Preliminary New Jersey Hospital Charity Care Budget Announced for FY 2011
The Good Samaritan (after Delacroix), Van Gogh, 1890
New Jersey’s Department of Health and Senior Services released its preliminary data on charity care dollars for hospitals for Fiscal Year 2011: $665 million. Fiscal Year 2010’s total budget for such was $660 million, but $25 million of that was cut as part of mid-year budget reductions. If one counts the restoration of the $25 million cut prior, the increase amounts to $85 million.
In a press release announcing the preliminary data, Health and Senior Services Commissioner Dr. Poonam Alaigh said, “This funding increase clearly demonstrates Gov. Chris Christie’s commitment to maintain and strengthen the health care safety net for New Jersey’s most vulnerable residents when they need it most. Despite the state’s current fiscal crisis, the Governor has made charity care a priority.”
Some of the gains were wrought through the leveraging of increased assessments against hospitals for increased federal matching funds. According to the Daily Record:
To get the extra cash, Christie proposes to lift a cap that had limited a tax paid by hospitals; doing so increases the amount of federal matching funds the state receives.
In other words: To get the extra funds into the hospital system, hospitals have to pay $38.7 million in extra assessments. That puts hospitals as a whole $21.3 million ahead of the game — although extra dollars don’t necessarily flow back to the hospitals paying more.
Also according to the Daily Record, the reconfiguration and redistribution will leave 41 hospitals with more money, and 32 with less. The chart below lays out those details.
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