Southwest Health System in Montezuma County is doing well financially, but changes at the federal level will have an impact in coming times.
That was the message SHS’s CEO, Joe Theine, gave the county commissioners at their workshop Monday.
SHS ended 2024 with a positive operating margin for the first time in several years. Theine said the organization will likely finish with an even higher operating margin this year.
However, beginning in 2027, changes to Medicaid – which provides at least 17 percent of the fees SHS receives – will have an impact. Theine said it's uncertain how great the impact will be.
In addition, the cost of health-insurance premiums for people using the Affordable Care Act is expected to surge as enhanced premium tax credits vanish. As of Tuesday, Congressional leaders are at loggerheads over a government shutdown, with Democrats seeking to keep those premium tax credits, but it appears unlikely that will happen.
Theine said, assuming Congress does not act to save the tax credit, that means more people coming to Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez will probably not carry insurance, because they can no longer afford the premiums.
Commission chair Jim Candelaria said he hopes to get the message out that people should still seek care if they need it because they can pay for it themselves or “you all can figure out a way for it to get paid for.”
Theine said the hospital will continue to take care of people whether or not they are insured and added that SHS has a financial-assistance program for low-income residents.
However, he said having fewer people carry insurance means fewer fees and therefore revenue for the hospital.
He said, “There’s not another source of revenue that offsets that, so that does reduce the overall payments the hospital receives.”
Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.