Tom Gregorio said the hospital gets only 7 percent of what they bill to treat accident victims in their outpatient surgery and pain management center
The Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus is seen in this 2006 file photo. The hospital's president today acknowledged the facility charges far more than its competitors to provide outpatient care to auto accident victims, but claimed insurers pay only a fraction of those costs.TRENTON — The president of Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus acknowledged Monday the hospital charges far more than its competitors to provide auto accident victims with outpatient care, but claimed auto insurers pay only a fraction of that.
During a hearing on the growing number of for-profit hospitals in New Jersey, the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee pressed Meadowlands president and CEO Tom Gregorio to explain why the hospital charges 1,000 percent to 3,000 percent more than competing hospitals for steroid back injections, knee arthroscopies and other procedures. The hospital’s billing practices and their impact on rising auto insurance premiums were the focus of a report in The Star-Ledger Monday.
Gregorio said the hospital — bought by a for-profit company in December — gets only about 7 percent of what they bill to treat accident victims in their outpatient surgery and pain management center. "The charges don’t reflect what you are paid," he said.
Gregorio’s answers sparked a rebuttal from the Insurance Council of New Jersey, which supplied the billing data. Council President Deana Lykens, reached Monday night after the hearing in Trenton, said auto insurance companies usually fight the hospital when it submits a $67,715 bill for a steroid injection in the lower back. Same-day surgery centers can bill no more than $3,800 for the procedure, and competing hospitals typically ask for $4,458, according to the council’s data.
"When a bill is very high, we arbitrate," sending the matter to a independent body, Lykens said. "By asking for such a high amount, the strategy is they will end up with more than they would otherwise."
The amount Meadowlands gets is far higher than 7 percent, she added. Gregorio "would have to be including charity care, Medicaid and Medicare," which pay far lower rates, to make his calculation close to being true, Lykens said.
She added that the the hospital is also generating a lot of revenue by performing same-day procedures on accident victims, getting referrals from the 15,000 patient base at three surgery centers its owners operate in Bergen and Essex counties.
"This business plan is not being fair to the insurance companies, the insured (customers), and the actual cost of health care," Committee Chairwoman Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) said to Gregorio.
Gregorio said before the for-profit company MHA, Inc. took over, "the hospital was losing $1 million a month and was destined to close."
Calling it "a true New Jersey success story," Gregorio said the hospital in its for-profit reincarnation bought ambulances for Secaucus, pays $500,000 in property taxes and $2.65 million in sales tax on high-tech equipment and other goods. Some 250 doctors have been hired, including renowned experts in cardiology and neurology.
Lawmakers also asked Gregorio to explain deficiencies uncovered in a July state health inspection, prompted by a complaint from the Health Professionals and Allied Employees union. "I am not saying we haven’t had our own bumps in the road," he said. "You health department found a few deficiencies, as they have at other hospitals around the state."
The committee also heard from Joann Dudsak, a nurse and president of the local union, who said "I was fired" after alerting the state about the hospital’s failure "to follow policies for sterilization, infection control and nurse staffing."
She was later rehired.