Kennedy Bill Ensures Policymakers & Taxpayers Know What They’re Paying For
A bill by Rep. Chris Kennedy, D-Lakewood, to increase transparency about health care costs in Colorado’s hospitals earned initial approval from the House on second reading this morning.
“This is all about hospital transparency—transparency for consumers and for policymakers,” said Rep. Kennedy. “With as much money as we spend on hospitals, we need to better understand how that money is being spent. The bill requires hospitals to submit two reports to the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing so that we can analyze and break down how we are spending money in our healthcare system.”
Rep. Kennedy continued with an example of how this data can help create better policy.
“Over the last few years, we’ve actually reduced our uncompensated care in this state from $2.6 billion down to $1 billion a year, and yet we have no idea how that breaks down between metro-area and rural hospitals. With this bill, the hope is we learn some information to craft future policies that will make healthcare more affordable and allocate our hospital provider fee dollars more effectively.”
HB17-1236 requires hospitals to send cost reports and their financial audits to the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF), which will then prepare an annual report of hospital expenditures, including inpatient and outpatient care, administrative and capital costs, and uncompensated care. HCPF would then submit the information to the General Assembly, the Governor and the Medical Services Board.
The bill proceeds to a recorded third reading vote.
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