PRESS RELEASE
On April 18, the BUY Muhlenberg committee sent a letter to the Attorney General requesting an investigation of Solaris' activities and practices regarding Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center. This letter (attached), outlined suspicions regarding Solaris' activities and informed the Attorney General that evidence gathered by the committee which prompted the investigation request, would substantiate these suspicious and would be shared.
Friday, May 9, an investigtor, Kevin Nolan, from the Attorney General's Newark office contacted Olive Lynch, coordinator of the BUY Muhlenberg campaign and requested the committee send the gathered evidence to their office.
Monday afternoon, May 12, documents, analysis and other information were shared.
"We are very encouraged that the Attorney General has acted so quickly on our request," said Olive Lynch.
The information gathered was a team effort. "None of this could have happened except for the tireless work of Nancy Piwowar, Gayle Jones, Carrie Faraone, John Gostel and Rev. Jim Colvin. Many people, afraid for their jobs at Muhlenberg, came forward and shared information with us," said Lynch.
"Based on the information we have gathered, we believe there is a clear pattern of malfeasance on the part of Solaris towards its affiliate, Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center," states Lynch. "Our hope is the Attorney General will agree and launch a formal investigation."
LETTER TO STATE
LETTER TO STATE
April 18, 2008
Lawrence Biondo
NJ Attorney General’s Office
124 Halsey Street
Newark, NJ 07102
Dear Mr. Biondo:
This letter represents the interests of the communities served by the Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center, located in Plainfield, NJ.
We, by this letter, formally request the NJ Attorney General to investigate the following:
1. The surrounding communities (hereafter, “Citizens”) believe that the NJ Department of Health and Senior Services (hereafter, “NJ Dept of Health”) has acted in collusion with Solaris Health System (hereafter, “Solaris”) regarding the closing of Muhlenberg Hospital. These entities have effectively decided to close the facility without allowing the public their due process, as defined by law, in an unbiased and fair manner. We base this charge on the public testimony of Paula Howard, stating Muhlenberg would be closing, and given the fact the public hearing for the closing has not yet occurred and is slated for May 6, 2008.
2. Citizens charge that the NJ Dept of Health has not acted in the best interest of the citizens, as is their mandate, by not following proper procedure and expressing a biased opinion before Citizens can present evidence and facts at the May 6 public hearing.
3. Citizens charge that Solaris has manipulated their accounting to improperly and illegally cast Muhlenberg as non-viable health care institution.
4. Citizens charge that management of Solaris has not been transparent in their financial and other dealings, as is mandated by their status as a non-profit.
5. Citizens charge that Solaris over the past years since the merger of JFK and Muhlenberg, has followed a pernicious pattern of “cherry picking” profitable practices at Muhlenberg and transferring them to JFK.
6. Citizens charge that Solaris over the past years since the merger has transferred endowments funds, slated specifically for the benefit of the Muhlenberg community, to JFK.
7. Citizens charge that the CEO of Solaris has an improper relationship with an entity selling hospital supplies, therefore causing a conflict of interest in his role as CEO of Solaris and resulting in his unjust enrichment at the expense of Citizens.
8. Citizens charge that Solaris has failed the mandate of their non-profit status and abused said status. Their mandate since the merger of Solaris and JFK is to provide health care services to both communities. Citizens charge Solaris has improperly used resources and assets of the Muhlenberg community to unjustly and illegally enrich the JFK community.
We, by this letter, request the NJ Attorney General take the following action on behalf of Citizens:
1. Investigate why the NJ Dept of Health has denied the Citizens proper, fair, and unbiased due process in the closing of Muhlenberg Hospital.
2. Investigate the activities of Solaris and Solaris’ CEO. We will provide you with the documentation and evidence we have gathered.
3. We request the NJ Attorney’s Office, on behalf of citizens, file an injuction to Solaris Health System to stop and desist from the active transfer of assets and employees from Muhlenberg to JFK until the state has granted the closing request in the formal, legal manner outlined by law.
We appreciate your attention to this matter and request that your response be in writing to the below contact address. We will follow up with a phone call to confirm your receipt, discuss how to provide you with our documentation and evidence and discuss first steps.
We include for your reference our letter to the NJ Depart of Health.
Buy Muhlenberg
c/o Olive Lynch
220 West 7th Street
Plainfield, NJ 07060
Sincerely,
1 comment:
Good letter; good job. One thing - the Commissioner's name is Heather Howard.
As an FYI..my agency attended the DHHS budget hearings last week where Commissioner Howard insisted the closing was moving forward and many more like it were to come citing budget cuts, charity care cuts, etc. Joe Cryan (Metuchen) spoke out in defense of Muhlenberg.
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