The Connect Campaign

Connect April Email: Assessing Progress

Aubrey Hill — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:15:09 +0000

The currently limited adults without dependent children expansion in Medicaid has been progressing. The maximum number of enrollments has been consistently fulfilled while the waiting pool has been growing an average of 1,000 per month since September 2012.

It is positive to see that people are continuing to apply for benefits. Despite being put into the waiting pool, a connection to CICP in the meantime will assist them with needed care. Additionally, the state will be able to automatically enroll them into benefits on January 1, 2014.

We’re pleased that the Department continues to share data on enrollment and we continue to request data on care utilization. Check out our data dashboard showing progress thus far (which excludes this month’s expected enrollment increase).

Also, check out some helpful briefs from the Colorado Health Institute:

Brief on demographics of the likely enrollees of the Medicaid expansion, and
Brief on how current Medicaid enrollees (and uninsured) access health care.

Other informative resources are available on our Connect page.

Want to join our e-mail list for monthly updates? Email Aubrey Hill!

Connect March Email: Stay Engaged as 2014 Approaches

Aubrey Hill — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:15:52 +0000

The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing has a new communications channel called “ACA Implementation News.” It’s designed to keep partners up-to-date on health reform implementation work. Please visit here for more information and to add your name to the distribution list.

There are other communications avenues that the Department uses, such as the At a Glance for partners and the Provider Bulletin for providers. Sign up for these communications so you can stay in the loop!

As always, the Connect Campaign is working to ensure that systems are working, providers are engaged, and community efforts are coordinated. Please join us at our next monthly meeting on March 25th from 1pm to 2:30pm. If you would like more details, please e-mail Aubrey.

For other meetings or information on other groups working on different aspects of improving Medicaid, please refer to this meeting grid.

Connect February Email: Major AwDC Announcement

Aubrey Hill — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:16:17 +0000

BIG NEWS: The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing will incrementally expand the enrollment cap for adults without dependent children (AwDC) on Medicaid.

The income cap of 10% FPL will remain, but the Department ultimately aims to increase enrollment by 9,250 more slots as funding allows.
Those who are wait-listed for AwDC do NOT have to reapply as they will be pulling from the wait list to fill the new enrollment slots.

Click here to learn more about the enrollment increase.

As always, the Connect Campaign is working to ensure that systems are working, providers are engaged, and community resources are concerted. Please join us at our next monthly meeting on February 25th from 1pm to 2:30pm. If you would like more details, please e-mail Aubrey.

Letter from HCPF on Increasing AwDC Enrollment

Aubrey Hill — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 00:05:00 +0000

Dear stakeholders,

I am very pleased to announce that the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing will be increasing the enrollment cap for the AwDC program by an estimated 9,250 slots as funding allows.

Since last spring, we have been working together with our county partners and other stakeholders to provide coverage to the most vulnerable Coloradans through the AwDC program. The Department has been monitoring utilization and expenditure data for AwDC and is confident there is sufficient hospital provider fee revenue to raise the enrollment cap.

The Department plans to enroll 3,000 individuals from the AwDC program waitlist beginning in April and enroll 1,250 individuals each subsequent month though September 2013 as long as funding allows. The phased monthly increase in enrollment will allow the Department to continue to evaluate program expenses to ensure costs do not exceed provider fee funds.

The AwDC program is funded through the hospital provider fee and matching federal funds; it uses no state general funds. Since the program is relatively new, we will continue to monitor costs and utilization patterns carefully to watch for changes. A phased approach gives us the opportunity to slow enrollment if it appears that our program growth will lead to costs that exceed available hospital provider fee resources. It also allows us to add more people over time than a single large increase would. However, after our discussions with you all last week, we agreed that it was important to enroll as many people as possible during the first month, and as you can see, the largest increase happens in April.

Please note: the application and enrollment processes will stay the same. The income limit is still 10% FPL, and we are still using the same randomized selection process to choose names from the waitlist each month. Nothing is changing except the number of available slots. Applicants who are already on the waitlist do not need to reapply.

As we discussed in our meeting, the Department is preparing formal notifications to CMS and to the public, in accordance with the terms of our waiver.

I wanted to be the first to share this exciting news with you. Please watch for updates to our website and for a press release to be posted next week. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you for your dedication to and support of this program.

Sonja Madera, MS

Medicaid Program Development Specialist

Department of Health Care Policy and Financing

1570 Grant Street

Denver, CO 80203-1818

Phone: 303-866-6977

Fax: 303-866-2803

sonja.madera@state.co.us

colorado.gov/hcpf

Meeting Opportunities

Aubrey Hill — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 17:36:20 +0000

CKF Coalition

The Covering Kids and Families (CKF) Coalition members work to identify improvements in public health insurance programs, represent the needs of families and local communities in the policy process, and support local efforts to enhance outreach and enrollment in Family Medicaid and CHP+. The CKF Coalition meets quarterly on the second Wednesday of every third month. Our next meeting is April 10 from 9-10:30am at the Rose Community Foundation. People on our CKF Coalition email list also receive a monthly update on outreach, enrollment, and health policy related to Family Medicaid and CHP+ as well as resources and events.

CKF Agency Partners Work Group

The Agency Partners Work Group focuses on outreach, enrollment, and retention issues in Family Medicaid and CHP+. Members and CKF staff share resources, strengthen partnerships and provide each other with technical assistance on Medicaid and CHP+ policies and rule changes. This work group meets on the fourth Friday of the month. Our next meeting is February 22 from 9-10:30 at CCHN.

CKF Health Policy Work Group

The Health Policy Work Group monitors and discusses legislation and regulations that impact Medicaid and CHP+. This group meets on the third Thursday of every other month. The next meeting is February 21 from 9-10am at CCHN.

Meeting schedule can be found here and more information about CKF can be found here.

Contact Christy Boland for questions or to be adding to mailing list.

Connect Campaign January Email: Welcome to 2013!

Aubrey Hill — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:44:36 +0000

2013 is going to be a big year, especially since Governor Hickenlooper announced last week that Colorado will be expanding Medicaid.

The Connect Summit in December was a great opportunity for all of us to begin putting our heads together on the work that needs to be done. To get more information what was shared in the Summit, as well as the responses we received from the participants, please click here.

Connect will ensure that the information from the Summit is brought to HCPF and other groups involved in this work, and also lead in the areas of better information-sharing, appropriate messaging of Medicaid, and smarter systems and processes (especially in the ACC).

The Summit also highlighted for us that groups want to be more involved, and we are taking this to heart! We are working on better ways of engagement, so please stay tuned! If you have ideas on how you would like to deepen your engagement, please email Aubrey.

In the meantime, you’re welcome to join us at our next monthly Connect meeting on January 28th from 1pm to 2:30pm. If you would like more details, please e-mail Aubrey.

Connect Campaign December Email: Toward a Better Medicaid Summit Follow-up

Aubrey Hill — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 23:57:27 +0000

Thank you so much to all of you who came to our summit! It was such a great event with productive dialogue and creative ideas. In January, we will send around highlights from the discussions.

We will also start to incorporate the comments you shared with us. We love your enthusiasm for greater involvement and sharing of more pertinent information, so we will be sure to do that in the new year.

In the meantime, here are links to the PowerPoint slides presented at the Summit, a summary 4-pager of JSI’s findings on the initial AwDC expansion, and the full JSI report.

Please let Aubrey know if you have any additional comments or questions. Have a very safe and happy holidays!

Connect November Email: Join Us in Working Toward a Better Medicaid!

Aubrey Hill — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:59:48 +0000

You’re invited to our lunch summit on December 4th from 11:30am to 4pm at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden.

This will serve as an opportunity to reconnect with statewide partners and learn from our recent Medicaid expansion experience how we can work toward a better Medicaid in Colorado. All the information about the event can be found here.

Lunch will be provided at no cost. Please consider joining us for this very important conversation.

Connect Campaign October Email: Broadening the Focus

Aubrey Hill — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 23:55:38 +0000

We are hosting a lunch summit on December 4th! We plan to talk about our overall experience with AwDC this year as well as lessons learned and success stories, and act on solutions together. The meeting is open to anyone and lunch will be provided at no cost. For more details and to register, go here.

Updates from Connect Campaign:

The Connect Campaign recognizes that many issues that AwDC face are also faced by the larger Medicaid population, so we will be shifting the project’s focus to making Medicaid more efficient and effective. Read more here.
Thank you for filling out the survey last month! We will use your thoughts as guidance for how we communicate with you. We want to know how else we can improve! Please email Aubrey if you have any thoughts.

Medicaid by the Numbers:

As of September 19, 9,912 AwDC are enrolled in benefits and 6,038 are wait-listed. Check out the rest of the update from HCPF here.

Other News:

If you would like to receive these emails directly, please contact Aubrey to be added to the list.
There are several meetings you can attend to contribute your perspective! Check out the options and let Aubrey know if you have questions.

HCPF September Update

Aubrey Hill — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 02:15:54 +0000

Update on Enrollment and Waitlist
The AwDC enrollment for September 2012 has been completed. The following is a summary:

September 2012 AwDC Enrollment

Total on AwDC waitlist 09/07/2012	5492
Total enrolled in AwDC benefits on 09/07/2012	9339
Total slots available in September 2012	661
AwDC maximum enrollment cap	10,000

Enrolled	611
Denied	12
Pending	11
Other/Error Exception/HDT	27
Total cases worked	661

TOTAL ON WAITLIST 09/19/2012	6038
TOTAL ENROLLED IN AWDC BENEFITS 09/19/2012	9912

Status of Hiring for AwDC Program ManagerWe posted the position and have received applications. These applications are currently under review by HCPF Human Resources staff. We hope to begin interviewing applicants in the next few weeks.
Quarterly Report Submitted
The first quarterly report was submitted to CMS at the end of August. We will bring copies of the report to the October 3 meeting.
Draft Evaluation Plan Submitted
The draft evaluation plan was submitted to CMS in late July and we are awaiting comment and questions from CMS.