS?

Due to the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act - commonly known as Obamacare – about 390,000 New Jersey residents have enrolled in managed care plans since January of 2014, according to state officials. Another 250,000 people have received insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

And according to the governor’s recent proposed budget summary, this is why the state plans to cut $74 million in aid for “charity care reimbursements,” which are used to help offset local hospitals for the cost of treating uninsured patients.

This loss may total as much as $148 million if matching federal funds are also cut, according to health care advocates.

In a joint statement, several health care advocacy groups blasted the proposed cuts and called them “potentially devastating.”

“While we’ve made some strides in insuring more New Jerseyans, 11.7 percent of New Jersey’s 8.9 million residents remain uninsured,” the release stated.

“Charity Care and Medicaid are a statewide challenge. Hospitals depend on Charity Care funding to support the care of those 1 million New Jersey residents who are still uninsured and to offset insufficient Medicaid payments, but the budget introduced this week doesn’t recognize the ongoing challenges hospitals face as they provide excellent care for all.

“In 2013, hospitals spent more than $1 billion treating uninsured patients. Today, more than 400,000 additional people are covered by expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, but Medicaid pays hospitals just 70 percent of the actual costs of patient care. Our hospitals struggle to fulfill their caring mission when they lose money each time they care for a Medicaid beneficiary.”

Pictured in photo: Hackensack UMC – Mountainside Hospital in Montclair

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