TRENTON – At Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg’s request, the full Senate today voted to accept the Governor’s recommendations regarding S-782,…
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TRENTON – Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, issued the following statement after the Governor conditionally vetoed her legislation which would require for-profit hospitals which receive State funds through the Charity Care and Medicaid programs to disclose financial information similar to what they provide to the Internal Revenue Service. The bill would have brought for-profit hospitals in line with the same disclosures already required of non-profit hospitals:
“Time and time again, we’ve heard the mantra from this Administration, that it is committed to greater government transparency. And time and time again, their actions have failed to live up to the rhetoric.
“S-782 would have put all hospitals on an even playing field when it came to financial disclosure. The intent is to ensure that the public is able to find out for themselves where public health dollars are going, and how those dollars are being spent. We know that just because a hospital is privately-owned and run for profit, that doesn’t mean that they don’t accept State health resources. When those resources are granted to for-profit facilities, New Jersey taxpayers deserve to know that they are being used appropriately.
TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and Senator Sandra Bolden Cunningham which would ensure that all New Jersey hospitals follow the same rules in terms of disclosure and transparency of finances was approved by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee today by a vote of 9-0, with one abstention.
“The intent of this bill is to make sure all hospitals are on the same page when it comes to disclosure and being transparent with their finances and compensation,” said Senator Weinberg, D-Bergen. “The fact remains that New Jersey taxpayers invest a great deal of money – and rightly so – into for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals throughout the State to make sure that there’s a facility nearby to meet their healthcare needs. The taxpayers of the State of New Jersey deserve to know that public resources are being put to good use at our State’s hospitals.”
“This is a good government measure which will make sure that taxpayer funds aren’t going to waste at hospitals throughout the State,” said Senator Cunningham, D-Hudson. “It would be unconscionable for hospitals to accept massive charity care and Medicaid payments from the State on one hand, and then turn around and pay out six- and seven-figure salaries on the other hand. By requiring hospitals to disclose basic financial information to the Department of Health before they can be eligible for charity care funding, we can hopefully root out problematic financial practices.”