First-year audit finds fault in for-profit hospital's finances

A year after a for-profit company took over Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center and vowed to shore up its finances, the hospital posted a 10 percent profit—more than four times the state average—and paid its investors $8.4 million, according to a draft financial report submitted to the state. But the audit also states that the 230-bed hospital in Secaucus defaulted on a loan and overdrew a bank account by $1 million in 2011. Employees say paychecks have bounced at least three times since December, prompting an investigation by the state Department of Labor.