The 2008 Colorado Legislative session proved to be one of incremental but important gains on the expansion, access and quality improvements in health care coverage. The Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition played an active role in several legislative efforts this session. This presence at the capitol was appreciated by legislators and stakeholder groups alike and, in many cases, had a significant impact on the outcome of the bill. The following is a summary of the key issues CCIC took action on.
Fiscal Year 2008-2009 state budget or “Long Bill”
CCIC worked with Governor Ritter’s team and the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee to secure key provisions in the state budget which together reflect the single largest investment in the improvement of children’s health care in Colorado in over a decade. The FY 08/09 State Budget is a well thought out, complimentary package that maximizes federal funds (a smart approach in a state with limited resources and multiple needs) and follows closely with the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform thus establishing a solid foundation for health care reform in the coming years. Most importantly, the budget places children as a top priority.
With this budget CCIC finally achieved a hard and long-fought goal of fully funding the Colorado Immunization Information System, commonly known as the Immunization Registry. Specifically the budget contained $670,000 and 10.1 FTE to expand and move CIIS to the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment. CIIS is arguably the single most important tool the state can employ to ensure kids get timely and appropriate vaccinations against sometimes deadly communicable diseases.
The FY 08/09 budget provides $7.8 million to provide health care coverage for an additional 50,000 children by expanding the Child Health Plan Plus from 205% to 250% FPL and ensuring currently eligible children are enrolled in Medicaid. Additionally, there is funding to ensure all kids in CHP+ and Medicaid have a Medical Home to ensure access to the primary and preventive care they need to keep them healthy, strong and out of an emergency room.
Colorado Regional Health Information Organization (CORHIO): $500,000 to develop policies and procedures for data exchange between HCPF programs and providers in CORHIO. This is year one of a three year process.
Primary Care rate increase to evaluation and management codes: $11,750,000 to raise all physician and management codes to 90 percent of the equivalent Medicare rates. Overall, the increase reflects an approximate 24% rate increase fore each code on average (it varies for the different rate codes).
Medical Home incentive reimbursements: $4.7 million to increase reimbursements for providers acting as Medical Home under the provisions of HB 07-130.
Eligible but not Enrolled Improvements: $5 million of HCPF’s $10.2 million request for implementation of centralized eligibility and medical homes to increase client enrollment and decrease the percentage of eligible but not enrolled clients (11,000 children and more than 1,200 adults). They achieved the lower number by delaying implementation of the program by six months.
