A bill that would require the state’s hospitals to report financial data could lead to lower health-care costs in Colorado, say backers of a bill to be heard by a Senate committee today. Colorado’s hospital profits are among the highest in the country.
Backers say lawmakers could use such things as financial details, nurse/patient ratios and the number of hours nurses work per shift to rein in health-care costs and improve patient care.
Opponents say information on quality of care and other data is already available, and that consumers would bear the cost of providing more.
The Service Employees International Union is behind the proposed Health Care Transparency Act, which is scheduled to be heard by the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee today.
Information now provided by hospitals offers little insight into their costs and charges, said Julia Greene, director of Health Systems Colorado, a division of the SEIU Local 105. “We don’t know what people are paying, what different insurers are paying, what hospitals are making,” she said.
“Their profitability is very high. We keep hearing about uncompensated care killing hospitals, but is that even true?” she said.
The Colorado Health and Hospital Association opposes the legislation. It represents 83 hospitals, including those run by Centura Health, Exempla Health Care and HealthOne, the largest systems in the state.
Consumers don’t have the background necessary to evaluate such things as whether the number of nurses on a shift is adequate, said Marty Arizumi, the association’s spokeswoman.
“This is not going to be meaningful to the consumer,” Arizumi said. “It is not as meaningful as the data our hospitals are already reporting.”
Providing the information the bill calls for would be costly, she added, and hospitals would pass those costs on to consumers.
The union maintains that the cost of providing the reports would be low. Thirty-eight states, including Nevada, Florida and Texas, require hospitals to report similar data.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
