Colorado lawmakers target another $5 million for Denver Health amid fears of hospital’s “death spiral”

A bipartisan group of Colorado lawmakers is once more shifting to direct a particular $5 million infusion to Denver Well being amid rising considerations in regards to the hospital’s monetary safety and fears of a possible descent right into a “demise spiral.”

Members of the highly effective Joint Funds Committee, which gave preliminary approval to the allocation Wednesday evening, acknowledged that $5 million isn’t sufficient to unravel Denver Well being’s long-term challenges, which embrace a rising quantity of uncompensated well being care and a affected person base that’s more and more dominated by lower-paying, government-based insurance coverage protection.

Certainly, the finances committee’s workers really helpful towards allocating the cash to the hospital partly as a result of it wasn’t sufficient to unravel “long-term sustainability points.”

Nonetheless, due to Denver Well being’s outsized position within the Colorado well being care ecosystem, the committee’s six members unanimously supported directing the $5 million to the hospital, the second time they’ve carried out so previously 12 months. The hospital is a security web facility that gives care, together with high-level trauma and substance use therapy, to sufferers from throughout the state, together with low-income and indigent residents.

The Colorado Division of Well being Care Coverage and Financing requested the cash for Denver Well being and supplied a grim evaluation of the hospital’s monetary future, in keeping with finances committee paperwork. After reviewing “monetary measures and year-over-year traits,” the company decided that “with out vital structural modifications to its enterprise operations, Denver Well being will proceed deteriorating financially into failure. That is generally referred to in enterprise as a ‘demise spiral.’ ”

Rep. Shannon Chicken, the chair of the finances committee and a Westminster Democrat, stated she was “fairly involved” about Denver Well being’s monetary state of affairs and believed it will require a “statewide effort” to repair.

Along with approving the $5 million cost to the hospital, which shall be allotted within the coming months by means of the legislature’s budget-drafting course of, legislators additionally directed the well being care coverage division to work with Denver Well being on a long-term resolution to its monetary woes and to attempt to match the state’s cash with federal {dollars}.

“The vast majority of the members on our committee have had the chance to go to Denver Well being, to speak to individuals who lead Denver Well being and to grasp what their challenges are,” Chicken stated in an interview Thursday. “I do know that $5 million isn’t sufficient to unravel the entire challenges that they’ve. However it is part of the puzzle, and it’s one thing that the state can do.”

The company wrote to the finances committee that it’s not too late to reverse course and “put Denver Well being on firmer monetary footing.” In a press release, spokesman Marc Williams stated the division has been working with the hospital on a extra lasting repair and can “discover any alternatives” to match the state’s $5 million.

The cash seemingly could be allotted to the hospital on July 1 as a part of the state’s broader finances, Chicken stated. Lawmakers are engaged on separate laws that may enable the state to extra simply help Denver Well being going ahead, doubtlessly beginning with this newest $5 million infusion.

The finances committee directed an “extraordinary” $5 million to Denver Well being in February 2023, when the hospital reported it had simply over 80 days’ working money left available. Different city hospitals within the state have a median of 250 days money out there, in keeping with the Division of Well being Care Coverage and Financing.

In a press release, Dr. Steven Federico, the hospital’s chief authorities and exterior neighborhood relations officer, stated Denver Well being plans to make use of the cash to “assist backfill the uncompensated care prices we took on in 2023, notably focusing on prices from out-of-county sufferers, which totaled about $40 million final 12 months.”

He stated preliminary information signifies Denver Well being is already behind finances for 2024.

“We proceed to see rising prices for uncompensated care as Denver Well being’s whole uncompensated care prices in 2023 at the moment are finalized at $140 million,” he stated. “We anticipate this development to proceed and expect comparable uncompensated care prices for this 12 months.”

Uncompensated care on the hospital elevated by 127% between 2020 and 2023, legislators stated. The hospital practically broke even final 12 months, because of roughly $20 million in one-time money infusions from the state, donors and Kaiser Permanente. The power completed 2022 roughly $35 million within the crimson.