UCHealth Lawsuit Ruling Threatens Rural Hospital Funding Across Colorado

Some of you may have seen the news article from Denver 9News that describes a lawsuit from UCHealth suing the state of Colorado. At issue is the state classification of two UCHealth facilities (Poudre Valley and Memorial) as governmental entities when they are privately owned. UCHealth claimed this characterization cost them a share of the provider fee distributed by the state to facilities across Colorado.

UCHealth won their lawsuit, and the state of Colorado now owes them $59.7 million. On Friday, representatives from the state called 29 facilities in rural Colorado and essentially asked if it would be a hardship if they “clawed back” money that had been given to the facilities in 2023 and 2024. For Yuma Hospital and Clinics that amounted to $1.3 million, for other facilities in the Eastern Plains it totals nearly $18 million.

The answer from every facility was a resounding yes, it would be a hardship. It would be so difficult for some facilities to pay back the dollars they feared closure. Thankfully, Yuma Hospital and Clinics is not in danger of imminent closing, but you all know that an additional $1.3 million hit on our budget makes the growth and stability that we’ve been trying to achieve just that much more difficult.

We’re not in this alone. Our partners at the Colorado Hospital Association and at the Eastern Plains Healthcare Consortium are working with each of the facilities on this list, the state of Colorado and UCHealth to come to an equitable solution. I’m hopeful for a logical and reasonable response that protects rural health care.

This news, coupled with the Medicaid decreases in the Senate reconciliation bill, makes our future funding streams uncertain. This will no doubt hamper the speed of improvements we’ve been making, but continuing our growth is not in doubt. Because we must. Because our hospital is vitally important to the people of Yuma and Washington Counties. Because we all deserve health care no matter where we live.

Learn more: Colorado asks for millions back from rural hospitals via Denver 9News