The state’s hospitals received $6.4 billion since then to cover charity care and unpaid bills from indigent patients — all money intended to reduce the cost-shift to people with private insurance.
But private payers — which make up the majority of Colorado — never saw the benefits trickle down.
The latest state figures show patients with private insurance paid $1.58 for every $1 of medical care at hospitals in 2015, an increase from the $1.55 rate before the program took effect.
The cost-shift to private payers is a significant shortcoming in the billion-dollar hospital provider fee program — but one that most state lawmakers are content to overlook as they race to preserve the system before the end of the legislative term.
The state House on the final day is expected to send Gov. John Hickenlooper a wide-ranging bill that would move the program to a separate entity, a move critics fear would reduce legislative oversight.
The bipartisan effort boasts broad support because it would prevent a $528 million cut in hospital payments and save rural operations that have become reliant on the program to survive.
Less attention is focused on why the program is not working as intended.
“It’s that interesting riddle that I have no idea how to answer,” said John Bartholomew, the state health care agency’s finance director. “Why are there some hospitals that are on the brink of bankruptcy even though Medicaid has been paying more for hundreds of thousands of new clients?”
