CarePoint Health has announced plans to become a nonprofit organization bearing the same name and run by their current CEO, Dr. Achintya Moulick.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“The formation of a new non-profit will allow the three-hospital system to continue its trajectory of bringing in multiple tertiary level clinical services with nationally known clinical organizations while giving these precious assets back to the community. This is a significant milestone that will secure the provision of accessible healthcare in Hudson County,” Moulick said in a statement.
“The pandemic has shown community hospitals to be the cornerstones of healthcare delivery in Northern New Jersey and the transition to a non-profit is the best way to ensure we remain so for future generations.”
CarePoint founders James Lawler and Vivek Garipalli, the latter who is now the Clover Health CEO, along with their affiliates, will lead the effort to transfer the interests of the Bayonne Medical Center, Christ Hospital, and the Hoboken University Medical Center into the new entity.
Garipalli, who donated $1 million to a super PAC linked to Mayor Steven Fulop’s potential gubernatorial run in 2016, and Lawler also committed to stepping down from their oversight roles once the nonprofit’s board is formed.
In March 2019, the New Jersey Commission of Investigation released a report that alleged the three principal owners of CarePoint received a $157 million in management fees from their own Hudson County hospitals.
15 months later, they announced the sale of the Bayonne Medical Center to BMC Hospital LLC, but Hudson Regional Hospital declared they’d spent $220 million to purchase the hospital land in Bayonne and Hoboken.
BMC and HRH have been embroiled in a feud ever since and it little ground has been gained on either side.
In a statement, HRH blasted CarePoint’s latest plans as another get rich quick scheme.
“Given the history of CarePoint, it is impossible to believe that this is a selfless act conceived to benefit healthcare in Hudson County. Each of CarePoint’s recent steps has led to the deterioration of its healthcare facilities, exorbitant out of network costs for services, reduction in its practice areas and deferral of critical services to consultants and third parties,” they began.
“Our prediction is that CarePoint’s plan is again to burden the County with the costs and uncertainties of a healthcare market it is ill-prepared to enter, just so CarePoint can pilfer as much cash as possible.”
Recently, the state Local Finance Board has declined to hear a $95 million eminent domain plan out of Bayonne ever since the city council has shown they don’t have the four votes to approve final passage of the ordinance.
CarePoint says that they employ over 3,000 Hudson County residents and treated over 22,000 COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with a comment from Hudson Regional Hospital.
