With the Jersey City representative for the volunteer CarePoint Health board stepping down, Mayor Steven Fulop is appointing himself, he confirmed this morning.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Jason Thomas indicated in an email to CarePoint leadership this morning that he would be leaving the board for personal reasons, effective immediately, and it didn’t take much time to find a successor.
“Jason has been great and I’m thankful. He is a lawyer and has expertise in this space for sure, but the reality is I’m the one accountable to the residents on issues like this,” Fulop stated.
“These are times that will impact healthcare delivery in Hudson County for decades to come and knowing how vulnerable Christ Hospital is at the moment, I want to make sure that I’m aware of every detail so that I can make sure that the city does everything it can with CarePoint to guarantee the best outcome.”
The 12-member board last week voted on exploring financial restructuring which may include bankruptcy, as HCV first reported, with Fulop at the time expressing concerns over Christ Hospital and/or the Hoboken University Medical Center closing permanently.
He continued that in the event CarePoint declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, either one or both of the hospitals would have to close and would be unlikely to reopen due to state zoning rules.
The CarePoint vote is expected to take another vote related to their financial restructuring by week.
Additionally, WARN notices went out to all employees at Christ Hospital, the Bayonne Medical Center, and the HUMC recently, giving them 90 days notice of potential layoffs, a move that was completely expected due to the financial restructuring.
The notices went out to 859 employees at the BMC, 843 workers at Christ Hospital, and 900 staffers at the HUMC, according to the New Jersey Department of Labor.
A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health did not return an email seeking comment, while Fulop simply said he was “very concerned” about the notices.
Also a Democratic candidate for governor, Fulop played a major role in getting CarePoint and Hudson Regional Hospital to put their differences aside for the greater good, in January announcing a partnership to form Hudson Health System.
However, HRH has since sued CarePoint for not following through on the agreement and that court matter is still pending.
At essentially the same time the HHS concept was announced, the New Jersey Department of Health indicated they had placed a financial monitor to oversee CarePoint’s hospitals.
HRH, and their Board Chair Yan Moshe, have combined to donate $150,000 to the Coalition for Progress super PAC, which is linked to Fulop’s statewide run, this year, as HCV first reported in April.
Additionally, Avery Eisenreich, who owns the land the Bayonne Medical Center and Hoboken University Medical Center sits on, gave $100,000 to the PAC on February 29th, according to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
