Colorado

#HospitalFails

While nonprofit hospitals are organized as charities to deliver affordable health care to those in their communities who need it most, many of America’s largest nonprofits are making big money from questionable practices. Nonprofit hospitals around the country are paying executives exorbitant salaries and adopting policies that put profits over patients, like pursuing predatory collection practices and failing to provide free care for qualifying low-income patients. Too often, these policies are combined with poor health care outcomes for patients.

Last updated: June 25, 2025 at 6:15am

Charity Care Spending

Colorado nonprofit hospitals averaged a “fair share deficit” of $321 million dollars from 2020 to 2022, according to the Lown Institute Hospitals Index. In other words, Colorado’s nonprofit hospitals pocketed a whopping $320 million more in tax breaks than they spent on community benefits and charity care for low-income patients. In fact, the Lown Institute found that 73% of Colorado’s nonprofit hospitals averaged a fair share deficit for that period.¹

Medical Debt Consumer Protection Policies

Colorado’s consumer protection policies for medical debt are currently rated “WEAK.”² For example, Colorado:

Does not require hospitals to offer a reasonable payment plan before sending a bill to collections.
Does not deny seizure of bank accounts.
Does not prohibit or limit sending a bill to credit reporting or collections while the patient is appealing insurance, applying for financial assistance, or in a repayment plan.
Does not limit pricing for medically necessary care.

Hospital Collection Practices

Of the 11 Colorado hospitals investigated by KHN from November 2021 to December 2022, six have policies allowing them to report patients to credit-rating agencies. Those same six hospitals can also sue patients or take other legal actions to collect bills.³ In fact, a recent investigation by KFF Health News and the Colorado Sun found that UCHealth (a public nonprofit hospital system) used third-party collection agencies to sue nearly 16,000 patients from 2019 through 2023.⁴

Price Transparency

A survey of 2,000 hospitals nationwide from July to November 2024 found that just 21 of the 35 Colorado hospitals reviewed had complied with federal regulations requiring all hospitals to post their prices online and make them easily accessible and searchable.⁵

The Burden of Medical Debt in Colorado

According to a Peterson-KFF analysis of data from 2019 to 2021, on average. 8.2% of adults in Colorado – about 360,000 people – report having medical debt in a given year.⁶

Hospital Overcharging

On average, from 2020 to 2022, Colorado hospitals charged patients with private insurance 291% more on average than they charged Medicare patients for the same services.⁷

Hospital Consolidation

From 2006 to 2019, Colorado saw the number of hospitals that were part of a chain grown from 26 to 43. Now, more than half of the 83 hospitals in Colorado are part of larger hospital systems. UCHealth and Centura Health, both nonprofit hospital systems, were major players in consolidation, which is widely understood as a major contributor to health care cost increases.⁸

Grade: #HospitalFail

Lown Institute, “Making the hospital tax exemption work for communities, An analysis of nonprofit hospitals in twenty states,” April 2025, https://lownhospitalsindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/fair-share-2025-national-report-20250409.pdf, pg. 15
Innovation for Justice, University of Arizona and the University of Utah, “Medical Debt Policy Scorecard,” May 2022, https://www.medicaldebtpolicyscorecard.org/state/CO
National Public Radio, “Investigation: Many U.S. hospitals sue patients for debts or threaten their credit,” December 2022, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/21/1144491711/investigation-many-u-s-hospitals-sue-patients-for-debts-or-threaten-their-credit
Colorado Sun, “UCHealth sues thousands of patients every year. But you won’t find its name on lawsuits,” February 19, 2024, https://coloradosun.com/2024/02/19/uchealth-debt-collectors/
PatientRightsAdvocate.org, “Seventh Semi-Annual Hospital Price Transparency Compliance Report,” November 2024, https://www.patientrightsadvocate.org/seventh-semi-annual-hospital-price-transparency-report-november-2024, pg. 28
Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, “Access & Affordability: The burden of medical debt in the United States,” February 2024, https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/the-burden-of-medical-debt-in-the-united-states/
Rand Corporation, “Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans: Findings from Round 5.1 of an Employer-Led Transparency Initiative,” December 2024, https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1144-2-v2.html
Center for Economic and Policy Research, “The Effects of Hospital Consolidation in Colorado,” March 5, 2020, pp. 6-7, p. 3, https://cepr.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2020-03-Colorado-Hospital-Consolidation-Gaby-Biegel.pdf

Consumers for Quality Care (CQC) is a coalition of advocates and former policymakers working to provide a voice for patients in the health care debate as they demand better care. CQC is led by a board of directors that includes the Honorable Donna Christensen, physician and former Member of Congress; Jim Manley, former senior advisor to Senators Edward Kennedy and Harry Reid; Jason Resendez, community advocate and health care strategist; and Mary L. Smith, former CEO of the Indian Health Service.