While grateful that much deeper proposed cuts have been lessened, the region’s two hospitals now must make any needed adjustments for state funding that is still smaller than they had anticipated when their fiscal 2016 spending plans were developed.

The General Assembly’s Dec. 9 special session partially restored deep Medicaid reimbursement cuts proposed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to help offset a budget gap.

While the hospitals breathed a sigh of relief that the full cuts weren't approved, the exact impact of the legislature’s action wasn’t immediately clear.

Seth Van Essendelft, chief financial officer for Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London, said that since reviewing numbers from the state Office of Policy and Management, he has determined that L+M will receive $5.4 million in reimbursements from the state, about $3.2 million less than originally anticipated.

Gov. Malloy had proposed cutting twice that amount.

The cuts are being made to funding the state had planned to return to hospitals when it instituted a hospital tax in 2011, but the amount returned has diminished each year.

The partially restored payments also will help hospitals leverage additional federal matching funds. The Connecticut Hospital Association launched a major media and print campaign to restore the cuts after Malloy proposed them as an emergency measure to balance the state budget.

“We were supposed to get $8.67 million back in 2016,” Van Essendelft said. “This is still a pretty significant cut. Most smaller hospitals are not making a lot of money.”

Van Essendelft said L+M is continuing to look at ways to cut costs, an initiative it began two years ago, and anticipates finding additional savings to absorb the reduced state payment.

For fiscal 2016, L+M Healthcare — the parent company of L+M Hospital — has set a goal of trimming about $14 million in expenses. For fiscal 2015, the hospital had revenues of about $460 million and expenses of about $470 million.

“We expect we will still find ways to improve performance,” Van Essendelft said.

Mike O’Farrell, spokesman for L+M, said Thursday that the hospital is working to meet its continuing financial challenges.

“We continue to be diligent in looking at ways to not only reduce costs, but also increase revenues — all while ensuring we are providing the best care for our patients,” he said.

At The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich, state payments of $3.97 million now are expected, a $2.4 million cut from the amount the hospital originally expected. Gov. Malloy’s plan would have cut the payment by $4.8 million.

In fiscal 2015, Backus saw annual revenues of about $292.5 million, about $40.9 million more than expenses for the year.

Rebecca Stewart, director of media relations for Hartford HealthCare, the parent company of Backus, said the network is not anticipating any major changes now that the final numbers are known, “but we’re constantly evaluating.”

In June, the network cut 335 full-time positions systemwide as a major cost-cutting initiative.

“We’re grateful that legislators listened and began to address the state’s Medicaid funding problem,” Stewart said Tuesday.

Referring to the impact on the entire network, she said the legislature’s actions restored about 38 percent — about $20.7 million — of the $55 million payment cut to Hartford HealthCare.

“These are not grants; they are the state’s payments for services we have already provided,” she said. “A full quarter-year of the state’s Medicaid reimbursement will go totally unpaid. Hospital ‘profits’ are often ridiculed — as if hospitals and health systems should set out each year to lose more and more money. The difference between revenues and expenses — what not-for-profits call an operating margin — doesn’t go to shareholders. This margin is reinvested in our communities, people, programs and services. It’s how we’re able to serve those who rely on us.”

j.benson@theday.com

Twitter: @BensonJudy