DENVER, COLO. – Feb. 28, 2024 – Last week, the first collaboration between rural hospitals as allowed now by Senate Bill 23-298 was approved by Colorado’s Attorney General, granting 25 rural hospitals to partner on a new workforce solution. The agreement grants a joint purchasing and shared services agreement through CHA Shared Services for services from Healthcare Workforce Logistics. It covers 25 rural Colorado hospitals and will give them access to national compensation data and Healthcare Workforce Logistics’ employment technology platform to make job offers to health care workers across the country.

The new law allows public hospital collaboration agreements, giving Colorado’s rural hospitals the opportunity to share resources, coordinate care, and improve efficiency.

“Colorado hospitals have a longstanding commitment to collaboration, but this new agreement gives our rural hospitals a valuable pathway for shared efficiencies and improvement, but also financial savings,” said Jeff Tieman, CHA president and CEO. “We appreciate the support from the legislature, the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, and the Colorado Attorney General for understanding the opportunity in this agreement and for supporting this partnership.”

“We project that this agreement will enable the participating hospitals to save at least 10 percent on labor costs versus the market,” said Jonathan W. Ward, president, HWL. “At a time when financial and workforce operations are incredibly challenging for hospitals, this represents an important savings opportunity.”  

CHA is grateful to the sponsors of Senate Bill 23-298, the administration, and other key stakeholders, including the Eastern Plains Health Consortium, who have worked to implement this new law and provide opportunities for collaboration.

About Colorado Hospital Association
Colorado Hospital Association (CHA) is the leading voice of Colorado’s hospital and health system community. Representing more than 100 member hospitals and health systems throughout the state, CHA serves as a trusted, credible and reliable resource on health issues, hospital data and trends for its members, media, policymakers and the general public. Through CHA, Colorado’s hospitals and health systems work together in their shared commitment to improve health and health care in Colorado. Learn more at www.cha.com.

About CHA Shared Services
CHA Shared Services is a subsidiary of the Colorado Hospital Association. CHA Shared Services supports Colorado’s health care facilities by providing a broad array of strategic services in the areas of health and welfare, retirement and executive benefits, workers’ compensation, and general human resources management. These services help clients increase efficiency by saving time, money and other valuable resources.

About Healthcare Workforce Logistics
Healthcare Workforce Logistics (HWL) is a leader and innovator in vendor neutral health care workforce solutions that play a critical role in helping health care employers across the nation optimize their workforces to increase efficiency, improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. With deep expertise in providing Vendor Management Systems (VMS) and Managed Services Program (MSP) solutions to health care delivery networks, HWL is backed by a leadership team with more than 70 years of combined experience in managing large-scale, $1 billion+ contingent labor spend through VMS and MSP programs.

HWL’s next-generation technology platform, HWL Works, in combination with market pricing, creates a vendor neutral marketplace for health care agencies to compete – leading to lower rates, quality improvements, and real-time visibility into utilization and costs. Today, HWL technology is implemented in over 2,600 care settings, including health systems, behavioral health, home health, skilled nursing, long-term care, post-acute/rehab, testing sites and clinics. HWL is part of the Jackson Healthcare^® family of companies. For more information, visit www.hwlworks.com. 

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