SECAUCUS – Last Friday, Health Commissioner Mary O’Dowd issued a recommendation that all hospitals, including for-profit hospitals, should disclose their annual financial statements to the public. Thomas Considine, CEO of Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, a for-profit facility, responded on Monday by saying, “We at Meadowlands are not opposed to the concept of transparency, but I believe transparency should extend through the health care sector,” according to njbiz.com.

Considine, who took over as CEO of Meadowlands on May 1, said he would expand the disclosure to include other aspects of the health care industry including health insurers, large physician practices, and more.

He stopped short of saying that Meadowlands Hospital would comply with the recommendations, saying he needed time to study them and review the consensus in the hospital community.

The majority of Hudson County’s six hospitals have switched from nonprofit to for-profit facilities within the past 10 years. Nonprofit hospitals are currently required to report their finances to the IRS annually. This information is available to the public. For-profit hospitals report their finances to the Department of Health. The public must file an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) to request this information.

Certain financial information from for-profits is considered proprietary and is not available to the public. O’Dowd’s recommendations did not require for-profit hospitals to disclose proprietary information to the public.