Five months after providers requested additional coronavirus aid to help operators facing financial turmoil caused by the pandemic, Connecticut officials announced the state will send another $31.2 million in funding to long-term care facilities.
Gov. Ned Lamont (D) announced the additional support for providers on Wednesday. The aid package not only provides $31.2 million from the state’s Coronavirus Relief Fund through increased Medicaid payments, it also defers plans to recover $23.4 million in previously issued interim payments until fiscal year 2022 for operators.
“These critical financial supports for our nursing homes will facilitate the continued ability to manage the virus until we have widespread access to a vaccine,” Melissa McCaw, secretary for Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management, said in a statement.
“By combining state and federal resources, we are able to provide retroactive increases for the efforts already undertaken and the increased costs the facilities face over the winter, particularly to recognize the sacrifice and commitments made by critical staff during the course of this public health crisis,” McCaw added.
The Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities in July called on the state to provide more than $300 million in additional aid to help providers maintain care levels while suffering from depleting revenues, the CT Mirror reported.
The organization, along with LeadingAge Connecticut, said the state’s latest effort to help providers during the public health crisis “recognizes the unprecedented resources that nursing homes have been committing to prevent and defeat the virus.”
“Together with the newly launched vaccination effort, this additional financial assistance once more demonstrates the strong partnership between the long term care community and the administration to protect our nursing home residents,” the groups said in a joint statement.
