Denver Health and Safety Committee Meeting - August 19, 2026
Denver Health and Safety Committee Meeting - August 19, 2026
The Health and Safety Committee of the Denver City Council met on August 19, 2026, at 10:30 AM in Room 391 of the City & County Building. The committee considered one action item—an amendment to the contract with Denver Health and Hospital Authority to implement the Denver Health Sales Tax (0.34% sales tax approved by voters in November 2024)—and received a briefing on the spending update. The meeting was chaired by Councilmember Darrell Watson, with all seven members present. One consent item was also approved.
Consent Calendar
- 26-1194: Amends an agreement with Trinity Group Services, Inc. to add $9,600,000 for a new total of $34,600,000 and extend the term six months to June 30, 2027, for hot meal and food service at Denver jail facilities. Approved by consent.
Discussion Items
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Action Item 26-1186 – Contract Amendment with Denver Health: Elise Matatall, Denver Health Sales Tax Administrator, presented the proposed amendment to the contract for distributing the Denver Health Sales Tax revenue. The original two-year contract (ending December 2026) would be extended by three years, ending December 31, 2029. Key changes include clarified metric reporting (volume, quality, clinical impact), aligned due dates for the annual report to Denver Health’s fiscal year (now due May 1), permission to combine reporting for mental health and substance use categories, and a defined annual report outline. The city collects the tax and distributes it monthly based on projections. A 1% city admin fee covers oversight; approximately $500,000 in unspent admin funds was returned to Denver Health in the first year. Actual 2025 revenue was $65.7 million; 2026 projected $68.5 million; 2027 projected $72 million (though that projection was questioned as possibly too high). Councilmembers asked about Tabor limits, revenue projections, and the rationale for allocation across service categories.
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Briefing 26-1195 – Denver Health Sales Tax Spending Update: Donna Lynne, CEO of Denver Health, presented the mid-year spending update. She explained that Denver Health absorbs about $140 million annually in uncompensated care ($100 million from Denver residents), driven by a 47% Medicaid patient population and low reimbursement. The 2Q sales tax (0.34%) helps fill gaps in five areas: emergency/trauma care, primary care, mental health, substance use recovery, and pediatric care. For each category, slides showed total spending, shortfall, and 2Q allocation. For example, emergency care costs $170 million, with a $37 million shortfall; 2Q provides $34 million. Primary care costs $100 million, shortfall $24 million, 2Q contributes $24 million. Lynne also highlighted investments: patient engagement specialists, sexual assault nurse examiner program expansion, new primary care clinic at Evans and Monaco, integrated medical-psychiatric unit (12 beds), employee safety initiatives, and improvements to the methadone clinic (Pavilion K). Future challenges include federal policy changes (HR1) expected to reduce Medicaid eligibility and supplemental payments, potentially causing 20,000 patients to lose coverage over 4-5 years, increasing uncompensated care. Uncompensated care has nearly tripled since 2020.
Councilmembers discussed the allocation methodology (based on uncompensated care per category), the challenge of measuring outcomes, and the importance of transparent metrics for taxpayer accountability. Dr. Steve Federico noted that metrics might vary year to year and may initially decline due to external factors like vaccine misinformation. The city's 1% admin fee update indicated projected spending of $684,000, with approximately $250,000 expected to be returned unused.
Key Outcomes
- Vote on Action Item 26-1186: Councilmember Kashmann moved, seconded by Councilmember Torres, to approve the contract amendment. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0 (all present members voting aye).
- Consent Item 26-1194: Approved by consent without objection.
- Next Steps: The spending update and contract amendment will proceed to the full City Council for final consideration. Council requested additional details on the 2027 revenue projection from the Budget Management Office and a comparison of the amended contract with the original to identify all changes.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council. Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now. Good morning and welcome. My name is Daryl Watson. I'm honored to serve as the chair of the Health and Safety Committee. This is August 19th Health and Safety Committee meeting. I'm kind of stalling because we have uh guests that are arriving, so great. Um welcome to Health and Safety Committee meeting. Um this is uh Darrell Watson. I'm honored to serve as the chair as well as the city council member representing all of flying district nine. Uh we have one action item today uh is uh Denver Health and uh DDPHE uh amended contract with uh Denver Health uh to distribute sales tax revenue. And before we run roll into that presentation, why don't we do introductions of city council members? Um we have council member Sandoval, it appears is online. We'll start online first. Oh not there yet, so my right, and then we'll come back to Councilmember Sandoval. Uh, Chair Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2. Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. Good morning, Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6. Hey everybody, Serena Gonzalez Cuquierz, uh council member at large. And I'll do one quick check to see if uh council member was able to sign in. I don't want to put her on the spot if she's not on, that's fine. Not in as yet. Nope. So let me turn it over to our friends from DDPHEA from Denver Health for you to introduce yourselves and I'll turn you over for the presentation. Good morning. Uh Elise Mattal with the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment. I am the Denver Health Sales Tax Administrator. And I'm Donna Lynn, the CEO of Denver Health. Stephanie Seiner Government Community Relations for Denver Health. Perfect. Okay, I will get us started. So uh we just did introductions. I'll talk a little bit about the background of this uh sales tax initiative and contract, a little bit about the timeline, the ballot issue, two Q. You'll hear us sort of intermittently say two Q versus Denver Health Sales Tax Fund, uh, and we'll talk about some of the historical revenue, and then I'll give an overview of the contract, accountability within the contract, the admin funding to the city, and then we'll talk through the proposed changes so you know what is being amended. Here's a little bit of a busy slide about the background and timeline. So ballot issue two Q was voter approved in November 2024. Council and the city got to work right away in January 2025 to approve it. Uh in May 2025, Denver Health shared their spending plan with uh City Council and DDPHE. And then in August 2025, they presented their mid-year spending plan update. Uh I was hired in July 2025, so sort of in between those two boxes. And then November 2025, uh Denver Health was asked to come back to present uh from some more further detail. 2026, April, they presented their 2026 proposed spending plan and annual report at council, and then the the annual report was published in May 2026. So you can see that we've had basically one full year of the full contract and reporting cycle. So we've learned a lot along the way, definitely adapted and tried to incorporate a lot of those adaptations into the contract. Uh the original contract term was two years, so ending December 2026. Uh the ballot issue to Q. I'm sure many of you voted on it. Uh just pulled some important language from the legislative intent. Uh as a safety net hospital, uh, a disproportionate percentage of those served by Denver Health are individuals who are uninsured or underinsured. On average, Denver Health has absorbed approximately a hundred million in each of the last two years for uncompensated care being provided to Denver residents, and dedicated funding to apply to that gap is necessary to sustain the critically important work and services being provided by Denver Health.
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