On Sunday, the Department of Health Care Policy and Finance (HCPF) released a report on the financial health of Colorado hospitals. Some companies are showing signs of economic strength, while others are struggling.
Department of annual report Measures hospital profits, reserves, costs, expenses, and the level of community benefits that tax-exempt hospitals provide to communities in lieu of paying taxes.
“These reports provide Coloradans with valuable insight into where their money is being spent in health care. Hospital revenue growth is the fastest growing share of overall health care spending. HCPF Executive Director Kim Bimestefer said. “The billion-dollar annual increases shown in this report are reflected in higher premium rates paid by Coloradans, employers and the state each year.”
Officials said that while the 2025 Hospital Financial Transparency Report shows that much of Colorado’s hospital industry is healthy, this is not the case for everyone. Colorado’s largest safety-net hospitals, the Denver Health Department, critical access hospitals and rural hospitals, are facing financial pressures, the department said.
Most of the $1.5 billion in profits in 2023 went to nonprofit, tax-exempt hospitals in urban areas. The department said about one-third of Colorado’s hospitals, including many rural hospitals and Denver Health, had negative profit margins. From 2022 to 2023, patient revenue for Colorado hospitals increased by 4.8%, but profit margins contracted due to higher labor costs, supply chain expenses and higher inflation.
According to HCPF Community welfare reportColorado’s 46 nonprofit, tax-exempt, non-critical access hospitals invested $1.2 billion in community investment benefits in 2022.
“Notably, with the exception of AdventHealth and Common Spirit Health, nearly all plans spend more on community benefits than their estimated tax-free amount, not including the Medicaid shortfall,” HCPF said. .
The report lists 15 hospitals that have misaligned community health needs assessments and community investments that prioritize behavioral health needs. It also provided insight into unreimbursed costs such as philanthropy and bad debts.
“Overall, uncompensated medical costs at independent hospitals and San Luis Valley Medical Center were 5.9% of net patient revenue in 2022,” HCPF explained. “Denver Health’s uncompensated medical costs were 12.1% of net patient revenue in 2022.”
They said uncompensated costs were driven by charity care fees, which accounted for 8.4% of Denver Health’s net patient revenue.
“Denver Health had the largest amount of charity spending in 2022 at $88.1 million, three times the next largest hospital, University of Colorado Health, at $24 million,” HCPF said.
of A company that makes health care affordable and sustainable in Colorado. Hospital reimbursements increased by an average of more than $430 million annually, and enrollment in Health First Colorado and Children’s Health Plans also increased, according to HCPF. According to the report, the program has saved hospitals $178 million in health care affordability and sustainability costs and helped 427,000 Coloradans through Health First Colorado and Child Health Plan Plus. provided medical insurance to.
HCPF will host a webinar on February 13 to provide further details on the three reports and answer questions.
link: register here
