{"id":797164,"date":"2026-08-01T09:44:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797164\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:44:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:44:23","slug":"connecticut-childrens-medical-center-facing-financial-and-staffing-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797164\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecticut Children\u2019s Medical Center facing financial and staffing challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Connecticut Children\u2019s Medical Center<\/a> is seeking to consolidate its inpatient pediatric services located at Saint Mary\u2019s Hospital<\/a> in Waterbury to its main campus in Hartford, a move reflective of the hospital\u2019s financial challenges\u00a0 staffing shortages and fewer patients coming to the satellite office, hospital officials said.<\/p>\n

Connecticut Children\u2019s Chief Operating Officer Bob Duncan said over the last decade hospital officials found the number of patients that needed inpatient care declined, down to less than three a day at the pediatric services unit at Saint Mary\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

He said the decline in patients occurred because routine conditions are less likely to need inpatient care and that the more medically complex, sicker children needed a level of care only available at the main hospital in Hartford. Sicker patients were transferred to the main hospital in Hartford for treatment, he said.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s only health system dedicated entirely to children submitted its application for a Certificate of Need approval (CON) from the Office of Health Strategy to relocate its pediatric services. A hearing was scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n

While battling financial and staffing challenges, the hospital is also serving children with more complex pediatric conditions including complex cardiac, neurosurgical, congenital anomalies, cancer and blood disorders.<\/p>\n

Duncan said the stagnation in Medicaid reimbursement rates, inflation, drug and labor costs have all negatively impacted the hospital.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers and advocates for hospitals say that the state has some of the lowest Medicaid reimbursement rates in the country and that legislation seeking to address the issue failed to make it out of committee last year. They say that the gap between the cost of care and reimbursement is impacting patient care.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at Medicaid rates in the state of Connecticut we have not seen an increase in almost 12 years. Yet, our expenses and costs go up and labor doesn\u2019t come cheap. We have to be competitive financially to attract that talent,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n

Duncan said the hospital loses about 47 cents on every dollar that is spent taking care of those covered by Medicaid, which is about 56% of the hospital\u2019s patients.<\/p>\n

Connecticut Children\u2019s currently employs 900 nurses and is experiencing staff shortages. Specific numbers on that shortage were not available by publication.<\/p>\n

Connecticut Children\u2019s reported an $18.3 million operating loss for fiscal year 2025. Fitch Ratings downgraded the hospital\u2019s credit rating from an A+ to A.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe downgrade reflects an operating loss and a weakening in unrestricted liquidity in FY25,\u201d Fitch said in a press release.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Fitch Ratings reported a \u201cStable Outlook\u201d for the hospital, which it said is reflected in \u201cstronger fundraising.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany children\u2019s hospitals as well as adult hospitals are seeing downgrades in this current environment where the Medicaid payments are not keeping up with the cost of inflation and doing business,\u201d Duncan said.<\/p>\n

The hospital recently received a $1 million \u201cphilanthropic commitment from Frank Ferrucci and the Ferrucci family to support Connecticut Children\u2019s new eight-story clinical tower,\u201d according to a release from the hospital.<\/p>\n

Duncan said the commitment \u201cstrengthens our philanthropic base but does not replace state funding, insurance reimbursement, fundraising or operating revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to continue to advocate for sustainable funding and equitable Medicaid rates for children\u2019s health,\u201d he said. \u201cThis gift is also spread over the course of five years and not a one-time lump sum.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medicaid reimbursement rates<\/p>\n

The Connecticut Hospital Association<\/a> has said that Connecticut\u2019s \u201cdistressingly low Medicaid reimbursement rates lag significantly behind other states and create barriers to health care access for low-income residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email to the Courant, a CHA spokesperson said that hospitals \u201ccontinue to face significant economic headwinds driven by the gap between the cost of care and reimbursement from government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which creates challenges for hospital sustainability and healthcare access.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn FY 2024, those underpayments totaled nearly $3 billion, including $1.46 billion in Medicaid losses,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cConnecticut hospitals continue to work closely with state and federal policymakers and partners across the healthcare delivery system to address these pressures and protect access to care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Jeff Gordon, a Woodstock Republican, and member of the state\u2019s Public Health Committee, said the Medicaid reimbursement rates are some of the worst in the country. He advocated last year to raise the rates but said the legislation did not make it out of committee.<\/p>\n

He said he modeled his proposal similar to the state of Indiana, which raised its Medicaid reimbursement rates, phasing them in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was extremely disappointing,\u201d he said of the legislation failing to pass. \u201cWe see that the failure of Connecticut to up its Medicaid reimbursement rates affects hospitals just as it affects private practice doctors and other healthcare professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was told the proposal was too expensive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had data to show that it wasn\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a bigger state like Indiana was able to handle it and get it done in a bipartisan way why couldn\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n

He said not increasing the Medicaid reimbursement rates would harm patient care when the hospitals can\u2019t provide the services.<\/p>\n

Gordon said every hospital is facing such an issue and that he is hoping to introduce another proposal in the next legislative session.<\/p>\n

Sen. Saud Anwar, a South Windsor Democrat and co-chair of the state\u2019s Public Health Committee, said the state\u2019s Medicaid reimbursement rates are harming the sustainability of the healthcare system.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason we don\u2019t have the workforce is because the workforce is deciding to go to other states so that they can have a better life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Heather Somers, a Groton Republican and the ranking member on the Public Health Committee, said if the state wants to provide access to good healthcare it needs to look at increasing its Medicaid reimbursement rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to prioritize our rates because as more and more people are going on Medicaid we\u2019re not going to have any doctors if we can\u2019t pay them what they should be paid in order to provide the services,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Relocating Waterbury unit<\/p>\n

In 2007, Connecticut Children\u2019s opened its pediatric unit at Saint Mary\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Duncan said that he observed over the last decade \u201ca decline in the number of patients that need an inpatient unit down to less than three a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saint Mary\u2019s Unit includes 12 inpatient beds, according to the hospital\u2019s CON application.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Proposal is necessary due to a number of factors, including staffing pressures on Connecticut Children\u2019s that have forced Connecticut Children\u2019s to relocate needed providers and staff to its other clinical locations, including its main Hartford campus and its specialized neonatal intensive care units where there is a greater need for staffing support,\u201d the CON application said.<\/p>\n

Duncan said, \u201cat the end of the day our responsibility is to deploy what we have as finite resources where they can help the greatest number of children.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the data showed that those from Waterbury and other parts of the state are coming to Hartford where they can get that specialized pediatric care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duncan said that caring for children is important.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may only make up 25% of our population but the reality is they are 100% of our future,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if we are not taking care of them now, our future is bleak.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Connecticut Children\u2019s Medical Center is seeking to consolidate its inpatient pediatric services located at Saint Mary\u2019s Hospital in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[338320,338318,233256,15861,53869,15862,97,252,253,168221,327108,338319,204513,204512],"class_list":["post-797164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-47-cents","tag-connecticut-childrens-medical-center","tag-connecticut-hospital-association","tag-ct-news","tag-fitch-ratings","tag-hartford-courant","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-max-image-preview","tag-medicaid-reimbursement-rates","tag-sen-heather-gordon","tag-sen-jeff-gordon","tag-sen-saud-anwar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}