Rep. Rutigliano Joins Advocates for Connecticut Hospital Day
HARTFORD- State Rep. David Rutigliano (R-123) participated in Connecticut Hospital Day at the State Capitol Wednesday April 5th sponsored by the Connecticut Hospital Association.
Rep. Rutigliano met with staff of Bridgeport Hospital and Raymond Baldwin, the President and CEO of St. Vincent’s Special Needs Services in Trumbull, an affiliate of St. Vincent’s Medical Center.
Connecticut Hospital Day is a day for hospital staff and administrators to have substantive discussions with legislators about the issues that are critical to hospitals, including proposed hospital cuts and taxes in the state budget as well as regulatory burdens that would negatively affect hospitals.
Rep. Rutigliano mentioned how he is opposed to the Malloy administration’s budget proposal, which authorizes municipalities to impose a property tax on not-for-profit hospitals. The proposal also eliminates the hospital tax base year, increasing the hospital tax by nearly $80 million a year; eliminates the separate budget line item for hospital supplemental payments; eliminates the small hospital pool.
This year the industry will pay an estimated $556 million into the state, and receive just $118 million back. By not returning the full $556 million, Connecticut forfeits hundreds of millions of dollars in potential federal Medicaid payments.
The Connecticut hospital health systems contribute $26.2 billion to the state and local economies. They employ 100,000 people and invest $1.6 billion in community benefit initiatives each year. They have lost about 3,000 hospital jobs in Connecticut since 2011.