Bipartisan alternative emerges to bill seeking to cap hospitals’ reimbursements
With a controversial bill to cap insurance payments to hospitals idling in the House without a reliable path to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk, hospitals are pushing forward an alternate solution to boost funding to safety-net care providers — an idea getting huge bipartisan support.
To be sure, some backers of Senate Bill 290, which could generate as much as $200 million over three years for clinics and behavioral-health centers that disproportionately treat uninsured Coloradans, say it is not a mutually exclusive proposition from House Bill 1174. But hospital leaders say that SB 290 is not just a proposition that will do away with the need to put reimbursement caps on their facilities but also a better alternative, fueled in part by their own fundraising, that will get more money more quickly to safety-net centers.