A national nurses union flagged 12 Colorado hospitals at particular risk from upcoming federal cuts — medical facilities that mostly have avoided prior attention to their finances.
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The assigned points based on how many times each hospital lost money in the last five years, whether its debts were greater than its assets and whether its net worth had decreased between 2020 and 2024.
The report identified 602 hospitals as being “financially vulnerable” in all but four states — Alaska, Delaware, Maryland and Vermont.
“That doesn’t mean you’re going to close,” said Dan Johnston, a researcher who authored the report. “That’s just an indicator the hospital isn’t doing very well.”
The report didn’t identify Denver Health or Delta Health as at risk, despite both experiencing well-publicized financial struggles over the last five years. Both were close to the cutoff for financial vulnerability and could move into that category if their 2025 numbers don’t improve, Johnston said.
Only two of the 12 Colorado hospitals were rural, though facilities in less-populous parts of the state are more likely to run deficits.
The hospitals flagged as at-risk in the report were:
- Banner North Colorado Medical Center’s Loveland campus
- Banner North Colorado Medical Center’s Greeley campus
- CommonSpirit Longmont United Hospital
- CommonSpirit St. Elizabeth Hospital in Fort Morgan
- Intermountain Health Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge
- Intermountain Health Platte Valley Hospital in Brighton
- St. Vincent General Hospital District in Leadville
- UCHealth Broomfield Hospital
- UCHealth Grandview Hospital in Colorado Springs
- UCHealth Greeley Hospital
- UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital
- UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont
All hospitals will face challenges as patients fall off Medicaid because they couldn’t navigate work requirements or the need to prove their eligibility at least twice a year, Johnston said. Those facilities that were struggling even before the cuts under H.R. 1, known as the “big beautiful bill,” will be even more likely to have to raise prices or cut services, he said.
“This bill is going to have a major impact, and it’s going to cause a lot of problems,” he said.
In addition, the end of pandemic-era enhanced subsidies for people buying on the individual market will likely increase the number showing up at hospitals without health insurance, or with a plan that involves high out-of-pocket costs they may not be able to cover.
Technically, Medicare is also on track to undergo a 2% cut as part of “sequestration” efforts to rein in federal debt levels, though Congress has never let similar cuts take effect.
St. Vincent’s has acknowledged financial troubles in its recent past, including the need for an emergency cash infusion from Lake County to cover payroll in 2022. Earlier this year, CEO Bubba Bartlett said the hospital posted a small profit in 2025 and expects similar results this year.
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Banner Health said its northern Colorado hospitals are “financially strong” and not at risk of closing. The Loveland location, formerly known as McKee Medical Center, closed its emergency room last fall to focus solely on surgeries and cancer care.
“As one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health systems, we have designed an approach that enables us to live up to our mission and continue serving the communities that depend on us,” the system said.
Intermountain Health said it couldn’t comment on the report’s methodology or conclusions, but has concerns about how Medicaid changes will affect hospitals.
CommonSpirit Health referred questions to the Colorado Hospital Association, which said it couldn’t speak about the specific list of hospitals, but that facilities have endured losses in recent years and will have further struggles as patients lose insurance coverage.
“Colorado hospitals work hard (independently, as a system of hospitals across the state and with the Polis administration and other stakeholders) to avoid unnecessary closure or reductions in an effort to keep health care services in communities,” association spokeswoman Cara Welch said in a statement. “Despite these efforts, we are past the point of anticipating negative impacts to care – now it is happening, and it will get worse as more provisions of H.R. 1 take effect.”
UCHealth spokesman Dan Weaver said the list seemed “odd” because it includes some of the system’s more stable hospitals. The system is adding a tower and medical office building to its Highlands Ranch campus, suggesting it sees the market as profitable.
UCHealth has dealt with the strain of a sharp increase in uncompensated care, but it still acts as a refuge for other hospitals, with Pueblo’s Parkview Medical Center and Estes Park Health joining the system after years of losses, Weaver said.
“Importantly, no UCHealth hospitals are at risk of closing. UCHealth is the state’s largest provider of Medicaid care, and we are committed to the communities we serve,” he said in a statement.
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