Source: The Gazette
Access to world-class health care and almost every specialty someone might need is a valuable benefit of living and working in our beloved Pikes Peak region. We are proud to lead hospitals and clinics that serve as lifelines for children, families, veterans and seniors in our community.
Right now at the Capitol, state lawmakers are considering a bill that could threaten this health care. House Bill 1174 is a proposal that would artificially cap the price for care at hospitals for state employee health plans and the small group insurance market, without accounting for the resources it takes to provide high-quality care. The bill claims it would shift the savings from this hospital price cap to help fund some of the state’s safety net clinics — more than two years from now.
This legislation comes at a time when the state is trying to make up for its mistakes after managing one of the steepest declines in Medicaid enrollment of any state in the country. More than 600,000 vulnerable Coloradans were disenrolled from Medicaid over the last two years, including 200,000 children.
This insurance coverage gap is leading to widespread financial instability for many primary care and mental health clinics, as well as hospitals around the state. This 30% decline in Medicaid enrollees happened while the budget for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) increased dramatically, and their number of employees increased by about 15%. Colorado’s health care providers are being asked to do more with less, as the state allows HCPF to do less with more.
Instead of holding HCPF accountable for its failure to protect those previously covered by Medicaid, the state intends to further erode the health care system in Colorado by shifting the burden of solving this to hospitals — at a time when 70% of hospitals around the state have negative or thin operating margins, threatening their long-term sustainability.
Together, Children’s Hospital Colorado and UCHealth are proud to serve hundreds of thousands of kids and adults covered by Medicaid or who, in growing numbers, are completely uninsured.
We employ more than 10,000 nurses, social workers, and other staff members as well as thousands of medical staff in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, it has gotten harder to maintain our complex, 24/7 operations in the state of Colorado. Over the last six years, Gov. Jared Polis has signed 442 new health care laws and regulations, even while weak Medicaid payments have failed to keep up with the cost of providing care and fewer Coloradans have health insurance coverage.
This bill would continue that same trend. As the state government benefits from price fixing, we would be forced to reduce services or shift costs to others. This bill could increase the cost of health care for businesses and people with a traditional insurance plan.
We urge our local southern Colorado lawmakers to consider the unintended consequences of House Bill 1174 in our community. Consider the impact on patients who are covered by Medicaid or are uninsured. Consider the impact as residents in our community lose access to services and are forced to drive longer distances for care.
And consider that rather than saving money, this bill will increase health care costs for hundreds of thousands of Coloradans. It is vital to identify real solutions that can immediately address the financial challenges of our local partners in primary care and mental health, without harming Colorado’s hospitals which also provide primary care and mental health care.
This Band-Aid proposal is wrong for Colorado Springs, and it’s a risky precedent for the state.
Greg Raymond is president of Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Southern Region, and Lonnie Cramer is president and CEO for UCHealth’s Southern Colorado Region.
