Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: HCPF

Colorado’s $500,000 Medicaid commission has no mandate to investigate fraud
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Colorado’s $500,000 Medicaid commission has no mandate to investigate fraud

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice Colorado lawmakers spent weeks debating a new commission to study Medicaid sustainability. The bill they sent to Gov. Jared Polis on May 9 names three major failures inside the state’s Medicaid system in its legislative declaration—the post-COVID eligibility purge, the rideshare scandal and the autism therapy audit. But the bill never directs the commission to investigate fraud, waste or abuse. Instead, SB26-187 creates a 10-member Medicaid Cost Containment and Sustainability Commission tasked with “establishing shared understanding,” exploring policy options and producing recommendations. The bill includes a $500,000 appropriation, including $415,000 for a contractor to facilitate meetings and roughly seven months to produce a report—due...
From $8 Billion to $16 Billion: How Colorado’s Medicaid Budget Doubled in a Decade
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

From $8 Billion to $16 Billion: How Colorado’s Medicaid Budget Doubled in a Decade

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice If you ask most Colorado families how they feel about health care right now, the answers aren’t complicated. It’s expensive.It’s confusing.It keeps going up. And for taxpayers helping fund Colorado’s Medicaid program — known as Health First Colorado — another question has started to surface: If enrollment has come back down, why hasn’t spending followed? Ten years ago, Colorado’s Medicaid agency operated on roughly $8 billion. Today it’s closer to $16 billion. The Common Sense Institute (CSI) calculates that as 101 percent growth over the decade. CSI reports that the rest of the state operating budget grew 64 percent during that same period. The story of enrollment is different. ...
Minnesota’s Medicaid Scandal Shows Why Colorado Must Tighten the Guardrails
Complete Colorado, Approved, Commentary, State

Minnesota’s Medicaid Scandal Shows Why Colorado Must Tighten the Guardrails

By Cory Gaines | Complete Colorado To say Minnesota has had some fraud going on is an understatement. I don’t know that I’ve seen it mentioned much in local media, but it’s a big national story. Colorado should beware taking its turn in this barrel. First, some brief background. Minnesota sought (and received) Medicaid waivers during COVID to use taxpayer dollars to fund things like subsidized housing for recipients, which ended up an impetus for massive fraud. An MPR News article gives some context, but the sheer size of the numbers are what really popped out to me: “According to the Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office, DHS [Minnesota Department of Housing Stabilization] had initially predicted the housing stabilization program would cost about $2.6 mill...

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