Bill Summary for Bill Number Departments' Presentation

Final
Departments' Presentation

COMMITTEE ON JOINT HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Votes:

Action Taken:

<none>

10:06 AM - Presentation by the Departments of Human Services and Health Care Policy and Financing on the Colorado Benefits Management System

A number of handouts were distributed to the committee prior to the meeting (Attachments A through C). Senator Hagedorn discussed a press released issued by the Governor on the Colorado Benefits Management System (CBMS).

10:08 AM -- Ron Huston and Stephen Swanson, Colorado Department of Human Services, and Lisa Esgar and John Wagner, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, came to the table to present on CBMS.

10:09 AM -- Mr. Huston updated the committee on difficulties implementing CBMS and distributed an outline of the Departments' presentation to the committee (Attachment D). He discussed the number of active cases in CBMS and the emergency processing unit, which was required by court order to be implemented. He discussed the volume of client calls processed through the emergency processing unit and the court-ordered criteria used to evaluate situations in which immediate action must be taken to restore benefits. Mr. Huston addressed the benefit freeze flag which was put in place to ensure that clients did not lose their benefits while being transferred into CBMS. He commented the number of counties that have finished converting their cases to CBMS and the number of cases which have active help desk tickets. Mr. Huston discussed measures that have been taken to improve CBMS and the Governor's CBMS taskforce, and distributed the recommendations of the task force (Attachment E) to the committee. Mr. Huston discussed the departments' budget supplemental request to fund additional costs associated with CBMS. He listed the emergency call center hotline number.

10:36 AM -- Mr. Huston responded to questions from the committee regarding software defects in CBMS and the pilot program that tested CBMS prior to its release. Mr. Huston discussed staffing reductions at the Department of Human Services and responded to questions from the committee regarding why CBMS was not implemented in phases.