The Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) is excited to announce the release of its newly updated Community Dashboard, a powerful and interactive population health report that provides transparent, actionable insights into health care utilization and cost across Colorado. This update now includes additional years of data and new utilization measures.
The new analysis shows that between 2013 and 2022, health care spending across all insurance payers in the Colorado All Payer Claims Database (CO APCD) surged by 139%. Across service categories, outpatient visits rose by 25%, prescription fills increased by only 10%, and inpatient hospitalizations decreased by 19%. In contrast, per person per year (PPPY) costs rose 51% for outpatient and 151% for prescriptions, and costs for hospitalizations decreased by 11%. This contrast highlights that spending is rising much faster than the actual use of health care services, which indicates that prices for services are driving increases in health care costs, not increased use of services.
This public resource allows community organizations, policymakers, health care providers, and consumers to explore health trends, identify disparities, and inform strategies to improve care and lower costs statewide. The Community Dashboard offers health care data based on demographic factors such as age, gender, and geography, making it an essential tool for advancing health equity. By providing detailed information on key metrics such as emergency department usage, hospital admissions, and primary care use, the dashboard reveals where care is over- or under-utilized and enables data-driven actions to improve outcomes.
Kristin Paulson, JD, MPH
“We believe that access to transparent, reliable data is essential to drive meaningful improvements in Colorado’s health care system,” said Kristin Paulson, President and CEO of CIVHC. “The updated Community Dashboard helps Change Agents across the state to make informed decisions that can reduce health care costs, improve access, and address disparities in health outcomes.”
Across the state, out-of-pocket costs for Coloradans with commercial insurance and Medicare Advantage plans rose significantly from 2013-2022. In 2022, Coloradans with commercial insurance paid a little over $1,040 PPPY to access health care services, a $300 per person jump over 2013 costs. In 2022, Coloradans with Medicare Advantage paid nearly $1,700 per person to access health care services, an almost $800 per person jump over 2013 costs. These costs do not include health insurance premiums paid by Coloradans or their employers.
Across all payers and all categories of services in the CO APCD in 2022, payments made by health insurance payers and patients combined totaled $7,860 per person. Digging deeper into spending by health care category shows that payments made directly to doctors and other providers for services was the largest portion of spending (34%), followed by payments for outpatient facilities (26%), prescription drugs (22%), and hospital stays (19%).
CIVHC updates the Community Dashboard annually and seeks input from communities and other Change Agents during the development process. If you have a particular measure of interest for your work that is not currently available, please let us know at info@civhc.org, and we will evaluate including it in future dashboard iterations.
- View the Community Dashboard & Methodology
- Download Excel files with additional data breakouts by age and sex
- View the Annual Check-up Health Care Cost and Use Infographic