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2024 Legislative Recap
Thank you for your partnership throughout the 2024 legislative session. This session, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) tracked 63 bills, successfully navigated 15 agenda and priority bills through the process, and completed 78 fiscal analyses of 71 unique bills. Thank you for your partnership in helping pass bills of interest, with 85% of final votes in support. We are now working to implement all the bills and budget requests that impact HCPF safety net programs or leverage our expertise to the betterment of Coloradans. This includes 45 bills, eight legislative requests for information and nine new or changed legislative reports. Please visit our Legislator Resource Center for our latest fact sheets on the 2024 legislative session.
Thank you to the General Assembly, advocates, providers and other stakeholders for partnering to advance bills that support the Coloradans we cover and serve, provide added supports for Coloradans in need of substance use disorder (SUD) and behavioral health care, protect the health and safety of members, and expand eligibility and services for some of our most vulnerable members. We are also very thankful for new policies and funding that continue to support our health care providers who provide valued access to care for our members. Below are key highlights of the legislative session.
HCPF was involved in two bills that address substance use disorders (SUD). HB24-1045 creates and expands programs and services for SUD treatments while SB-047 creates several measures regarding the prevention of SUD. HCPF also focused on creating and expanding programs for youth who are in, or at risk of being placed in, out-of-home care through HB24-1038.
Both HB24-1400 and HB24-1229 address Colorado Medicaid’s eligibility procedures. HB24-1400 allows HCPF to no longer require additional verification during a member's Medicaid redetermination if certain criteria are met. HB24-1229 gives HCPF the authority to pursue an 1115 waiver to expand presumptive eligibility to include individuals with disabilities and facilitate prompt delivery of services in a community setting. Both of these bills support the Polis-Primavera Administration goal of Keeping Coloradans Covered.
As part of the Joint Budget Committee and Long Bill, bills were passed to extend the Rural Stimulus Grants funding through the end of 2024 (HB24-1465), as well as sunset the Colorado Indigent Care Program (CICP) as a distinct program due to funding for CICP clinics being repealed in 2021 (HB24-1399).
Other bills passed protect the health and safety of members and state dollars in cases of organized crime or organized fraud schemes (HB24-1146); make a variety of technical changes to multiple state agencies’ required legislative reports to ensure relevancy, timeliness, accountability and transparency (SB24-135); allow a one-time payment of $5 million to safety net hospital Denver Health (HB24-1401); and retroactively discontinue transfers to the autism treatment fund while transferring any remaining balance to the tobacco litigation settlement cash fund (HB24-1208).
HCPF’s fiscal year 2024-25 budget is $15.9 billion Total Fund and $5.0 billion General Fund, reflecting about one-third of the state’s budget. 96% of that budget goes to pay our valued health care providers caring for Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+) members. This includes a 2% increase in provider reimbursement rates across the board, on top of last fiscal year’s 3% increase and prior year increases of 2% and 2.5%, targeted provider rate increases, and direct care workers wage increase across the state to $17 per hour and to $18.29 per hour in Denver, effective July 1, 2024.
In addition to our collaborative work this legislative session, thank you for your continued partnership in helping Keep Coloradans Covered throughout the 14-month public health emergency (PHE) unwind. April was the final month of Colorado’s PHE unwind process, reflecting the state’s and the nation’s return to business-as-usual eligibility processing. Still, our work is not done! Members can still leverage the 90-day reconsideration period to submit their renewal information late, or after that, submit new applications for coverage at any time. More information is on our updated website, reporting webpage and in our newsletters. Providers and partners, please continue to leverage the following tools to support Medicaid and CHP+ members through the renewal process as a best practice to achieve shared goals: Update Your Address, Understanding the Renewal Process and Take Action on Your Renewal (available in the top 11 languages spoken by our members). Flyers have been developed for employers to distribute to employees to remind them to look for their Health First Colorado renewal packet and where appropriate, how to transition to employer-sponsored coverage, and the importance of doing so in a timely manner.
Thank you for your collaboration throughout this legislative session to advance important policies for the betterment of all Coloradans. We appreciate the hard work, passion and expertise of our elected officials, advocates, providers, partners and stakeholders.
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