Dear CHASE Stakeholders,

Our next CHASE Board meeting is scheduled for 3 pm on Tuesday, April 23rd via Zoom.  

For this upcoming meeting, HCPF has posted the agenda and HCPF’s proposed 2023-24 CHASE Hospital Provider Fees and Payments model documents on the CHASE Board website under the April 23, 2024 heading, including:

• Overview document which includes detailed methodologies and data sources for the inpatient and outpatient provider fees and each payment type
• Provider fees and payments by hospital and by hospital groupings
• Financial statement and Upper Payment Limit (UPL) and Net Patient Revenue (NPR) Summary
• Hospitals by UPL ownership category and adjustment factor category

This proposed model reflects:

• Supplemental Medicaid payments set such that total Medicaid hospital reimbursement is at 97.2% for each inpatient and outpatient UPL pool
• Inpatient and outpatient fees at 5.53% of the estimated NPR
• Fees totaling $1.25 billion, supplemental payments totaling $1.725 billion, and net reimbursement of $475.9 million, a 2.5% increase compared to the prior year.
• Proposed increase to the Essential Access Payment and changes to inpatient and outpatient adjustment factors to increase the number of hospitals benefiting from the fee and minimize those that suffer losses

The Colorado Hospital Association (CHA) has requested HCPF consider recommending that the supplemental Medicaid payments be increased to 100% of the UPL. HCPF is engaging with CHA and will share the outcome of our discussions as they become available, including any changes to HCPF’s proposed model.

CHA has also requested HCPF provide additional transparency for the use of CHASE fees to fund Medicaid and CHP+ expansion populations given recent increases and articulate our policy rationale in our engagement with the CHASE Board and stakeholders before the model is finalized. HCPF supports doing so and will be prepared to discuss these points at the CHASE meeting.

If you have questions or feedback about the proposed model, you may reach out to Nancy Dolson, Special Financing Division Director, at nancy.dolson@state.co.us. HCPF will share stakeholder feedback with the CHASE Board at our 4/23 meeting.