The House of Representatives overwhelmingly gave final approval Wednesday to a measure fixing technical flaws with the hospital tax, a renters’ rebate program and other aspects of the new state budget.
Hospitals
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Senate passes hospital tax fix
The Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to fix a series of technical issues in the new state budget, including a flaw with the new hospital provider tax increase.
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Legislators to return for limited revisions to bipartisan budget
Legislative leaders agreed Thursday to call lawmakers back to Hartford next week to revise, but not “re-litigate” the bipartisan budget passed last month, primarily by changing terms of what Gov. Dannel P. Malloy complained was a flawed hospital tax that could cost Connecticut hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid reimbursements. The session will provide a modest coda to one of Connecticut’s longest struggles to finalize a budget.
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Administration warns of flaw in hospital tax
The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy warned legislators Wednesday of a flaw in the bipartisan budget’s hospital tax provision that could open a $1 billion gap in the two-year spending plan, a message coolly received by lawmakers in a mood to celebrate an end to the state’s long budget impasse.
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After 117-day marathon, Senate passes bipartisan budget
The Senate took a major step early Thursday toward ending Connecticut’s nearly 17-week budget impasse, overwhelmingly adopting a $41.3 billion, two-year plan that closes huge deficits without raising income or sales tax rates, imposes modest cuts on local aid, and provides emergency assistance to keep Hartford out of bankruptcy.
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More CT hospitals end 2016 in the black but fiscal picture mixed
Twenty of the 28 hospitals in Connecticut had positive total margins — meaning they were in the black — in the 2016 fiscal year, up from 17 the year before, according to a report by the state Office of Health Care Access.
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Malloy would accept sales, hospital tax hikes to restore town aid
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed a major increase in state taxes on hospitals to leverage federal dollars, along with a modest sales tax hike, in a compromise intended to end a budget impasse that’s in its third month and has left Connecticut as one of the last two states without a budget.
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Advocates: Disabled children stranded in CT hospital ERs
Insufficient services, a complex funding system and deep state budget cuts have increasingly stranded developmentally disabled children in hospital emergency departments over the past year, often for weeks at a time, two state advocates told legislators Thursday.
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CT hospitals rally to block tax hikes
Connecticut’s hospitals intensified their push Wednesday to block hundreds of millions of dollars in tax increases recommended for their industry by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
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Hospitals say they face hidden, $156M tax hike in Malloy budget
Connecticut hospitals would pay $156 million more in state taxes over the next two years under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s new budget — an increase Malloy did not report to legislators when presenting his biennial plan on Feb. 8, the Connecticut Hospital Association says.
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No one wants a share of CT’s teacher pension bill
Municipalities and hospitals both fear the new cost burdens they would assume in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget would grow quickly as state retirement benefit costs surge in the coming years.
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Hospitals blast Malloy’s proposal to subject them to property taxes
The governor’s plan would also cut an $11.8 million fund that has provided money to small, independent hospitals. And it would restore the administration’s ability to unilaterally cut funding to hospitals through a technical budgeting change.
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Doc, now Rep. Petit, on health care, victims’ rights and small business
William Petit is one of 35 newly elected members of the Connecticut General Assembly, but he’s probably the only one whose November election made national news. He spoke with The Mirror about his new job as a legislator, changes in how doctors practice, diabetes, the federal health law, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s Second Chance Society criminal justice reform initiatives, victims’ rights, and the assumptions people have about him.
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A legacy of debt: When fiscal reality meets political spin
As state government’s fiscal challenges became increasingly daunting, politicians for years nonetheless downplayed the risk and wooed voters with unrealistic promises. Last story in a five-part series
Posted inHealth, Politics
‘It’s a public health crisis:’ Malloy proposals target opioids
The proposals include requiring physicians to prescribe opioids electronically rather than on paper; allowing visiting nurses to destroy unused medication; and allowing patients to direct that they not be prescribed an opioid medication.