New Jersey has provided $2 million in partial funding to help Jersey City, N.J.-based Hudson Regional Health’s Heights University Hospital, also in Jersey City, maintain operations over the next two weeks amid financial challenges. However, the hospital warned state officials of the dire precarity of its finances as it reported weekly losses of $1.5 million in an Oct. 17 news release shared with Becker’s.
“Unfortunately, while this short-term, two-week stopgap funding is certainly appreciated, it will not meaningfully address the dire financial challenges facing the hospital, most of which we inherited from the previous operators,” Hudson Regional Health said.
The system said it plans to work with elected officials over the next few weeks to determine one of two paths for Heights University. The first is to develop a long-term stability plan for the hospital through state and other identified funding sources, including a $25 million appropriation through the state legislative delegation, which is expected to be voted on during the lame duck legislative session.
Without added state funds, the second path entails suspending services and the closure of Heights University.
Hudson Regional, a four-hospital system, was created in late May under Bayonne, N.J.-based CarePoint Health System’s bankruptcy exit. In mid-September, the facilities were rebranded Heights University Hospital, Bayonne University Hospital, Hoboken (N.J.) University Hospital and Secaucus University Hospital.
The system has invested more than $300 million into its hospitals since its inception, in an attempt to tackle deficiencies like reopening closed service lines, modernizing the facilities and providing unionized staff pay raises.
“Despite these unprecedented investments, the hospital continues to lose over $1.5 million per week, an unsustainable rate that jeopardizes Hudson County’s healthcare system,” the release said. “Sixty-five-percent of Heights Hospital patients are uninsured, low-income or otherwise vulnerable residents, leading to low reimbursement rates, a situation that is compounded by major cuts in Charity Care funding and Medicaid.”
In late September, the system said it would end nonessential services at Heights University if the state or other government bodies did not offer needed financial support. In early October, state Sens. Raj Mukherji and Brian Stack also shared plans to back the $25 million supplemental appropriation to address the hospital’s financial issues. Lastly, in mid-October, more than 1,500 healthcare workers and community members sent a petition to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and the state’s Department of Health to request emergency funding for the hospital.
