Katherine Mulready, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the Colorado Hospital Association, has been focused on the implementation of a plethora of bills passed in recent years that impact Colorado hospitals. At our Colorado conference last fall, Mulready spoke with us about her main priorities in state health policy and what she’ll be working on going forward.
She is primarily focused on ensuring hospitals stay afloat during the unprecedented financial strain the industry is undergoing. Continued workforce shortages, low revenue, and increased demand for care are all hampering hospitals’ ability to operate effectively. She noted that around half of the state’s hospitals have historically been unable to break even at the end of the year—and is concerned this will remain the case if the healthcare system doesn’t proactively work to support hospitals.
“As we see costs increase for our workforce and our supply costs, our reimbursements are not increasing at the same rate. So [there is] a high likelihood that we will see more hospitals struggling financially, potentially needing to cut access to services … That creates challenges, of course, for access to care in the community …”