Medicaid cuts in Trump tax bill could close 6 rural hospitals in Colorado, report warns

Six rural Colorado hospitals could close in the coming years if Congress adopts the more than million in Medicaid cuts at present included in the Republican tax bill according to projections commissioned by Senate Democrats The listed hospitals are spread across the state including three on the Western Slope one in the San Luis Valley and two on the Eastern Plains The record is based on one version of an evolving bill so the final outcome could cause financial distress for fewer or more Colorado hospitals than anticipated Other types of providers including population mental robustness centers and safety net clinics in Colorado also expect to cut services or close locations though groups representing the clinics don t foresee providers going under entirely The Senate document didn t examine effects on provider types other than hospitals The One Big Beautiful Bill Act backed by President Donald Trump as passed by the House of Representatives would add work requirements to Medicaid increase the cost of vitality insurance on the individual marketplace and penalize states that cover undocumented immigrants among other provisions A proposed amendment would also reduce states ability to draw down more federal funds by taxing healthcare care providers but its chances in the full Senate aren t clear The Congressional Budget Office projected that about million people will lose their insurance nationwide because of provisions in the House version of the bill and an additional million would become uninsured if larger subsidies to buy insurance on the individual marketplace expire this year The CBO didn t produce state-by-state estimates but other groups have projected that as a large number of as Coloradans could lose Medicaid and an additional could drop out of the individual soundness insurance arena Congressional Republicans commented the bill would protect Medicaid for vulnerable populations by removing undocumented immigrants and adults without disabilities who aren t working Colorado hospitals make list Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in a review requested by Senate Democrats estimated that rural hospitals nationwide could close if Medicaid cuts go through including six facilities in Colorado The review included hospitals that have an outsized share of patients covered by Medicaid and those that have lost money three years in a row The Colorado facilities on the list were Delta Soundness Hospital in Delta San Luis Valley Fitness Conejos County Hospital in La Jara Grand River Strength in Rifle Prowers Physiological Center in Lamar Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez Arkansas Valley Regional Health Center in La Junta The list doesn t include all hospitals that could struggle Lincoln Healthcare CEO Kevin Stansbury stated NBC News that the hospital in Hugo would have to reduce services or close if vital cuts to Medicaid go through Delta Physical condition won t shut its doors but it would face major challenges from Medicaid cuts spokeswoman Darnell Place-Wise commented If fewer patients have Medicaid coverage the hospital would lose not only the reimbursement for their care but also payments from a prescription drug project for hospitals serving low-income patients When the hospital lost the prescription drug payments in its budget took a million hit she mentioned That followed a complex year in when the hospital came close to running out of cash while trying to repay pandemic loans from Medicare In addition Delta Fitness would likely have to spend more on staff to help patients address Medicaid s paperwork particularly if they have to prove their eligibility twice a year Place-Wise explained Seeing Congress consider bills that would hit rural hospitals and their patients in so a large number of tactics is frustrating she disclosed We re not closing but decisions will have to be made about what are the preponderance essential services if the bill passes she mentioned Konnie Martin CEO of San Luis Valley Healthcare announced she doesn t think anyone can truly project which hospitals will take the biggest hits That will depend on the mix of services they offer and how fleetly people in their areas lose coverage among other factors she explained I think there s no question that this bill is going to be devastating to rural hospitals if it passes she mentioned For now all hospitals can do is make their operations as lean as workable not that rural fitness care has much fat to cut she revealed and examine which services are least profitable and largest part dependent on Medicaid Typically behavioral fitness care and obstetrics lose out in that calculation though hospitals that already cut them would have to look elsewhere There s only so much that any fitness care organization can do if they re not being paid she disclosed The other hospitals on the list didn t respond to The Denver Post s questions about the bill s feasible effects by press time Costs don t go away The left-leaning Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation estimated that Medicaid private insurance plans and individuals in Colorado would spend about billion less on physical condition care over the next years than they would have if nothing changed At the same time the value of uncompensated care provided in the state would increase by billion Hospitals would receive about billion less and provide about billion more in uncompensated care according to the projections Rural hospitals are particularly vulnerable if vital numbers of people covered by Medicaid become uninsured because they have fewer patients with relatively high-paying commercial insurance to offset any increase in uncompensated care About half of rural facilities in the state consistently lose money on operations which they offset with a hodgepodge of local taxes and other revenue mentioned Megan Axelrod senior director of regulatory agenda and federal affairs at the Colorado Hospital Association The arrangements work but they re fragile and couldn t withstand a major hit to Medicaid payments she noted Colorado hasn t lost a rural hospital in about years but large-scale Medicaid reductions could be the factor that pushes selected beyond their ability to find workarounds Axelrod stated Those care costs don t go away when patients lose their insurance she stated Fewer locations services Safety net outpatient clinics also project retrenchment if important numbers of Coloradans lose Medicaid coverage The Colorado Region Strength System estimated that about patients of federally qualified soundness centers or about one-fifth of those who use the centers would lose Medicaid coverage if the GOP bill passes The bulk of those patients would become uninsured and the centers would only collect a small amount from sliding fee scales when they came in for cure noted Ross Brooks the group s president and CEO The centers could lose as much as million over the next four years forcing them to lay off staff close locations or stop offering services that generate the preponderance red ink he reported Selected centers already had to pull back on their services because patients who lost Medicaid at the end of the COVID- populace strength emergency haven t managed to reenroll or find other coverage Brooks stated About people lost coverage during the first year after the state no longer continued insuring everyone who had enrolled in Medicaid though chosen may have returned to the venture since Walking into the summer we re already in a pretty negative position he stated Related Articles Tough years ahead for Colorado especially if Trump s budget bill passes as is economists warn Colorado won t say if it will turn over Medicaid facts that feds could use to find immigrants Here s how the Big Beautiful Bill will hurt Coloradans majority of in need of assistance Opinion RFK Jr s firing of little-known committee members could mean families can t afford vaccines Non-Jews stand in solidarity with Temple Emanuel Letters Federally qualified vitality centers have a mission to help anyone who comes through their doors but to do that they may have to sacrifice services such as mental strength or dental care Brooks explained We can t take on hundreds of thousands of uninsured patients and survive financially without major changes he reported Behavioral strength safety net providers haven t estimated how multiple patients might lose coverage but since about of their revenue comes from Medicaid any losses would be considerable noted Kara Johnson-Hufford CEO of the Colorado Behavioral Soundness Council They were already struggling in the aftermath of Medicaid unwinding with several closing clinics or laying off staff she commented There s no cushion to fall back on she announced Work requirements would be arduous for people with severe mental illnesses to approach especially if they have to frequently prove they re still sick enough to qualify for an exemption Johnson-Hufford announced Even people who manage to keep their coverage may not be able to get care because the bill would allow copays of up to she disclosed Safety net providers want uninsured people to come in and pay what they can rather than going without fitness care entirely Brooks commented People who don t have insurance die younger than those who do at least partially because they avoid care until a condition becomes an emergency he mentioned We ve made such good progress over the last couple of decades getting patients into primary care he declared This seems like such a backward step Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get fitness news sent straight to your inbox