Colorado Needs To Invest In Behavioral Healthcare

With the lowest number of psychiatric beds on a per capita basis in the country, behavioral healthcare is the biggest unmet need in Colorado today.

The state has just seven psychiatric beds per 100,000 people, compared with an average of more than 25 per 100,000 nationwide, Centura Health Senior Vice President James Corbett said at Bisnow’s The State of Denver Healthcare event last week.

“We are the Mississippi of behavioral health,” Corbett said.

It is a problem that is becoming increasingly evident. In Durango, where Centura has a hospital to serve the town with a population of 18,503, there were 17 suicides during this calendar year, Corbett said.

“Unmet behavioral health conditions, be it depression or other issues, phobias, those things have consequences that increase the total cost,” Corbett said. “There’s a great need for behavioral health construction in the state.”

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Chancellor Donald Elliman Jr. said the university has been underinvested in mental health but has been working harder on providing more services in its shift from acute care to wellness. 

“Mental health is the single biggest undermet need in the country today,” Elliman said. “It’s a noble mission but a lousy business. Reimbursements aren’t very good.”

Though it does not always fall under the behavioral health umbrella, homelessness is another factor impacting healthcare delivery. If a hospital discharges a patient to a homeless shelter, the likelihood of that patient contracting an infection and ending up back in the hospital increases. It is a problem that has resulted in hospitals partnering with housing organizations to provide transitional housing, Corbett said, noting that Centura has done a few of them.

Though Colorado’s healthcare industry is healthy overall, it faces significant challenges in funding capital projects, Elliman said. First, there is Washington, D.C. If the federal government reduces healthcare spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, it will affect everyone's capital plans, he said. Also impacting healthcare spending are TABOR (Taxpayers Bill of Rights) and the Gallagher Amendment, which drastically reduces funding to meet the needs of developmentally disabled people. 

“Healthcare delivery in the State of Colorado is healthy, and the margins of most hospitals is strong,” Elliman said. “But that train is probably headed for a slowdown.”