Four acute-care hospitals in New Jersey have closed this year: Barnert in Paterson, St. James and Columbus in Newark, and Liberty Health Greenville in Jersey City. A fifth hospital, Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield, will shut its doors Wednesday.

The law, which Corzine signed Friday, gives the state Department of Health and Senior Services the authority and access to information needed to monitor hospital finances.

The department should then be able to identify financially troubled hospitals before a crisis strikes.

"Through this legislation, the Department of Health will have an early warning when a hospital becomes fiscally unstable and will be able to intervene before the fiscal instability gives way to fiscal insolvency, and yet another health-care facility in the Garden State has to close its doors forever," said State Sen. Robert Gordon (D., Bergen), a chief sponsor of the bill.

The state budget approved in June cut funding for hospitals and many other services. But Corzine in June also approved $44 million for a special fund to help hospitals especially in distress.

The New Jersey Hospital Association has said much more needs to be done to address problems for the more than 70 acute-care hospitals in the state, including lack of reimbursement for services and what the association describes as "chronic underfunding" of hospital care for the poorest patients.

Along with the early-warning-system bill, Corzine signed three other bills meant to improve safety and accountability at hospitals.

One measure bars hospitals from charging more than 15 percent above the Medicare rate.

The law is meant to ensure that working-poor families without insurance aren't overcharged for health care.

Another law requires acute-care and state psychiatric hospitals to hold annual meetings with their communities.

The third requires hospital board members to go through training on their roles and responsibilities.

"The state has a responsibility to the taxpayers to ensure that the billions in public dollars distributed to hospitals are spent as efficiently as possible," said Heather Howard, the state health commissioner.