This story was first published at CPR News.
DENVER | Since last fall, the UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora says they have provided roughly 150 hospital admissions, clinic appointments and emergency visits — totaling almost $4 million in expected reimbursements — for immigrants detained by the Department of Homeland Security.
They haven’t been reimbursed in 10 months.
The Department of Veterans Affairs had always paid outside providers on behalf of DHS for detained immigrant medical care, but stopped abruptly last fall, according to public documents obtained through FOIA by an advocacy organization called American Oversight.
The VA said they wanted to prioritize veterans, so DHS awarded two no-bid contracts to two private companies to fulfill the payments, but the reimbursements have not been made so far, according to American Oversight and Colorado medical providers.
“Like other healthcare providers, UCHealth has been unable to submit claims and has not been reimbursed for care provided since October 1, 2025, because of a disruption in the Department of Homeland Security’s medical payment system,” said UCHealth spokesman Dan Weaver. “Despite the lack of reimbursement, we continue to provide healthcare as needed for individuals detained by ICE.”
Weaver said the health system is not sending the bills from detained immigrants to collection agencies. Rather, he said, they are saving the bills up for DHS to pay when the payment system is back up and running.
A spokesperson for DHS called the notion that the agency is failing to pay its bills “false” and pointed the finger at Congress.
“ICE pays contractors for their services,” read the statement, provided in lieu of an interview. “ICE does not pay contractors while services are paused during government shutdowns.”
Congress was unable to agree on a budget twice in the last year, leading to shutdowns in October and early November of 2025. A standoff over the DHS budget then led to restrictions on funding that agency from mid-February through April of this year. The statement did not explain why bills haven’t yet been paid since DHS received its funding.
The payment disruption points up the complexity of detaining people who had jobs and were paying for their own health insurance until ICE took them into custody, attorneys and immigrant advocates said.
Some of those were covered by employers. Others could have bought into a healthcare plan that was offered in the Colorado health care exchange called OmniSalud, which allowed for coverage of undocumented immigrants but had its eligibility and subsidies cut under H.R. 1 or the federal legislation President Donald Trump called “The Big Beautiful Bill,” Weaver said.
“There are some questions about whether this program will be able to continue with such reduced funding,” he said.
Lauren Nicholas, a health economist and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said it’s usually better for people to have chronic conditions treated outside of the emergency department for cost and health maintenance purposes.
“Maintenance medication and allowing health conditions to worsen in many ways for people who aren’t at home … is a new cost to patients and taxpayers,” she said.
Nicholas also noted that the OmniSalud program was subsidized by state money, since it was on the exchange, so if that goes away that could be a cost-savings to Colorado taxpayers.
But, she quickly added, “if ICE isn’t paying their bills that’s going to come from the people of Colorado one way or the other.”
Meanwhile, immigrant advocates say they’re worried about people inside detention not getting proper medical care — particularly those people with chronic conditions who need to be seen regularly by specialists.
Lawyers and advocates say those people who, for example, need routine insulin or dialysis aren’t getting the medications and treatments that they need and are deteriorating inside of detention.
Colorado Pastor Edward Nalwamba, who has been detained for almost a year and faces deportation, was a sprightly 77-year-old retiree before he was sent to the detention center, his friends and attorney say. He formerly ran a congregation in Greenwood Village, but had retired. He loved to exercise and was active in the church.
Now, Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper’s office is pushing for his release after his lawyers say Nalwamba has faced a series of health declines, including extreme malnutrition, respiratory illnesses and pneumonia. He is now wheelchair-bound following a medical collapse.
He also has, apparently, been exposed to tuberculosis, which could be deadly for his pre-existing conditions, his lawyers have said.
It’s one of many examples, a spokesman from Hickenlooper’s office said, that the senator has heard about where people who came into detention and were otherwise healthy, but remain so long they become chronically ill.
“Senator Hickenlooper and our office have met with multiple people who have not received the proper care they need — or even missed medications — while they’ve been detained at the Aurora ICE facility,” a spokesman said. “These failures put people’s health at risk, and they are totally unacceptable. ICE is required by law to provide adequate medical care. We won’t stop conducting oversight, demanding accountability, and pushing ICE to follow the law.”