Hospital payments feature in new Senate spending bill
BOSTON (SHNS) – The Senate next Wednesday plans to vote on a $532 million budget bill that delivers more than $340 million for hospitals and community health centers and additional aid for elder home care services and rental assistance, while creating a fund to expand artwork in Senate quarters within the State House.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee, which has now opted to pursue a trio of incremental spending packages based on Gov. Maura Healey's $756 million spending request from April 2, polled the bill Thursday morning and the Senate agreed to take it up on Wednesday, with amendments due by Monday afternoon.
The package (S 2529) contains $174 million for payments to 'fiscally strained acute care hospitals' and $35 million for payments to 'fiscally strained community health centers.' Another big item in the bill is $134.5 million for the Medical Assistance Trust Fund, which provides payments to acute care hospitals that deliver a large percentage of their services to MassHealth members, according to the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation.
The bill steers funds to dozens of accounts that were underfunded in the fiscal 2025 annual budget.
Elder care providers, who have sought more money to keep up with demand for basic and intensive home care services, would receive $60 million.
Other outlays in the bill are $42.9 million for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program, $15.5 million to replace electronic benefits cards, $10 million for grants to municipalities to cover 'extraordinary emergency medical service costs,' $4.2 million for the State Police Crime Laboratory, $5.8 million for veterans' benefits, $28.9 million for settlements and judgements, and $400,000 for Women, Infants and Children program manufacturer rebates.
Healey in May signed two supplemental budgets stemming from Healey's filing. Those bills delivered $190 million to ensure child care providers serving low-income families would continue to get paid in June, and $240 million to rescue the budget of the state commission that administers public employee health insurance.
The latest supplemental budget also looks to expand the authority of the secretary of the Executive Office of Aging and Independence to transfer funds between accounts, create a task force to review and make recommendations about the Health Safety Net Trust Fund, establish the Office of the Inspector General Recovery Fund, and launch a Senate Artistic Upgrade and Representation Fund, according to a summary.
'The Senate is committed to preserving the historic spaces it occupies in the State House and believes in the importance of increasing the visibility of underrepresented groups through the artworks visible in this working museum,' Senate Ways and Means Committee spokesperson Sean Fitzgerald said in a statement. 'The Senate is planning on adding two new sculptures to the Senate Chamber to commemorate the contributions of women and people of color to the history of the Commonwealth.'
According to the bill, the fund will be administered by the Senate's chief financial officer and may be used in connection with 'upgrading and restoring historical and artistic qualities of quarters in the state house used by the members of the senate and its employees. The current Senate CFO is William Rinaldi.
Another policy section, mirroring language in Healey's bill, allows pharmacies operated by the Department of Public Health to distribute medication abortion, including from the state's stockpile of mifepristone, Fitzgerald said. He said the provision would 'effectuate the intent' of Healey's 2023 executive order protecting access to medication abortion.
The governor's order, which affirmed the 2022 abortion shield law and was issued in response to a federal court in Texas suspending FDA approval of mifepristone, sought to ensure that providers and pharmacists could continue stocking and dispensing the pills. It also sought to protect providers and patients from criminal and civil charges.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
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