Willis will fight ‘to the wire’ to save hospital

LAKEVILLE — Reached at home for an interview by phone Monday, March 11, state Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) noted that the fiscal issues faced by Sharon Hospital, and the state’s 29 other hospitals, are “somewhat complicated. Even if we solve the problem statewide, that won’t get Sharon Hospital out of the woods. But I am fully prepared to go down to the wire on this.”Willis has been working to inform her colleagues in Hartford of the challenges faced by Sharon Hospital, as well as the hospitals in their districts, as a result of fewer dollars coming into their coffers from the state and federal governments. “It was a myth that hospitals reaped extra money from federal dollars coming in. What happened was that from 2003, when about 33,000 people were eligible for Medicaid in the state, to 2011, the number of eligible people increased to 87,000, and so the size of the losses increased as well. Today, hospitals in Connecticut are losing $1.6 million a day on Medicaid patients and those who can’t pay for services.”Gov. Dannel P. Malloy incorporated what he believes will be revenue gains in his budget proposal over two years. “We make up the losses,” Willis said. “They gave us more, but now they’re taking it all back.” But it’s a lot of money to make up, about $650 million in reductions for this fiscal year. Where will they find the money?“It’s a major do-over,” she said. “We want to keep towns whole, keep education financed, keep property taxes level, but Medicaid is a big number to make up.”Sharon Hospital has the added challenge of being a for-profit entity, therefore paying many layers of taxes, all the way to sales tax on the major medical equipment it needs to purchase, Willis said. “Something will have to give. Programs that lose money, yet provide a vital service to patients, will have to be cut.” The hospital’s wound care center, which is a service for many in the region who have diabetes, was used as one example of a department that might have to be cut. The hospital already cut 26 positions a year ago, but more cuts could create a situation where the hospital can’t provide the same level of service to the community, she said.Willis is on the Sharon Hospital Advisory Board, and has been since the time it was formed when the hospital converted from nonprofit to for-profit in 2002. She was involved deeply with the entire process of the conversion at that time, she said. “It was my first big initiative in the Legislature,” she said. “For me, Sharon Hospital is not some abstract place. My mother was born there in 1927, and all my children were born there. So I am invested in the hospital’s success, and want to solve anything that puts it in harm’s way. “Sharon Hospital will still have problems, but it hasn’t been on the Distressed Hospital list since the conversion and we want to keep it that way. Other hospitals in the state are on that list now, and some of them are now looking to go for-profit.”A strong marketAsked what effect the recently robust stock market might have on Connecticut’s economy, Willis said that more companies in the state are now making a profit, and so there should be an increase in capital gains and dividends revenue. “Connecticut is so dependent upon that,” she said. “But the downside is that there is still relatively high unemployment. Companies may be making more money, and productivity is up, but they found ways to do more with less during the height of the recession. So they are not necessarily hiring new employees yet.“We need to have more hiring happen to really come out of the downturn. But the needles are moving in the right direction.”