Connecticut hospitals and health systems contributed $27.7 billion to the state and local economies in 2016, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the Connecticut Hospital Association (CHA).
The economic impact detailed in CHA’s 2018 Economic Impact Report is $1.5 billion more than the $26.2 billion impact in 2015 cited in last year’s report.
This year’s report includes six requests for state lawmakers:
-Protect the agreement between hospitals and the Malloy administration regarding taxes paid by hospitals and Medicaid payments to hospitals.
-Bring Medicaid rates in line the national average. The report says Medicaid reimbursements to Connecticut hospitals are among the lowest in the U.S.
-Protect access to patient care in light of potential changes to health care at the federal level.
-Support a Certificate of Need process that treats hospitals fairly and equally with other providers, entities and out-of-state specialty hospitals.
-Don’t pass legislation that imposes additional regulatory burdens on hospitals.
-Improve mental health care by matching bed availability with patient need, funding substance use treatment and prevention programs, and increasing funding for programs that emphasize an integrated approach to patient care.
CHA’s latest analysis uses data from fiscal year 2016 audited financial statements of hospitals and health systems. The economic impact figure includes a multiplier effect for direct and indirect spending.
Hospital and health systems employ 104,000 people in Connecticut. Counting indirect jobs, the sector generates a total of 207,130 Connecticut jobs created by the sector, CHA said.
In 2016, Connecticut’s hospitals and health systems spent $7.6 billion on payroll, but with nearly every job creating another outside the hospital, the ripple effect produced total payroll of $15.4 billion, the report said. Including the ripple effect, hospitals and health systems accounted for $10.6 billion of spending on goods and services and $1.7 billion in capital spending, the report found.
DOWNLOAD PDFs
