DeLauro, Griffin Hospital President Charmel Recognize the Impact of COVID-19 Hotspot Funding Relief for CT Hospitals
DeLauro underscored the $8.7 million in funding for Griffin Hospital she helped secure in the CARES Act and pushed HHS to disburse
DERBY, CT — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), Chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee was joined by President and CEO of Griffin Health Services Patrick Charmel today to highlight the impact of the $8.7 million in funding for hospitals in coronavirus hotspots DeLauro helped secure in the CARES Act, historic federal relief legislation. They appeared at the Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital to emphasize the importance of federal coronavirus relief for Connecticut's hospitals as they recover from the lost revenue and increased costs of operating during this pandemic.
"Without additional support, we feared that health providers, like Griffin, would have had no choice but to scale back their COVID-19 response, despite the critical need in our state at the time," said DeLauro. "Scaling back meant potentially laying off essential workers, which ran completely counter to the intent of Congress, in providing the CARES Act funding to maintain America's health care workforce. And the reason we're here today is because, in HHS's second distribution, Griffin received $8.7 million in much-needed funding."
At the end of March, Congress passed the CARES Act which included $10 billion in high impact payments to hospitals in coronavirus hotspots. At the end of April, when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) distributed the first portion of these funds, Griffin Hospital was left out because of an arbitrary case threshold. Congresswoman DeLauro subsequently led the Connecticut delegation in urging the Secretary of HHS to release additional hotspots funding to the seventeen small- and medium-sized hospitals in Connecticut that were excluded. Successful in this push for emergency funding, Griffin Hospital received $8.7 million in much-needed funding.
"We are grateful for the CARES Act COVID-19 High Impact hospital funding we received which was provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made possible by Representative DeLauro's relentless and highly effective advocacy effort to ensure that Griffin receives the essential federal relief it needs," said Charmel. "Funds received helped cover the tremendous expense incurred to create the capacity necessary to care for more than 170 hospitalized COVID-19 infected hospitalized patients and to replace a portion of patient care revenue lost due to imposed service restrictions and consumer avoidance of care allowing us to continue to serve our community and meet the needs of those seeking care at Griffin during the pandemic. We are currently working hard to address consumer avoidance of needed care due to concern about COVID-19 exposure in hospitals and other health care facilities. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 48% of Americans said they skipped medical care because of concerns about the pandemic, and 11% said conditions worsened as a result of the delayed care. Griffin, along with healthcare providers across Connecticut, has taken steps to ensure patients are safe when seeking care, and we've recently partnered with Governor Ned Lamont and the Connecticut Hospital Association to educate the public about the danger associated with delaying care due to COVID-19 fears. Waiting too long to get help for medical issues or life-threatening conditions can be far more harmful than COVID-19."
Congresswoman DeLauro also called on the Senate to pass the Heroes Act, the House-passed coronavirus relief legislation that would provide an additional $100 billion for hospitals battling, and recovering from the impact of, this pandemic.
"Much work remains," said DeLauro. "Our hospitals continue to lose revenue and fight to stay afloat as they recover from the spread of the coronavirus across Connecticut. In the House's latest relief bill, the Heroes Act, we add $100 billion dollars for hospitals, to enable providers to receive 60 percent of lost revenues compared to last year, and for full reimbursement for pandemic-related costs. These include temporary construction, equipment, tests, training, and workforce retention. We await the Senate."