The amount of profit Colorado hospitals made per patient hit its highest level in at least a decade in 2018, according to a new report from the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing that spells out the Polis’ administration’s argument for trying to aggressively limit hospital prices. Hospitals statewide made an average per-patient […]
Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
Your guide to all the ways health care may be about to change in Colorado
Hey, Colorado, feeling a little blue that the Broncos won’t be in the Super Bowl this year? Well, dust off those foam fingers because there’s another Super Bowl coming our way in less than a week: the start of the legislative session. “This is kind of the Super Bowl of Colorado health policy right now,” […]
Posted inUncategorized
Medicaid law forcing caregivers to be tracked by GPS inspires privacy backlash from Colorado’s disabled community
“We’re disabled, not criminals!” shouts one petition. In impassioned, monthly conversations over the last year, members of Colorado’s disabilities community have implored state officials to temper a new federal requirement to track caregivers via GPS. The point of the federal law is to reduce Medicaid fraud by requiring therapists, respite workers and nurses to log […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Protect Colorado’s Medicaid, CHP+ enrollees amid federal pressure
Over the past two years, enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program, Health First Colorado and Colorado’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHP+) has fallen by over 100,000 participants – an 8% decline. Nationwide enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) fell by 2.3%, or 1.7 million, in the same period. Medicaid provides health coverage […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado may try to import prescription drugs from more countries than just Canada
Colorado officials continue to work on their plan to import lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada, but some state lawmakers are already looking to expand the program. Sen. Joann Ginal, D-Fort Collins, said Thursday she is drafting a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would expand the importation program to include additional countries. She hasn’t […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado hospitals accuse Polis administration of hurting Medicaid patients, as health fight grows nastier
Executives at Colorado’s largest hospital systems on Thursday sent a blistering letter to Gov. Jared Polis and the leaders of the state Medicaid agency, saying they fear the state has “lost its focus on uninsured and Medicaid patients.” The executives accused the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administers Medicaid in Colorado, […]
Posted inHealth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado officials have finalized their proposal for a public health insurance option. Here’s what we still don’t know about it.
Colorado regulators last week unveiled their final proposal for a public health insurance option, a program that would, in theory, provide a more affordable choice for people who buy coverage on their own. The final details of the proposal aren’t much different from what was originally offered. But make no mistake: This is a big […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
Why both hospitals and insurance companies are so worried about a Colorado “state option” plan
In what is shaping up to be the major health care battle at the state Capitol this coming legislative session, Colorado hospitals and insurance companies both have raised concerns about a proposal to dictate hospital prices for a slice of people with private health coverage. The idea, unprecedented across the country in its precise details, […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News, Politics and Government
In a plan to set hospital prices, Colorado could see the mother of all health care battles
Colorado hospitals and state regulators may be about to launch into the biggest health care fight the state has seen in decades, over a detail in the newly announced plan for a public health insurance option. The plan would let Colorado officials limit what hospitals can charge to people who have coverage through the public […]
Posted inBusiness, Health, News
Denver-area hospitals made a record $2 billion in profits in 2018, according to a new report
For 25 years, health care analyst Allan Baumgarten has been studying the hospital market in Colorado, and his new report will show something it never has before: Denver-area hospitals surged past the $2 billion mark in profits in 2018. The 27 metro-area hospitals Baumgarten includes in his report made just over $2 billion in pre-tax […]