The Measurable Impact of Colorado Health Network’s Harm Reduction Programs  

Every dollar invested in harm reduction doesn’t just save a life — it saves taxpayers, healthcare systems, and communities from staggering financial burdens. At Colorado Health Network (CHN), we believe that public health and fiscal responsibility point in the same direction. Today, on National Harm Reduction Day, we’re sharing the numbers that tell our story in lives touched, dollars saved, and the bridge between keeping people alive today and supporting them toward lasting health tomorrow.  

What We Do: Access Point and Overdose Prevention Programs 

CHN’s Access Point syringe access programs and overdose prevention initiatives place sterile supplies, naloxone, HIV and Hepatitis C testing, and connections to care directly in the hands of people who need them most without judgment and without barriers. Our staff build relationships, administer screenings, connect participants to behavioral health and other resources, and work every day to keep Coloradans alive and reduce costly disease transmission so they can access treatment and support when ready. 

In Fiscal Year 2025, that work translated into outcomes that are nothing short of extraordinary. 

FY2025 Program at a Glance 

Program Area	Impact
Overdose reversals reported by participants	1,994
Coloradans served through syringe access	12,999
Free HIV tests administered	2,773
Free Hepatitis C tests administered	633
People connected to PrEP (HIV prevention medication)	661
People connected to HIV PEP (post-exposure medication)	60

These numbers represent real people — neighbors, family members, community members — whose lives were protected this year. Behind each data point is a story of human dignity preserved. Behind each data point is also a calculable economic impact. 

The Fiscal Case for Harm Reduction 

Skeptics sometimes ask whether harm reduction programs are worth the investment. The peer-reviewed research answers with an emphatic yes — and the margins are not even close. 

Overdose Prevention: Nearly 2,000 Reversals, Millions in Avoided Costs 

In FY2025, CHN program participants reported 1,994 overdose reversals — instances where naloxone and overdose education directly intervened between a person and a fatal or catastrophic outcome. 

The financial implications of that number are significant. Research published in BMC Public Health conservatively estimates that early community-based naloxone intervention results in healthcare system savings of approximately $4,470 per overdose response, primarily by preventing emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions. A groundbreaking study published by the New York State Department of Health in the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice (2025) found that naloxone administration programs yield a return on investment of $3,219 for every $1 spent. 

Applying even the most conservative estimates, CHN’s 1,994 reported overdose reversals represent a potential avoidance of $8.9 million in emergency healthcare costs — and that figure doesn’t account for the downstream savings from lives preserved, productivity maintained, and criminal justice costs avoided. Nationally, opioid use disorder and fatal overdose cost the U.S. healthcare system more than $95 billion annually in hospital expenditures alone, according to analyses by Premier Applied Sciences. 

It bears noting that CHN’s syringe access program participants self-report overdose reversals, and research consistently shows that reported reversals significantly undercount actual reversals. The real impact is almost certainly higher. 

Syringe Access: Prevention at a Fraction of the Cost of Treatment 

CHN’s Access Point programs served 12,999 Coloradans with sterile syringes and harm reduction education and supplies in FY2025. The evidence that syringe service programs (SSPs) are cost-saving to society is robust and longstanding. 

Research published in Harm Reduction Journal (2021) demonstrates that a well-functioning syringe service program needs to prevent only three new HIV infections per year to be cost saving to society when measured against the lifetime cost of treating a single HIV infection. A 2021 study published in Sexually Transmitted Diseases estimated the average lifetime HIV-related medical cost for a person newly infected at approximately $420,285 (discounted). A more recent 2025 study in BMC Health Services found the incremental lifetime cost difference between people with HIV and matched HIV-negative peers at more than $2.4 million per person in undiscounted 2022 dollars. Preventing even a small number of new HIV infections through syringe access and harm reduction services produces healthcare savings that dramatically outpace program costs. 

HIV Testing, PrEP, and PEP: Closing the Prevention Loop 

CHN administered 2,773 free HIV tests in FY2025, ensuring that Coloradans who may not have access to routine medical care can know their status — a critical first step in both personal health and community-level transmission prevention. 

More significantly, CHN connected 661 people to PrEP — pre-exposure prophylaxis medication that, when taken consistently, reduces the risk of acquiring HIV by more than 99%. Every PrEP connection represents a potential HIV infection prevented, and a lifetime of treatment costs avoided. At a conservative estimate of $420,000 in lifetime medical costs per HIV infection averted (Bingham et al., Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 2021), 661 individuals successfully retained on PrEP represent hundreds of millions of dollars in potential long-term healthcare savings to Colorado’s public and private payers — even accounting for the cost of the medication itself. 

CHN also connected 60 people to HIV PEP — post-exposure prophylaxis — providing a critical safety net for individuals who experienced a potential HIV exposure. PEP, when initiated within 72 hours and completed fully, is highly effective at preventing infection. 

Hepatitis C Testing: Catching a Costly Disease Early 

633 free Hepatitis C tests were administered by CHN staff in FY2025. This matters financially as well as medically. Untreated chronic Hepatitis C has a lifetime medical cost of $155,930 per person, compared to $90,089 for someone who receives direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment, according to research published in BMC Health Services Research (2026). Early identification through testing creates pathways to curative treatment and prevents the far more costly complications of cirrhosis, liver cancer, and transplantation. The total U.S. cost burden of chronic HCV infection was projected to peak at $9.1 billion in 2024. 

Connect: Behavioral Health, Right Where It’s Needed 

Harm reduction doesn’t happen in isolation at CHN. Our Connect program places behavioral health counselors directly alongside our prevention services staff, ensuring that every participant who walks through our doors has immediate access to a qualified professional — no referral required, no waiting list, no additional barrier to clear. 

Connect counselors meet participants where they are — literally and figuratively. They engage in honest conversations about substance use, help navigate the often-overwhelming landscape of community resources, and provide a warm, supported bridge to outpatient counseling, treatment, and recovery services. For many participants, a brief conversation with a Connect counselor while accessing harm reduction supplies is the first meaningful contact they’ve had with the behavioral health system. 

The Connect Program was rolled out statewide in 2024. The most currect data we have is from Q1 of 2026, where the Connect program delivered measurable impact across CHN’s harm reduction sites:

Connect Program Area	Impact
Participants engaged by Connect counselors	139
Behavioral Health counseling sessions provided	140
Participants connected to outpatient treatment or recovery support	81
Participants assisted with resource navigation	75

This model of integrated care reflects a well-established principle in public health: that the moment someone is already engaged with a service is the most powerful moment to offer them something more. By embedding behavioral health support adjacent to syringe access and overdose prevention, CHN transforms a single point of contact into a potential turning point. 

The downstream value of this approach is substantial. Every person who moves from harm reduction services into treatment and recovery represents not only a profound personal transformation, but a reduction in future healthcare utilization, emergency services, and criminal justice costs. 

More Than Money

The fiscal case is compelling on its own. But the true return on investment in harm reduction extends further than any spreadsheet can capture. 

When CHN keeps a person alive and connected to services, we preserve their capacity to seek treatment, maintain relationships, contribute to their household and community, and engage in the workforce. When a parent survives an overdose, their children keep their family intact. When a person tests negative for HIV or Hepatitis C, they avoid a lifetime of chronic illness management. When someone starts PrEP, they protect not only themselves but their future partners. 

Harm reduction is, in the language of public health economics, a high-yield, low-cost intervention. The research and data from our own programs are unambiguous.

A Call to Action

CHN’s harm reduction programs exist because of the support of our funders, donors, and community partners. The 12,999 Coloradans who walked through our doors this year — or met our staff in the field — did so because people like you made it possible. 

We ask our stakeholders, community leaders, and elected officials to look at these numbers and recognize what they represent: one of the most fiscally responsible, evidence-backed investments a community can make in its own health and future. 

Learn More about CHN’s harm reduction programs or to support this work, visit the links below.

References 

Abimbola, T. O., Symum, H., Van Handel, M., et al. (2026). Lifetime medical costs of chronic hepatitis C in the United States. BMC Health Services Research. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-026-14360-1 

Bingham, A., Shrestha, R. K., Khurana, N., Jacobson, E. U., & Farnham, P. G. (2021). Estimated lifetime HIV-related medical costs in the United States. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 48(4), 299–304. https://doi.org/10.1097/OLQ.0000000000001366 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). State-level economic costs of opioid use disorder and fatal opioid overdose — United States, 2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(15). https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7015a1.htm 

Des Jarlais, D. C., Nugent, A., Solberg, A., Feelemyer, J., Mermin, J., & Holtzman, D. (2021). Is your syringe services program cost-saving to society? A methodological case study. Harm Reduction Journal, 18, 123. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-021-00575-4 

Fischer, L. S., Asher, A., Meltzer, M. I., & Edlin, B. R. (2025). Effectiveness of naloxone distribution in community settings to reduce opioid overdose deaths among people who use drugs: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Public Health, 25, 1135. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-22210-8 

Florence, C., Luo, F., & Rice, K. (2021). The economic burden of opioid use disorder and fatal opioid overdose in the United States, 2017. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 218, 108350. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8091480/ 

Luo, F., Zheng, Z., Facer-Childs, E. R., & Oster, A. M. (2021). Syringe services programs’ role in ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S.: Why we cannot do it without them. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 61(5), S217–S228. https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(21)00389-5/fulltext 

Mody, A., & colleagues. (2025). Excess HIV infections and costs associated with reductions in HIV prevention services in the US. JAMA. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40932715/ 

Premier Inc. (2023). Opioid use disorder costs hospitals $95B annually [Applied Sciences analysis]. https://premierinc.com/newsroom/press-releases/opioid-overdoses-costing-u-s-hospitals-an-estimated-11-billion-annually 

Schepis, T. S., & colleagues. (2023). A cost-benefit analysis of a virtual overdose monitoring service/mobile overdose response service: The national overdose response service. BMC Public Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10548617/