Bill Directs $234 Million in Aid to Hospitals and Community Health Centers Around Massachusetts
(BOSTON—9/18/2025) The Massachusetts Legislature today enacted a supplemental budget bill that prioritizes care for the state’s most vulnerable populations by strategically targeting support to fiscally-strained hospitals and community health centers. Senator Cindy F. Friedman (D-Arlington) spoke in favor of the measure on the Senate floor before voting alongside her colleagues to approve the hospital funding.
The legislation, H.4530, addresses a widening funding gap in the Health Safety Net program, which pays acute care hospitals and community health centers for necessary medical care for low-income, uninsured, and underinsured Massachusetts residents. Reckless federal policies and funding shortfalls have exacerbated the fiscal strain on these vital institutions that serve people most in need.
This legislative response provides critical relief in the face of an unfriendly federal government and economic headwinds, distributing aid based on criteria that directs funding to vulnerable populations most in need of assistance. As Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, Senator Friedman was involved in the development of the funding formula found in the Senate’s version of the bill, which laid the foundation for the funding formula approved today.
“Our hospitals and community health centers continue to step up to care for those most in need despite being under enormous financial pressure,” said Senator Friedman, Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing. “New policies from the federal government will only exacerbate the strain on our health care infrastructure, so for Massachusetts to continue to be a leader in providing exceptional health care, we need to ensure that care is accessible, especially to our most vulnerable populations. This supplemental budget provides necessary funding to help live up to this goal.”
Strengthening Massachusetts Hospital Systems
The funding agreement makes $199 million available for eligible high public payer acute care hospitals across the Commonwealth through an approach that maximizes federal financial reimbursements, stabilizes the Health Safety Net Trust Fund, and makes targeted payments to hospitals to maximize the impact of taxpayer dollars.
- Provides $122 million in targeted relief payments to certain acute care hospitals utilizing eligibility criteria designed to maximize the impact of taxpayers’ dollars for those hospitals and communities which need it most. The eligibility criteria include:
- Each hospital’s patient mix, prioritizing those which serve the greatest share of the state’s low-income population.
- Each hospital’s affordability, prioritizing those which provide services at the most affordable prices.
- Each hospital’s financial standing, prioritizing those which have the most severe fiscal strain.
- Transfers $77 million into the Health Safety Net Trust Fund to stabilize the program for hospitals providing services to the greatest share of the Commonwealth’s vulnerable populations.
Supporting Massachusetts Community Health Centers
- Community health centers continue to support the Commonwealth’s greatest share of vulnerable populations while facing federal funding delays, Medicaid cuts, and rising pharmaceutical and other medical costs.
- The agreement provides $35 million in financial relief to community health centers, including $2.5 million for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers to facilitate regional savings initiatives, including shared service options.
Both chambers of the Legislature voted to enact the supplemental budget on Thursday, sending the legislation to the Governor for her signature.
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