UCHealth Hospitals report a steep uptick in migrant patients
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Data teams with UCHealth hospitals report a 92% increase in migrant visits, outpatient visits, and hospital admissions to their hospital system statewide during the same three-month period last year, from November to January. Colorado Springs-based UChealth hospitals saw a 77% increase locally in the same period.
A release details they reached these numbers by only documenting people who did not have a social security number, volunteered that they were a migrant, or volunteered that they were from another country. The numbers only include uninsured patients, meaning that many of these patients can't pay for the care they receive.
"The Colorado Hospital Association defines a hospital as having a healthy or sustainable margin if it has a 4% operating margin," Dan Weaver, a spokesperson from UCHealth said today. "Our hospitals and UCHealth overall is below that 4% margin right now."
To boot, the hospital reported a 5,800 increase in new migrant patients system-wide. Colorado Springs UCHealth Hospitals account for 1,200 of those new patients.
In 2022, UCHealth reported they provided $388 million in uncompensated and under-compensated care. In 2023, that number rose to $580 million.
"It does become an impact on sort of the broader services and the finances there as well because if these are 1200 new patients that we're taking care of who are uninsured and not eligible for Medicaid, chances are we will not be reimbursed anything for their care," Weaver said. "And that does begin to take more of an impact on hospitals."
Weaver went on to detail that they had seen an increase in the cost of supplies as well, increasing operating costs and other financial woes.
When asked if those financial trends would impact the care of all patients, and if they anticipated needing to cut back on services in the coming months as a result, Weaver replied he didn't think so.
"I don't think I would say that. Certainly, I can't speculate on what's going to happen in the future. I wouldn't anticipate any cutbacks. And we're certainly going to continue doing everything possible to continue all of the services that were that we're offering today and to continue offering great care," Weaver said.
That doesn't mean, however, that the strain isn't being felt by hospital staff.
The release states that "Facilities, staff, and providers are stretched as they accommodate these additional patients."
"Some of these patients who are coming in have desperate stories of, you know, violent travel trips across the across the border. Some people have been described as being trafficked. And, you know, it's some really sad stories," Weaver said of the patients described in the numbers. "It sort of shows that that these individuals often need health care, they need support."
