"While media reports have detailed increases in Medicaid volume in hospitals located in expansion states, we now have definitive proof that such increases are translating into reduced self-pay and charity care cases," says Steven J. Summer, president and CEO of CHA. "These findings not only affirm that more people are finding health care coverage who didn't have it before, but also that it is having a positive impact by reducing the levels of uncompensated care at hospitals, which could further efforts to reduce health care costs."

According to the report, the magnitude of impact in Colorado hospitals was greater than the national trend. Across the state, total Medicaid charges for Colorado grew 37 percent, while total self-pay charges dropped by 27 percent from the first quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2014. All of the data in the report was based on findings of the CHA DATABANK, an online hospital database available to licensed hospital associations, their members, and other hospitals across the country willing to submit monthly data.


"If you look at the mission of any hospital or health care system, they are there to better the health of patients. Insured patients have better access to care than uninsured patients," says Tholen. "There is also the economic impact; there is revenue on insured patients, which allows hospitals to provide better services." Whether or not the rest of the year will return numbers as dramatic as the first quarter remains to be seen, but Tholen says, "this is one of the more dramatic shifts in health care that I've seen in almost 20 years of doing this."

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