DENVER – The $28.3 billion state budget cleared the Legislature on Wednesday.
That means that the loss of $264 million in federal matching funds for hospitals in the 2017-18 fiscal year is merely awaiting the signature of Gov. John Hickenlooper in the next 30 days.
Approval of the Long Bill, as the budget is known, was done with plenty of hand wringing by lawmakers over the cut to healthcare providers by reducing the amount collected by the Hospital Provider Fee. That was done in an effort to balance the state’s budget and avoid exceeding the revenue limit under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, TABOR.
The amount collected by the state through the provider fee is matched by the federal government and distributed to hospitals to subsidize the cost of treatment for individuals on Medicaid or without insurance. The formula for the distribution favors rural hospitals and they will be disproportionately affected and potentially have to cut staff or in extreme cases close their doors.
“This budget isn’t a perfect product, the Joint Budget Committee has been very clear about that all along,” said Sen. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City and member of the JBC, which crafted the bill.
There is hope for hospitals in Senate Bill 267, which would reclassify the Hospital Provider Fee, remove the funds it generates from TABOR limit and do away with the need to balance the budget on the backs of providers. But negotiations on the measure stalled earlier this week. Lawmakers and hospitals hope the issues can be resolved in the closing days of the session, which ends May 10.
“I sincerely hope that we muster the political courage to fix what is wrong in this budget, to ensure that rural hospitals don’t close,” Moreno said.
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