Hospital Authority Extends Exclusivity With Bidder; No Agreement Reached Yet

Following a two-hour closed session Wednesday night, the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority announced it will continue exclusive negotiations with HUMC Holdco LLC, the final bidder in the process of purchasing the Hoboken University Medical Center.

Chairwoman of the HMHA, Toni Tomarazzo, announced that a special meeting will be held on Wednesday April 20, to vote on the contract. The extra week is needed, she said, because the contract is very complex.

But, Tomarazzo added, "significant progress" had been made with Part of the hold up is ensuring that the hospital stays an acute care facility for the long term. When asked how long "long term" would be, Tomarazzo did not give a time line.

The other requirements the bidder needs to fulfill is to keep all the jobs—the Hospital has more than 1,000 employees—and maintain HUMC as an acute care facility.

"Our model meets all the requirements," said Geoff Teed, President of Paradigm Physician Partners,Teed, who attended Wednesday night's meeting in hopes of , said P3 would keep the hospital open and would turn it into a not-for-profit operation. Under HUMC's ownership the hospital would be for-profit.

If the hospital remains not-for-profit, Teed added, patients on Medicaire and those who are under- or uninsured would still be able to use the facility.

Even if the Authority votes on a contract on Wednesday, the state will still have to approve the sale and award a Certificate of Need Authorization.

The details of the contract have remained confidential. Tomarazzo would not release any specifics about the deal, but said that the contract would be made public at the next meeting, when the Authority will vote on it.

The next Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday April 20, at Assumption Hall in the Hoboken University Medical Center.