MEDIA RELEASE
Wed., Nov. 13, 2024
Contact: Katie Reinisch, katie@progressive-promotions.com
Priya Telang, (720) 443-6435, ptelang@cohealthinitiative.org
New “Hospital Discounted Care Report” shows major hospitals fail to inform consumers of their rights and access to discounts
CO law intends to make hospital care more affordable and reduce medical debt, but hospitals aren’t complying
DENVER — A new report conducted by the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI) shows that not even 60% of Colorado hospitals fully meet the requirements of the state’s Hospital Discounted Care (HDC) law that all hospitals take steps to make hospital bills more affordable for low- to moderate-income Coloradans. The HDC law, HB21-1198, went into effect in September 2022, strengthening consumers’ rights and access to financial assistance.
Under the Hospital Discounted Care law, all hospitals in the state are required to:
- Inform patients of their rights
- Screen patients to see if they qualify for help paying their bills
- Offer discounts and affordable payment plans on hospital care to patients who qualify based on their income, regardless of documentation status
- Reduce the use of debt collectors by taking certain steps before sending an unpaid hospital bill to collections
The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative audited every Colorado hospital (89 in total) to ensure that consumers could easily access financial information via phone or website, in both English and Spanish, and assess whether hospitals are meeting the requirements of the law.
While every hospital went through the motions and mentioned “hospital discounted care” on their website and posted the necessary forms, only 58% of hospitals met all the requirements such as posting the uniform application, the English-speaking patients’ rights, the Spanish-speaking patients’ rights, linking from the landing page to hospital discounted care information, and posting the information in a conspicuous manner.
Simply posting the information to a website does not mean that patients have access. Too many hospitals hid HDC information in parts of their website or failed to include information about the law, making it difficult for the average consumer to find. Less than half of the hospitals that posted the patients’ rights in Spanish offered a Spanish translation for the website itself–making it difficult for Spanish-only speakers to find the information they would need to actually apply for discounted care.
When called to ask about discounted care options, a mere 11% of hospitals provided adequate information over the phone. Of the 178 calls from sample “patients” to hospitals, only 20 resulted in a successful outcome in which the caller was able to get helpful and correct information about HDC. This tiny percentage was considerably lower for Spanish-language calls (4.5% vs 18% for English-language).
Notably, successful calls for hospital discounted care information were more likely at independent facilities rather than at large health system-owned hospitals: of the 22 calls to CommonSpirit, zero had a successful outcome; of the 28 calls made to UC Health, only one had a successful outcome.
“Hospitals should not be burying information about hospital discounted care on their websites or failing to provide correct information over the phone,” said Sophia Hennessy, Policy and Research Coordinator of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. “Patients need to be able to find information about discounted care options easily over the phone or on the web, especially as the cost of care continues to rise. Actual compliance goes beyond doing the bare minimum for consumers; complying means that patients can easily find information about and access financial assistance in their language. Our hospitals can and should do more for the patients they serve.”
Both insured and uninsured patients can benefit from the Hospital Discounted Care law, but insured patients must know to request screening for HDC to access discounts. This makes it extremely important that Coloradans know their new rights.
“Hospital discounted care allowed me to access affordable care at a time when I was uninsured,” said Amber Johnstone, a New Castle resident. “But I had to call and ask the hospital about financial assistance options, fill out long forms, and continue calling the billing offices for months until everything was resolved. Hospitals need to better communicate financial options to patients in advance so that families can apply ahead of appointment times. I shouldn’t have to ask multiple times to learn about discounts, and neither should any other patient.”
The Colorado Consumer Health Initiative (CCHI), Colorado Center on Law and Policy (CCLP), and the Vedra Law firm have partnered to create a fact sheet and guidebook for patients to understand the new rights afforded to them under this law. Those resources can be found at
cohealth.co/hospitaldiscounts.
Colorado Consumer Health Initiative is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, membership-based group advocating for equitable access to high-quality, affordable health care. CCHI serves Coloradans whose access to health care and financial security are compromised by structural barriers, affordability, poor benefits, or unfair business practices of the health care industry.