1.   The clinic provides free care for indigent patients.

2.   Administration officials have several proposals to control Medicaid costs, including a reduction in special Medicaid payments to hospitals that serve large numbers of indigent patients.

3.   Dennis Brimhall, president of the University of Colorado Hospital, said his emergency room has seen an upsurge in indigent patients since the Columbia-HealthOne merger.

4.   Gov. Christie Whitman had urged the delegation to fight a section of the bill that lowers special Medicare payments to hospitals serving large numbers of indigent patients.

5.   In addition, federal subsidies for designated institutions that treat a disproportionate share of indigent patients would be cut under most current bills.

6.   Indigent ComCare patients and seriously mentally ill patients would still get services.

7.   Instead, the Legislature should use the tobacco money on coverage for the uninsured as a way to pump money into hospitals that take indigent patients.

8.   Its charitable bequests formerly underwrote services ranging from mammograms for the uninsured to taxi rides for indigent patients.

9.   Most of the savings would be achieved by cutting special payments to hospitals that serve large numbers of indigent patients.

10.   Non-profits argue that their for-profit competitors simply care more about the bottom line than patient needs -- especially the needs of rural communities and indigent patients.