Pace visits Capitol Hill to discuss HB 23-1215

A late March snowstorm forced members of the Haxtun Health Board of Directors to meet several days later than normal. The Board typically meets on Monday but thanks to area snowfall, the group meet on Thursday evening, March 30 for an hour and 20 minutes to conduct necessary business for the month.

To open his report, Chief Executive Officer Dewane Pace gave an in-depth report on House Bill 23-1215 submitted by Colorado Representative Emily Sirota, Democrat, Denver, that would eliminate a hospital’s ability to bill for facility fees.

When a patient seeks care, their bill will have two components, Pace explained. The first, known as a provider fee, pays the doctors for their time. The second is facility fee, which may or may not be labeled as such on the bill. Any charges for an office visit and/or procedures will include a facility fee. Those charges are what pay for the staff that provide care. This bill, Pace said, will have catastrophic consequences.

“Half of Colorado’s hospitals, in both rural and urban areas, are operating with unsustainable finances. This bill would cut $9 billion more from hospitals and health care systems, making 96 percent of hospitals financially unstable,” he said. “Colorado has invested heavily in an integrated model of care and is starting to see the benefits of that, with lower per capita hospital costs and patients getting care at the right time and right place.”

Pace said HB 23-1215 would disrupt gains in patient care. He added that it will also threaten access and add expenses.

“This could include all outpatient care, including on-campus and off-campus locations and charges not labeled as a facility fee. Removing all payment for outpatient care beyond the doctor will force locations to close and will result in more emergency department usage and inpatient care, driving up health care costs for everyone. Closer to home — this bill would eliminate 49 percent of Haxtun Health’s finances. Our hospital would close.”

Pace traveled to Denver two weeks ago to visit with legislators on Capitol Hill including with one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Kyle Mullica, and other members of the legislative body about House Bill 23-1215 and its potential catastrophic consequences to Haxtun Health. He added that there is some talk of a “rural carve out” where Haxtun Health would not be affected but Pace said while that sounds nice, it is not the case.

“A carve out still eliminates a monthly payment we receive to offset the cost of care called the Colorado Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability Enterprise that helps our hospital stay open and accounts for 20 percent of our finances — we would still close,” Pace said. “Unless the State is willing to add back in $430 million to the general fund to offset this impact we would suffer a 20 percent loss of revenue. A carve out for us still hurts those hospitals in our State that provide a higher level of care such as a NICU, heart cath lab, stroke center, etc. When a helicopter takes off from Haxtun to take someone to a hospital on the Front Range, we need those hospitals to be open and available to care for our patients. It is expensive to provide healthcare, but the answer is not to just stop paying hospitals. This is a bad bill and needs to be defeated.”

Later in his report, Pace also gave an update on the upcoming health fair slated for the first of June. He said participants will have the opportunity to have their blood drawn, laboratory testing performed and results mailed directly to them and available in the patient portal. “We have the ability to provide all of the testing right here in Haxtun and last year’s participants had their results available on the same day that their blood was drawn,” he added.

Haxtun Health plans to offer four different packages for blood work on the day of the event, June 3 from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m.

In the Executive Director of Ancillary Services report, it was noted that Yovana Iniquez, PTCB, successfully passed her National pharmacy technician certification boards. She works in the Haxtun Health Pharmacy. Year-to-date, the pharmacy has made over 350 deliveries and driven over 3,000 miles to make deliveries to members of the Haxtun Community.

At the end of the meeting, Chairman Kent Bamford discussed the possibility of increasing Haxtun Health’s board member numbers from five to seven. He said right now there is a lot of enthusiasm in the community about the hospital and this gives more community members the option to serve. The Board agreed to move forward with the process of increasing the number of board seats to seven.

The Haxtun Health Board of Directors currently includes Bamford, Rod Salvador, Rebecca Ensminger, Pastor Jeri Soens and Braden Ham.