Senate committee clears narrow fix letting remote psychiatric unit count as hospital campus

Senator Roberts told the committee HB1305 provides a targeted clarification so that an inpatient psychiatric facility may be considered part of a hospital campus when it operates as an integrated department, even if it is not physically contiguous. Roberts cited the Precourt Healing Center, a Vail Health inpatient unit located 14 miles from the main hospital, as the motivating example.

Will Cook, president and CEO of Vail Health, said the center is a 28-bed inpatient unit serving patients statewide and that allowing it to be licensed as part of the main hospital saves administrative costs and makes inpatient behavioral care more sustainable. "We've recently opened up a 28 bed inpatient unit in Edwards, Colorado... being able to have this legislation to enable us to license it back to our main hospital saves a significant amount of money," Cook told the committee.

Nico Brown, Vail Health’s chief strategy officer, said licensing the facility back to the main hospital would avoid roughly $2 million in extra startup costs and about $1 million in ongoing expense without producing any additional patient benefit.

Kristen Bates of the state Medicaid agency’s behavioral-health office and other proponents also testified in favor of the bill. The committee voted unanimously to advance HB1305 and placed it on the consent calendar.