Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s FY 2017 budget contains $6.4 million in payments from colleges and hospitals, including $800,000 from Lifespan. However, the health system said it has not agreed to any payments to the city.
In 2011, Lifespan and former Providence Mayor Angel Taveras entered into a three-year contract agreement to pay the city $800,000 annually. Lifespan has declined additional payments to city since the deal expired in 2014.
“The Lifespan health system was the first hospital system to voluntarily agree to make payments to the city of Providence during the Angel Tavares administration,” Lifespan vice president of marketing and communications Jane Bruno said in a prepared statement. “At the time, Lifespan was fortunate enough to have a positive bottom line. That is no longer the case.”
Lifespan operates five hospitals in Rhode Island.
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