City Receives Letter From State Approving “Third Party” Clinic for STD Services

By • Jan 26th, 2012 • Category: Blog, News

As the city expected, a letter arrived Wednesday from New Jersey’s Division of HIV, STD and TB Services affirming that the transfer of STD prevention services to a privately-operated health facility was on the right side of the law. But due to its lateness – the letter arrived just five minutes prior to Wednesday night’s City Council meeting according to Business Administrator Jack Kelly – the city opted to postpone the deal approving Horizon Health Center, the private health facility expected to replace the city-operated clinic pending Council approval, until the first meeting in February. The letter also approved the $75,000 state grant that would be transferred to Horizon.

After the 8-months of struggle, miscommunication, and doubt, a visibly relieved Kelly confirmed the state “has no objection to the arrangement.”

“It is the Department’s understanding that Jersey City will use a third party provider to provide STD services,” writes Division of HIV, STD, and TB Services Assistant Commissioner Connie Meyers. “The Department has no objection to such an arrangement, and we look forward to working with you as you continue to provide necessary STD services to your community.”

What the letter does not say, however, is whether the city had adopted all of the recommendations put forward by the state in their agreement with Horizon. In fact, a previous letter expressed concern over this, and the letter makes no mention of the recommendations. That the city can legally transfer these services is not news.

In the meantime, the city will arrange a meeting early next week to bring together representatives from the city and the STD clinic.

“The purpose of the meeting between the administration, council members and staff of the STD clinic is to ensure that all parties are in agreement on the nature and scope of services that will be provided by Horizon and that those services are better or equal to what city is presently providing,” said city spokeswoman Jennifer Morill.

The move is a cost-saving measure that will save the city $525,000, an important step for Kelly as he works to temper the year’s expenditures.

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is a staff writer for the Jersey City Independent.
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  • Anonymous

    The Clinic’s supporters have kept saying is that the Clinic doesn’t simply provide STD services — it *also* provides tracking and statistical information in order to comply with federal and state requirements. *That* part of the Clinic’s services can not be “transferred” to a third party, and if you read the letter from the state, there is no actual language discussing this — it *only* states “STD services” without definition of what that term means. This idea that Kelly keeps floating around that a private company can provide “all” the services that the STD clinic does — when Kelly doesn’t even know how many patients the Clinic serves, or understands what regulations/statutes it has to comply with, or can’t even really *say* what the Clinic does at meetings over and over again  – once again tells me Kelly’s assertions in this matter — and all other City matters he’s advising on — should be re-examined. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were several lawsuits levied against the City in the future because Kelly insisted he had “checked everything out” when really, he just bamboozled the City Council into believing his word was “good enough” to get it through. The City Council needs to do its job because clearly, while the City is paying Kelly, it’s not clear how the heck he’s doing his.