Hospitals across the state have received approximately $150 million in payments the state held back in March, the Office of Policy and Management said.
The so-called supplemental payments represent the portion of the provider tax that the state returns to its acute-care hospitals.
Payments were disbursed on June 20, OPM spokesman GianCarl Casa said Tuesday.
OPM Secretary Benjamin Barnes, who is Gov. Dannel Malloy’s budget director, said in March that he was holding back the funds because of the state’s worsening fiscal picture. At the time, he said he wasn’t optimistic about paying out any further fiscal year 2016 supplemental payments.
But the budget passed by legislators in May provided a new line item specifically for supplemental payments, which reduces the amount by which the administration can cut those funds, according to the Connecticut Mirror.
Since fiscal year 2012, the provider tax has allowed the state to receive Medicaid matching funds from the federal government.
In the first year of the tax, the state reimbursed hospitals more than they paid in taxes, but the reimbursement has fallen each year since then.
The estimated net impact to hospitals in fiscal year 2016 – accounting for the tax, supplemental payments and payments from a fund for smaller hospitals – amounted to approximately $392 million, according to a February report from the Office of Legislative Research.
