Colorado hospital building boom leads to empty beds and higher profits

Colorado built more hospitals than in all but one other state and hospitals raised prices by 76 percent over a seven-year period as their profits rose to among the largest in the nation, according to an article on the Denver Post website.

At the same time, hospitals doubled their administrative costs from 2009 through 2016, according to the information collected for the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.

Capital expenditures for the hospital industry in Colorado were higher than all states but Alaska, data shows. 

Amid the construction boom, the state’s hospitals erected new facilities they now struggle to fill. And as services get duplicated, the prices they charge their patients keep growing, the article said.

Read the article.