Where injured Denver city workers go for care: four workers' comp contracts on Monday's agenda

When a Denver city employee is hurt on the job, the city, not an insurance company, pays for the care. Denver runs its own "self-insured/self-administered" workers' compensation program, and on Monday, Nov. 2, the City Council votes on four contracts that keep it running (agenda).

Why it matters: the city employs thousands of people, from firefighters and sheriff deputies to parks crews and airport workers. These contracts decide which clinics treat them and how their prescriptions are managed. The money comes from the city's Workers' Compensation Internal Service Fund, according to the Finance Department's requests.

The four contracts

Colorado's workers' compensation law requires employers to offer injured employees a choice of four designated medical providers, the Finance Department wrote. Three of the four contracts are for those providers:

• Injury Care Associates (26-1533): two more years, through Dec. 31, 2028, with no change to its $3 million limit (request).
• Peak Form (26-1534): two more years, through 2028, but its limit drops by $500,000, from $3 million to $2.5 million (request).
• Workwell Occupational Medicine (26-1535): a new two-year contract for up to $2.5 million, through 2028 (request).

All three were chosen through a request for proposals, the requests say.

The fourth is the pharmacy benefit manager:

• Mitchell International (26-1532): one more year, through Dec. 31, 2027, with no change to its $2 million limit. The company negotiates drug prices and rebates, runs the pharmacy network and manages prescriptions for injured workers. The city fills an average of about 1,850 prescriptions a year for injured employees, according to the request.

The Finance and Business Committee approved all four by consent on Oct. 20. As resolutions, they need one Council vote. The last regular Council meeting within the 30-day review period is Nov. 23.

What our records add

How this contract started. The Council approved Mitchell International's original $2 million contract in January 2022 (21-1533). It was chosen through an RFP, the city says.

Other pieces of the program. In January 2022, the Council approved a $2 million contract with Rising Medical Solutions to review and reprice workers' comp medical bills (22-0043). On Oct. 13 of this year, the Council approved an amendment extending that contract (26-1407).

Costs have needed mid-year help before. In July 2024, the Council passed 24-0854, which rescinded up to $4,688,415 from the General Fund contingency reserve to cover the centralized workers' compensation billing payment and made related appropriations in other funds.

Firefighters have a separate option. In 2022 the Council approved an agreement letting Denver firefighters join the Colorado Firefighter Heart and Cancer Benefits Trust's voluntary cancer benefits program, in place of the city's self-insured workers' comp program for those claims (22-1003).

A different self-insurance fund is also changing. Separate from workers' comp, a bill at the Nov. 3 Finance and Business Committee would change how the city budgets its Medical Self-Insurance fund for employee health benefits. Our story on the budget's companion bills explains it.

What we don't know

The requests do not say why Peak Form's limit was cut or why a new provider was added. They also do not name the fourth designated provider, which is not on Monday's agenda. Contract limits are ceilings, not guaranteed payments.

What's next

• Monday, Nov. 2: Council vote, likely in the consent block unless a member calls an item out.
• Dec. 31, 2027: The Mitchell extension ends, so a new pharmacy contract or another extension could come to the Council in 2027.
• Dec. 31, 2028: The three clinic contracts end.