The Park Hospital District board chair said he stands by UCHealth’s record on serving the needs of underserved area residents.

“I’m relatively confident that the needs of the community will be well served by our partners at UCHealth,” Park Hospital District Chairman Cory Workman said during the board’s June 3 meeting at Town Hall.

Workman said his comments were in response to a few emails about the financial dilemma facing the Salud Family Health – Estes Park Clinic. He said he’s heard from concerned citizens about the local branch of the health care facility that is facing a $1 million deficit.

Salud provides medical, behavioral, and dental care primarily to low-income, medically underserved populations. Without a significant infusion of funding, reports indicate the center is at risk of closing its doors.

“We are aware of the situation,” Workman. “UCHealth is one of the large providers of the underserved.”

Workman said, “according to Elizabeth Concordia, president and CEO of UCHealth, the nonprofit health care system that acquired management of Estes Park’s medical center last Dec. 1, “one out of three patients seen at a UCHealth facility is part of an underserved population.” Workman said.

Concordia recently reported that “in lieu of their deferred taxes, UCHealth, given their tax status, UCHealth was providing somewhere in the ballpark of about $1.4 billion worth of underserved or charitable care,” Workman told the sparse audience.

At a community forum on May 19 at the UCHealth Estes Valley Medical Center, the president and CEO of UCHealth’s Northern Colorado Region, Kevin Unger, said that UCHealth provided approximately $1.6 billion in “community benefits” last year, which included educational initiatives, charity care, and support for Medicaid patients. Unger said UCHealth would otherwise pay an estimated $425 million in taxes annually.

At that meeting, Vern Carda, the CEO of the UCHealth hospital in Estes, told the gathering, “Unfortunately, we’re in the business of misery. None of us get our paychecks unless you get sick.”

Budget changes yet to come

Other business discussed during the meeting included the status of budget alterations. A special board meeting is anticipated in June to discuss and establish a revised spending plan for this fiscal year.

In mid-December 2025, the approved budget provided for spending only $200,000 during the year, the maximum amount allowed under the conditions of the affiliation agreement. However, the district has already received $210,739 in invoices for work through April from Hall Render, the legal firm representing the Park Hospital District.

In accordance with the district’s budget, $50,000 already has paid or allocated for legal services. Brigitte Foust, the Park Hospital District treasurer, said state law precludes payment of the outstanding $150,000 and any future legal fees incurred during the year without revising the budget.

Negotiations with UCHealth to increase the annual administrative allocation of $200,000 are ongoing and are expected to be included in a memorandum of understanding between the two entities. Also being considered for the document are the flow of funds, financial commitments, governance considerations, and other operational matters.

Audit report not finished, board approves document

In other business, auditors John Shurtliff and Chris Dillon of Eide Bailly, a certified public accounting firm specializing in healthcare organizations, told the Park Hospital District board that the district’s 2025 financial audit is expected to receive a favorable opinion when the preliminary report is completed.

“This year, there is tentatively an unmodified, or clean, audit opinion,” Shurtliff said.

The report issued to the hospital board was in draft form as “we do have a little bit of cleanup from a file documentation standpoint. We’re working with the team over at UCHealth to get the final pieces to that,” he said.

“We’ll anticipate finalizing these in the coming days over within the next week to week and a half to get that done and finalized,” Shurtliff said.

Only one audit report will be issued because the Park Hospital District board of trustees served as the official organization overseeing all healthcare activities throughout 2025, including those that occurred before, during, and after the affiliation transfer to UCHealth in December 2025.

Shurtliff said “the biggest piece of advice for the board going forward is to “definitely be vigilant and diligent with the resources that you have. Be diligent and vigilant about your budgets, have good forecasting of what anticipated expenses you are to make, and be good stewards of those public resources tax funds.

Shurtliff said the PHD’s attorney and the board could determine whether a final audit report would be published on the district’s website, although it would be subject to public records requests under the Colorado Open Records Act. The board unanimously approved the verbal report.

Other business

The board approved a formal request for UCHealth Estes Valley Medical Center to provide records from previous hospital and medical center operations to the Park Hospital District. The records are currently maintained by UCHealth and the former Estes Park Health, but state public records requirements require the district to retain them.

The request, addressed to Vern Carda, former CEO of Estes Park Health and now president of UCHealth Estes Valley Medical Center, seeks governance records, board actions, financial documents, election records, audit reports, and other records the Park Hospital District is required to maintain.

The board also unanimously reelected all members to their current positions. Workman will remain chairman. Steve Alper will be vice chair. Janet Zeschin will serve as secretary, and Foust will serve as treasurer. Tom Leigh will serve as a member at large.

Although the board expects to hold at least one special meeting in the coming weeks, its next regularly scheduled meeting is not until Aug. 26.