AN ACT CONCERNING AN INCREASE IN RATES FOR CERTAIN CHRONIC DISEASE HOSPITALS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Subsection (a) of section 17b-239 of the 2012 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof. (Effective July 1, 2012):

(a) The rate to be paid by the state to hospitals receiving appropriations granted by the General Assembly and to freestanding chronic disease hospitals, providing services to persons aided or cared for by the state for routine services furnished to state patients, shall be based upon reasonable cost to such hospital, or the charge to the general public for ward services or the lowest charge for semiprivate services if the hospital has no ward facilities, imposed by such hospital, whichever is lowest, except to the extent, if any, that the commissioner determines that a greater amount is appropriate in the case of hospitals serving a disproportionate share of indigent patients. Such rate shall be promulgated annually by the Commissioner of Social Services. Nothing contained in this section shall authorize a payment by the state for such services to any such hospital in excess of the charges made by such hospital for comparable services to the general public. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, for the rate period beginning July 1, 2000, rates paid to freestanding chronic disease hospitals and freestanding psychiatric hospitals shall be increased by three per cent. For the rate period beginning July 1, 2001, a freestanding chronic disease hospital or freestanding psychiatric hospital shall receive a rate that is two and one-half per cent more than the rate it received in the prior fiscal year and such rate shall remain effective until December 31, 2002. Effective January 1, 2003, a freestanding chronic disease hospital or freestanding psychiatric hospital shall receive a rate that is two per cent more than the rate it received in the prior fiscal year. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection, for the period commencing July 1, 2001, and ending June 30, 2003, the commissioner may pay an additional total of no more than three hundred thousand dollars annually for services provided to long-term ventilator patients. For purposes of this subsection, "long-term ventilator patient" means any patient at a freestanding chronic disease hospital on a ventilator for a total of sixty days or more in any consecutive twelve-month period. Effective July 1, 2007, each freestanding chronic disease hospital shall receive a rate that is four per cent more than the rate it received in the prior fiscal year. Effective July 1, 2012, and annually thereafter, each freestanding chronic disease hospital that receives more than fifty per cent of its patient-service revenue from the Medicaid program, shall receive an increase in its rate equal to or greater than the most recent rehabilitation, psychiatric, long-term care market basket update percentage published in the Federal Register.

Statement of Purpose:

To increase state rates to freestanding chronic disease hospitals that receive more than fifty per cent of patient-service revenues from the Medicaid program.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]