Victims of the mass shooting at Club Q have had a lot on their minds since enduring the unthinkable event just over six months ago, but Colorado Springs’ two hospital systems have been working to make sure hospital bills weren’t one of them.

Both UCHealth, a statewide network that includes Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North, and Penrose-St. Francis Health Services, which operates Penrose Hospital and St. Francis Hospital as part of Centura Health, have waived out-of-pocket costs for people who were injured and taken to local hospitals following the event.

For the seven victims transported to Penrose Hospital, after medical insurance companies or Medicaid or Medicare paid their portions of bills, “We removed any responsibility from the patients and wrote off the patient portion that was due,” said Andrew Gaasch, executive vice president and chief financial officer for Centura Health.

“As a mission-based not-for-profit health system, we really wanted to lift the burden of any remaining medical expenses for the care those patients received related to the horrific incident,” he said.

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Soon after the shooting on Nov. 19, UCHealth’s customer service team put a hold on medical bills for the 12 patients who were injured at Club Q and treated at Memorial Hospital Central and Memorial Hospital North, said local spokeswoman Cary Vogrin.

“Our billing customer service team has been actively working with these patients, helping them through the process, and reassuring them that they should not face any bills from UCHealth,” she said.

In addition to the five deceased victims, 17 people were injured by gunshot, five people had other types of injuries and 12 people were victims with no visible injuries, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Centura Health provides charity and compassion care on a case-by-case basis daily, Gaasch said.

Last year, Centura spent $81 million on charity care for 65,000 patients, $79 million in community benefit activities and programs, such as paying costs for uninsured patients and funding health equity and social justice projects, and $351 million in unreimbursed Medicaid costs, according to its annual report.

“From our perspective, it’s a community benefit, neighbors helping neighbors and real people serving real people,” Gaasch said of the system’s response to Club Q survivors.

Centura Health has provided similar assistance for victims of other tragedies in the state, Gaasch said.

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“It’s a team-based decision, our leadership team huddles and has a conversation on something that’s significantly impacting our community,” he said.

In personal phone calls with a customer service team at Penrose, Club Q patients said they were “very grateful and appreciative of our ability to remove that burden from them,” Gaasch said.

He said he could not provide a value on the forbearance.

UCHealth also declined to give a dollar amount on the cost of the medical bills that it waived for Club Q patients.

Last year in the Colorado Springs region, UCHealth provided a total of $221 million in community benefits, including $84 million in uncompensated care, Vogrin said.

Community benefits cover such services as free COVID vaccination clinics, donations to food-assistance programs, free public trainings in injury prevention and suicide prevention and transportation vouchers, she said.

Systemwide, UCHealth tallied $1.1 billion in total community benefits, including $388 million in uncompensated care, Vogrin said.

VictimsFirst, a pro bono network of survivors of mass casualty crime and supporters, also helped defray costs of extended medical care, such as physical therapy, for Club Q victims, through the National Mass Shooting Victims’ Fund.

Representatives from both local hospital groups said they did not publicize their decision to remove the expense tab for Club Q survivors.

“This is a time of healing for them and not something we did for our own gain but something as a benefit to our patients,” said Lindsay Radford, spokeswoman for Centura Health.