Appellate court rules that waiving certificate of need for a regional perinatal center violates state law
From staff reports
A state regulation which allows Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, to operate as a regional perinatal center was voted down in a recent ruling by the state appellate court.
A three-judge panel collectively decided that a state Department of Health and Senior Services regulation which allows RWJUH to operate as a regional perinatal center violated state law when it waived the certificate-of-need process for regional perinatal centers. RWJUH has been operating as a center since August 2003.
The decision spelled a victory for St. Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, whose regional perinatal center, in existense for more than two decades, could have been compromised by the duplication of services provided by its New Brunswick neighbor and competitor.
The victory will not be enough to stop the secular hospital from operating its facility, however. In June, while the appellate judges were still deliberating the case, RWJUH quietly obtained a certificate of need from the DHSS without the customary process of public testimony being given.
According to attorney Steven S. Radin, representing SPUH, this new move by the DHSS is now the subject of another appeal, filed earlier this month by the diocesan hospital. He stated, “The DHSS granted the certificate as part of an expedited review process, which is normally only granted in emergency circumstances.”
He continued, “There was no risk to the public’s health, and we feel that the DHSS had no statutory authority to grant the certificate of need.” SPUH, with its long-standing reputation for treating high-risk pregnancies and premature births, was the first in the state to be cited as a regional perinatal center in 1992 when the designation process began.
Had due process been observed in considering the RWJUH review for a certificate of need, there is a strong likelihood that the hospital would not have received it. SPUH officials have reported that their RPC has reached only 80 percent capacity, at most.
The recent appellate decision offers one answer in a battle between RWJUH and St. Peter’s that began in 2002, when the state Health Care Administration Board approved regulations that waived the certificate of need for regional perinatal centers. The ruling allowed RWJUH to develop an RPC within close proximity to the long-existing facility at St. Peter’s without demonstrating that a need existed.
A 1998 law eliminating certificate of- need requirements for some healthcare services did not deregulate regional perinatal centers, the judges found. They noted that, in fact, in 2000, a commission created by the state Legislature to study the certificate-of-need process recommended that regional perinatal centers remain regulated.
In that study, the commission found that certificates of need control competition and ensure that hospitals deal with a sufficient volume of patients to maintain staff skills and financial viability, thus maintaining the quality of health care.
Radin said the ongoing dispute will
be decided in the courts when the state
Appellate Division rules on St. Peter’s
most recent appeal of the state’s recent
issuance of a certificate of need without
due process.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law