Date: 07/19/2012
Final
Update from HCPF from SB08-006
TREATMENT OF PERSONS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
| Votes: View--> | Action Taken: |
| <none> | <none> |
01:31 PM -- Update from the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing on Senate Bill 08-006
Chris Underwood of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing introduced himself and made brief remarks about Senate Bill 08-006, concerning the suspension of Medicaid for confined persons. Mr. Underwood advised the committee that the bill's provisions have not been implemented due to several complicating factors. First, Colorado law requires that a person can only be eligible for Medicaid if there are available matching federal funds. However, federal policies do not permit Medicaid coverage while a person is incarcerated. In addition, federal policies require that, when a person becomes incarcerated, he or she be immediately redetermined for eligibility. The change in circumstances results in the individual becoming a household of one.
Mr. Underwood explained that Colorado has very few resources to cover single individuals in Medicaid. In 2009, House Bill 09-1293 implemented the hospital provider fee to help expand Medicaid to adults without dependent children and incomes of up to 100 percent of the federal poverty level. As of April 2012, the state began to enroll these single adults in Medicaid. However, because there is insufficient funding to cover all eligible persons in this category, the state has implemented an enrollment cap of 10,000 persons. That enrollment cap was just recently met and the state has implemented a waiting list. If the state were to implement the provisions of Senate Bill 08-006 now, it would result in Medicaid slots being held open for persons while they are incarcerated, negatively impacting the department's ability to serve other low-income adults.
The committee discussed existing state programs that provide assistance to persons incarcerated in state facilities to apply for public benefits prior to their release. Mr. Underwood stated that he believes that the issue will be resolved in January 2014, when the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is fully implemented and the eligibility modernization project for the Colorado Benefits Management System (CBMS) is complete.