Christie approves funds for Cooper EMS takeover

TRENTON - The $33.8 billion budget Gov. Christie signed into law on Friday includes $2.5 million for Cooper University Hospital to provide emergency medical services in Camden, delivering a decisive setback to one of the current providers, which has protested the takeover and is considering legal action.

Christie's action came a day after the Legislature overwhelmingly approved a bill that would give Cooper the authority to operate paramedic services in the city, currently provided by rival Virtua Health System.

The bill would also let Cooper take over control of basic life services in Camden from the Newark-based University Hospital, which is state-owned. Cooper would thus have full control over emergency medical service in Camden, which the hospital says would lead to better continuity of care.

Christie has yet to act on the legislation, but his decision not to veto the $2.5 million included in the budget passed Thursday by the Legislature all but ensures that it will become law.

Cooper says it plans to use the money to replace old ambulances and for other start-up costs.

The budget also includes $2.5 million for the City of Newark to operate its own emergency medical service.

Christie said at a Statehouse news conference Friday that he had not reviewed the bill, but would "make a decision based on the merits" and what was best for "the people of Camden."

In an interview Friday, Virtua's chief executive, Richard P. Miller, said the hospital was considering legal action.

Virtua has provided paramedic services in Camden and every other town in Burlington and Camden Counties for 38 years. It obtained a license to operate there through a regulatory process overseen by the Department of Health.

Critics of the legislation, introduced this month, say it circumvented this process.

Miller said he had requested a meeting with Christie.

"If the governor signs this, it's a slap in the face to the Department of Health and the rule-making body that" adopted the regulatory framework, Miller said Friday.

He said the bill was "ramrodded through the Legislature in a very fast time period," limiting public comment and debate.

"The Department of Health didn't even weigh in on this," he added. "How can you not weigh in when somebody is destroying your certificate-of-need process right in front of you?" The department says it does not comment on pending legislation.

In an ironic twist, Miller said, the department on Friday issued a call for service for elective angioplasty. "The feeling is you can bypass" the regulatory process "for some things and not for others," he said.

Sixty-nine percent of patients in Camden are transported to Cooper, 29 percent to Our Lady of Lourdes, and 2 percent to Virtua.

Miller said he thought Cooper would take in more patients. "This is about controlling patient flow, in my mind," he said.

In a letter to legislators this week, Steven E. Ross, director of the Center for Trauma Services at Cooper, wrote that Health Department guidelines "require that a patient be brought to the closest, most appropriate facility or the hospital of their choice."

"If Cooper operates this service, we will work with the other facilities in Camden to assure these standards of care are met," he wrote.