Pending Senate Bill Would Mandate Hospitals’ Adoption and Public Disclosure of Conflict of Interest Policy

Publication: GB LAW View the article On February 4, 2010, the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee approved Senate Bill No. 369, sponsored by Senators Loretta Weinberg and Robert Gordon, which, if passed, would require all general hospital boards of trustees to adopt written policies and procedures governing conflicts of interest on the part of board members as a condition of hospital licensure.  According to its sponsors, the bill is intended to implement a recommendation of the January 24, 2008 Final Report by the New Jersey Commission on Rationalizing Healthcare (“Commission”) that hospitals adopt stronger measures to foster transparency, which the Commission found to be essential to a hospital’s successful governance and service to the community.