Some funds

restored but

DKH cuts

continue

PUTNAM — Governor Dannell Malloy said he would restore 95 percent of the small hospital appropriation to the six hospitals in the state that qualify for that funding including Day Kimball Hospital, a part of the Day Kimball Healthcare (DKH) integrated health system. For DKH, this equates to about $2.8 million in restored funding, from the previous cuts expected to total $5.6 million through the end of DKH’s fiscal year in September, 2016.

DKH President and CEO Robert Smanik said, “We are very pleased and thankful to the Governor for recognizing the critical importance of restoring these funds to small community hospitals. We are also thankful to our local legislators for their efforts in working with the Governor on behalf of the health and wellness of the communities we serve.

While the restoration of these funds will bring a bit of much needed and welcome relief, it will still only cover about one-third of the roughly $9 million budget gap we face in our 2016 fiscal year, which just began on October 1.

Like all hospitals across the state, we are still faced with the loss of the supplemental appropriation. That was the other piece of hospital funding that was rescinded and that piece has not been restored. For Day Kimball, that amounts to nearly $2 million in lost revenue.

In addition to the loss of that funding, our hospital tax will increase by about $2 million this year. And we were already headed into this fiscal year with a projected deficit of about $1.5 million, due to seven previous unexpected cuts in Medicaid reimbursement rates in fiscal year 2015 as well as other supplemental funding cuts in the two years prior.

So while the restoration of most of the small hospital funding will help, it is not enough to prevent the need for DKH to move forward with the cuts to our staffing and operations that were announced yesterday. We must continue on that course in order to ensure that we can continue to provide high quality health care to northeastern Connecticut.”