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Politics & Government

State To Close Paramus Health Consortium, Cut Costs

After merging three health agencies into one, the State of New Jersey is expected to close the Northern New Jersey Maternal and Child Health Consortium in Paramus by September.

As the state continues consolidating departments to reduce costs, a Paramus-based non-for-profit office dedicated to helping pregnant women and children has become the latest statistic on the budget chopping block.

According to The Record, the Northern New Jersey Maternal and Child Health Consortium, which is located at 17 Arcadian Avenue, will be shut down by next next month, and will reemerge as part of the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey in Newark.

The Gateway Northwest Consortium in Newark, and a Hudson county consortium will merge with the Paramus agency to make the cost reduction possible.  

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The Northern New Jersey Maternal and Child Health Consortium provides education on breast feeding, black infant mortality rate reduction resorces, postpartum depression assistance, and many more according to their website

According to the state website, some of the primary functions of the consortium includes development of comprehensive perinatal/pediatric regional plans, and data analysis to name a few.

Find out what's happening in Fort Leewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The consortium collects data from electronic birth certificates filed at its member hospitals, which is then evaluated and reconfigured into regional data to determine key indicators of maternal and child health in the state.

The writing was on the wall in November 2010 when it was reported that Christie's administration wanted the consortiums consolidated to save the state up to $6 million annually.    

Funding for the consortia comes from all New Jersey-based hospitals with maternity and/or pediatric services, and consortium member hospitals, according to the state website. 

Paramus Patch will have more details on this latest development soon.    

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