Trenton, NJ — Lilo H. Stainton reports in NJ Spotlight that, while funding for charity care has been significantly reduced in recent years, Gov. Chris Christie has been steadily increasing a separate fund to assist teaching hospitals, more than tripling New Jersey’s investment over the past eight years in facilities that train the next generation of doctors.
The governor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018, which begins July 1, includes $218 million in Graduate Medical Education funds for the 43 hospitals that have programs for interns and residents, according to the state Department of Health, which administers it.
The funding — $30 million more than was budgeted this year — includes state and federal dollars; generally, for each $1 New Jersey budgets, Washington, D.C., provides $2.
GME dollars are distributed based on a formula that considers the amount hospitals spend on medical residents and interns, figures included in a Medicaid report facilities must file with the state, the DOH explained.
The funding covers programs that train interns and residents in various medical fields.
The governor’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018, which begins July 1, includes $218 million in Graduate Medical Education funds for the 43 hospitals that have programs for interns and residents, according to the state Department of Health, which administers it.
The funding — $30 million more than was budgeted this year — includes state and federal dollars; generally, for each $1 New Jersey budgets, Washington, D.C., provides $2.
GME dollars are distributed based on a formula that considers the amount hospitals spend on medical residents and interns, figures included in a Medicaid report facilities must file with the state, the DOH explained.
The funding covers programs that train interns and residents in various medical fields.
Christie has made this a priority, citing a lack of primary care and certain specialty physicians that experts fear is reducing access to healthcare for Garden State residents, even if they do have insurance.
A detailed breakdown of the proposed allocation for fiscal 2018, released earlier this month, calls for GME payments that range from nearly $81,000 for Capital Health Medical Center in Hopewell to more than $31 million for University Hospital in Newark.
While the overall level of hospital funding has decreased by hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, increases in GME have helped some hospitals offset losses they saw in government support for charity care.
But very few of the state’s 72 acute-care facilities come out ahead overall, when compared to current funding levels.
Funding in other categories — Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP), designed to reward innovation, mental-health funding, and support for University Hospital, a major teaching hospital in Newark that has long received extra support — has remained largely stable.)
For example:
For Stainton’s full NJ Spotlight story, click here.
A detailed breakdown of the proposed allocation for fiscal 2018, released earlier this month, calls for GME payments that range from nearly $81,000 for Capital Health Medical Center in Hopewell to more than $31 million for University Hospital in Newark.
While the overall level of hospital funding has decreased by hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years, increases in GME have helped some hospitals offset losses they saw in government support for charity care.
But very few of the state’s 72 acute-care facilities come out ahead overall, when compared to current funding levels.
Funding in other categories — Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP), designed to reward innovation, mental-health funding, and support for University Hospital, a major teaching hospital in Newark that has long received extra support — has remained largely stable.)
For example:
- In fiscal 2018, Cooper Hospital is slated to collect more than $30 million in GME, $5 million more than it will receive this year, but that won’t be enough to offset the greater than $8 million drop in its charity-care reimbursements.
- St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson could get more than $17 million in GME, a nearly $2 million boost over the current funding level, but it stands to lose nearly $5 million in charity care.
- Newark Beth Israel Medical Center is anticipating a jump in GME of more than $3 million, to more than $24 million in the coming year, but it could lose nearly $4 million through charity care.
For Stainton’s full NJ Spotlight story, click here.
