In Englewood Hospital & Medical Center v. State, the Supreme Court of New Jersey unanimously rejected a challenge to New Jersey’s charity care requirement for hospitals. As summarized by the court, “[u]nder New Jersey’s charity care program, hospitals cannot turn away a patient for inability to pay, and patients who qualify for charity care shall not be billed for services rendered. Instead, . . . hospitals that serve a disproportionate number of low-income patients receive annual subsidies from the Health Care Subsidy Fund . . . in exchange for providing charity care” (citations omitted). A group of hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of low-income patients challenged the requirement under federal and state constitutional provisions prohibiting unlawful government takings, arguing that the state’s failure to provide sufficient subsidies to cover the costs of the required charity care violated these provisions. The court rejected this argument, concluding that the charity care requirement was not a private property “taking” within the meaning of these provisions nor was it an unconstitutional regulatory taking given “the highly regulated nature of the hospital industry and the legislatively declared paramount public interest that the charity care program serves.”
Lloyd Mayer
