By Jennifer Brown | Colorado Sun
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid requested detailed information from the state Medicaid program as it investigates “fiscal integrity”
The Trump administration is launching an investigation into Colorado Medicaid spending on undocumented immigrants, an extensive data request from federal officials reveals.
The 11 pages of requested information, which The Colorado Sun obtained through the state open records act, asks about Colorado spending and policies, and seeks personal information about Medicaid claims during the past three months, including patients’ immigration status.
In an email accompanying the data request, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it intends to review claims that Colorado submitted for federal matching funds to pay for people’s medical care. Federal law generally prohibits states from using federal money to pay for nonemergency care for people without “satisfactory immigration status.” Many adult immigrants with legal status must complete a “five-year waiting period” during which they are not eligible for nonemergency services.
“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is committed to the fiscal integrity of the Medicaid program” and wants to ensure that federal money is used in accordance with the law, states the June 6 email from Dorothy Ferguson, a financial operations division director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which operates the Medicaid program for people who have low incomes or disabilities, has not yet responded to the data request. State officials are “currently evaluating the requests,” department spokesman Marc Williams said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We believe that other states have received similar requests.”
The state Medicaid program “has always been required to regularly share detailed information in order to claim federal matching funds” but this request is “lengthy and more detailed,” Williams said. Federal officials gave a July 30 deadline.
The request comes after Colorado, when former President Joe Biden was in office, expanded health coverage to immigrants living in the state, including those who do not have legal immigration status. Colorado did this through two programs, one of which is called Cover All Coloradans.
The program began this year and provides Medicaid coverage for children and pregnant and post-partum women no matter their immigration status. It has enrolled more than 21,000 people, including more than 16,000 children ages 0-18, who would qualify for Medicaid if not for their immigration status.
The program for children is funded through state dollars, but Colorado does receive a federal match for coverage for pregnant women, which is an exception under federal law.
Through a separate, longstanding program known as Emergency Medicaid, Colorado also receives federal dollars to pay for emergency health care for adults who are not citizens. This type of program exists in every state in the country, with some variation.
Colorado’s second program expanding health coverage for undocumented immigrants is called OmniSalud, and it is separate from Medicaid. The program provides a secure online marketplace for people to purchase private health insurance plans, and it provides state-funded subsidies to many to help pay for that coverage.
Nearly 14,000 people signed up for insurance plans this year through the program, the large majority of whom received subsidy help.
OmniSalud does not share information with the federal government, and a spokesperson for the program said last week that it has not received any requests to do so.
Three Republican members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation last week sent a letter to Gov. Jared Polis urging him to end both OmniSalud and Cover All Coloradans, saying the programs could put Colorado at risk of losing some federal funding under the massive federal tax and spending bill currently being debated.
Colorado provided more than 36,000 noncitizens with emergency care last month
The federal request focuses mainly on emergency care for adults who are undocumented or who have not had legal status for at least five years. Colorado Medicaid paid for emergency medical care for 36,834 noncitizens in May, according to data provided by the department Tuesday.