Budget cuts will mean about $34.3 million less for Massachusetts hospitals, according to a report on masslive.com.
The cuts pertain to hospitals where at least 63 percent of patients have government-funded insurance, which are known as disproportionate share hospitals.
According to the report, $198.1 million in budget cuts were announced by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick earlier in 2014 and those cuts were needed to fill a budget gap of approximately $329 million.
"Our hope is that we can have the legislature reverse these cuts going forward," Dennis Chalke, CFO of Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health, said in the report.
Mr. Chalke said in the report that Gov. Patrick's cuts mean Baystate Health will lose $5 million, which "might mean a delay in major new piece of equipment that would help our patients."
While Baystate Health stands to lose $5 million under the cuts, the Holyoke, Mass.-based Sisters of Providence Health System stands to lose about $3.5 million, Sisters of Providence senior vice president of strategy and marketing Mark Fulco said in the report.
The state overall has about 30 hospitals that qualify for disproportionate share payments, and "according to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, a breakdown of how the cuts will affect each hospital is not available because each payment is calculated based on how many patients with public payers actually use the system," the report reads.