As hospital leaders warn of potential job cuts and service reductions in response to state funding cuts, the six- and seven-figure pay packages of Connecticut hospital executives have emerged as a point of contention — to some, a red herring to distract from the state’s fiscal policy, while others view it as a way to point out misplaced priorities at nonprofit hospitals at a time when executive pay and income disparities have become a rallying cry in national politics.
Hospitals
Posted inHealth
St. Mary’s Hospital to join national chain, St. Francis
St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury announced plans to join a national nonprofit Catholic health care chain that will soon include St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, the latest in a flurry of moves by Connecticut hospitals to join larger networks.
Posted inHealth, Money
Market jitters prompt Malloy to make $103M in emergency cuts
Responding to a weak stock market, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered $103 million in emergency cuts Friday, including a major hit in Medicaid payments that will ultimately cost hospitals about $190 million in state and federal funds.
Posted inMoney
Popular proposal for tax reform: Roll back recent increases
A public hearing on how to reform Connecticut’s tax system evolved Wednesday — at least in part — into a critique of the $1.3 billion tax hike built into the two-year state budget legislators and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy approved earlier this summer.
Posted inHealth, Money
Obamacare and hospital finances, in nine charts
What really happened to hospitals since Obamacare’s 2010 passage? To find out, we looked at recently released financial data from the 2014 fiscal year, the first after the major coverage expansion provisions of the health law took effect.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Law enforcement access to CT drug monitoring data raises privacy concern
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Prescription Monitoring Program aims to stop the misuse of opioids and other dangerous drugs and save lives. But some are concerned these programs have given law enforcement officers access to private information about prescription drugs in your medicine cabinet.
Posted inHealth
Cuts at Windham Hospital prompt worries about access to care
The hospital’s parent company says cuts are needed to keep the hospital open, but critics say the reductions being contemplated could undermine access to care in a part of the state with few hospitals and limited public transportation.
Posted inHealth
Day Kimball, Hartford HealthCare exploring affiliation
Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam could become the next hospital to join Hartford HealthCare, the parent company of Hartford, Backus and Windham hospitals, MidState Medical Center and The Hospital of Central Connecticut.
Posted inHealth
New London, Westerly hospitals to join Yale New Haven system
The parent company of New London’s Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and Rhode Island’s Westerly Hospital has reached an agreement to join the Yale New Haven Health System, the two corporations announced Wednesday.
Posted inMoney, Politics
Legislature to return Monday for concessions to business
The legislature and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy would sacrifice pieces of their biggest initiatives – property tax reform and transportation, respectively – to help roll back about 10 percent of the tax hikes in the new state budget, sources from the House and Senate Democratic caucuses said Friday. Legislators return Monday for what they hope will be a one-day special session.
Posted inHealth
Why one independent hospital decided to explore going bigger
Every year, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital CEO Bruce Cummings has done what he calls a “back of the envelope” calculation about the merits of the New London hospital’s remaining independent or joining a larger system. “My thinking began to evolve last year as I looked out on the horizon and just saw just extraordinary changes,” he said.
Posted inHealth, Money, Politics
Revised forecast bleak: New federal data bursts CT’s economic bubble
The University of Connecticut’s economic think-tank predicted Thursday that the state’s job growth this year and next probably will stall or even decline — a dramatic reversal of its forecast of robust job growth issued just four months ago.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Casualties of Connecticut’s new budget: hospital services, access, and jobs
The new state budget is not finalized, yet the effect of taxing and underfunding hospitals is already being felt in the starkest terms: people are losing access to care, services, and jobs. This past week alone saw the announcements of clinic closings and hundreds of layoffs. If legislators do not restore much-needed funding to hospitals in the special session during the last week of June, hospitals will have to make additional painful choices. We can’t let this happen.
Posted inMoney, Politics
House Dems still searching for response to Malloy’s budget changes
Leaders of the House Democratic majority were optimistic Tuesday they could resolve the new state budget next week, but couldn’t say what changes — if any — might be made. House Democrats met for more than three hours behind closed doors to discuss last-minute revisions sought by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy as well as any legislators might want to make.
Posted inHealth
Lawrence + Memorial Hospital’s parent in talks to join Yale New Haven system
If the two sides reach an agreement, it would have the potential to make one of the state’s largest health systems even larger, continuing a trend toward consolidation that hospital officials say is inevitable and necessary, but which has provoked concern among some lawmakers, unions and community groups.