Coloradans is losing access to Medicaid with its current main policy.

As the chief nursing officer of HCA Healthone Mountain Ridge in Thornton, I am alert. Colorado’s safety net health care provider is facing a crisis, and the most vulnerable citizens are at risk of losing their qualifications. Eventually, people with taxpayers and personal insurance pay for the state’s mistake.

Colorado’s medical service providers have risen rapidly in the last two years. In 2024, Mountain Ridge’s unregulated charity -based cases more than doubled. The cost increased from $ 55 million in 2023 to $ 120 million in 2024, and most people were eliminated for Medicaid, but were eliminated for bureaucratic reasons, and it was difficult for the state to register.

The same hospital as us must absorb costs and find efficiency elsewhere. But we are a lean organization, and we cannot continue to increase when the state can already cover these patients through the existing Medicaid program.

I will clearly. Colleagues and I work this because we take care of patients deeply. We have moral, ethical and legal obligations, regardless of payment. However, if the hospital’s decision increases $ 65 million for one year, the legislative department should find a way to help us.

Unfortunately, the Governor’s office House of Representatives 1174. This bill will emphasize hospitals in which hospitals such as Mountain Ridge and other facilities throughout the state depend on the treatment of Coloradans to save life every day, daily examination and advanced treatment. The bill artificially limits the amount of repayment that suppliers can collect from the main employee health insurance policy or small group health insurance policy. Preventing our repayment will not affect the community’s safety net providers only on the capacity of our hospital. It will be more difficult to maintain and expand the service level provided by hospitals throughout the state.

HCA HELLTHONE serves more medicaid and unknown patients in the metro Denver area than any other provider, and we have the second highest Medicaid and insurance patients in the state. We are an important pillar of the safety net system. We absolutely agree that community providers need more support, and we take away resources from a safety net provider to modify the state’s Medicaid registration mistake, making the Colorado medical system more weak.

While this state is working on dealing with an unprecedented insurance crisis, it is also personal for me. I was a legal guardian of an adult sister with down syndrome, and she was one of many Coloradans who lost Medicaid benefits due to the bureaucracy of the Lord. This has not been insured for several months. Her provider could no longer see her and the prescription was no longer dealt with, so her care was greatly confused. Fortunately, I was able to buy them as a burden, but those who receive long -term treatment should not be in that position. Many families can’t pay these expenses when they lose their insurance benefits.