Congress has put off until Dec. 20 cuts to the disproportionate share of payments hospitals receive for treating uninsured patients, amounting to over $100 million in Colorado.

The Colorado Sun reports that the Affordable Care Act of 2010 destined these payments for elimination, as the goal was to reduce the number of people without insurance. Thanks in part to Colorado’s expansion of Medicaid, the insurance rate has hovered around 93.5% for several years.

However, Denver Health still receives approximately 39% in disproportionate share, or DSH, payments, along with 18 other hospitals throughout the state.

Congress previously delayed the cuts until Nov. 21 of this year.

Colorado’ s Gov. Jared Polis, in a letter to the congressional delegation, reminded them that “safety net and rural hospitals depend on DSH payments to help them provide care to the community.”

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, which is charged with reporting on the issue to Congress, noted that payment cuts to hospitals were supposed to begin in fiscal year 2014.

However, “hospitals continue to have substantial levels of uncompensated care even though the number of uninsured individuals has declined since 2013.” MACPAC attributed the increasing gap between the cost of providing care to Medicaid patients and the reimbursement they receive from the government-administered insurance program.