Final
Sarah Schulte's Presentation
HIFA WAIVER COMMITTEE
Votes:
Action Taken:
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09:09 AM
Senator Hagedorn called the committee to order and gave an overview of the agenda for the meeting. A number of handouts were distributed to the committee prior to the meeting, including a letter from the Board of Directors of the Health District of Northern Larimer County (Attachment A), a fiscal analysis of the HIFA waiver prepared by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (Attachment B), a policy statement regarding the HIFA waiver from the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (Attachment C), answers to questions submitted to the Department at the August 26 hearing on the HIFA waiver in Pueblo (Attachment D), the report "A Review of the Colorado HIFA Proposal," by Schulte Consulting, (Attachment E), and an article concerning Medicaid reform (Attachment F).
09:12 AM
Sarah Schulte, Schulte Consulting, began her presentation by describing the data sources she used to complete the analysis of the HIFA waiver proposal. Ms. Schulte was hired by the Colorado Legislative Council to review the HIFA waiver and make recommendations regarding its implementation. A copy of her presentation was distributed to the committee (Attachment G). She discussed her conclusions regarding the HIFA wavier, including that the Colorado Family Care program relies on purchasing strategies of large employers in Colorado, successful implementation of a private-sector strategy requires adequate managed care organization and health care provider participation, implementing Colorado Family Care through a HIFA waiver requires a per capita growth cap on federal funding, most elements of the program could be implemented with state plan amendments that do not require a cap, the amount of savings created by the program will be revised by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing in September, and thoughtful implementation of the program is key to achieving the goals of the program. She discussed her recommendations for the program, including implementing Colorado Family Care using state plan amendments, closely monitoring health plan interest and provider participation, and developing an implementation plan. In summary, Ms Schulte concluded that Colorado Family Care is modeled after the private sector, core concepts of the proposal are supported by the public, state plan amendments do not limit federal funding, and successful implementation will be key to achieving program goals.