New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed three bills regarding hospital oversight and accountability that were inspired by an investigation into CarePoint Health's finances and use of management companies to extract profits from its hospitals, according to NJ.com.
The three new laws will provide state agencies and elected officials more financial and operational insight into for-profit hospitals in New Jersey. One of the laws gives the state Department of Health more oversight to detect whether hospitals are in financial distress. The other two laws require hospitals to submit equivalent financial information to the DOH and allow the state Commission of Health to inform elected officials when a hospital is found to be in financial distress, according to the report.
The bills were drafted after Jersey City, N.J.-based CarePoint announced it would sell two of its hospitals and the future of its third hospital remains uncertain.
"After what happened with CarePoint Hospital, it was clear we needed to do a better job overseeing the finances of for-profit hospitals," state Sen. Loretta Weinberg told Insider NJ. "Over three years, CarePoint Health funneled $150 million into management companies created by their owners even though these 'companies' had zero employees. These laws are meant to make sure the government, patients and stakeholders aren't deceived like this again."