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Hospital Discounted Care

​​​​House Bill (HB) 21-1198​, otherwise known as Health Care Billing Requirements for Indigent Patients, establishes requirements for hospital discounted care for low income patients. They will be given the opportunity to apply for financial assistance or charity care programs at the health care facility where they receive care. Service charges will be the greater of either the Medicare rate or Medicaid base rate. Payment plans that are established to pay the bills may not exceed four (4) percent of the patient's monthly household income. For bills from health care professionals, the limit is two (2) percent of the monthly household income. Once 36 months of payments have been made, the remainder of the bill is forgiven. HB 21-1198 will also set rules for hospitals that limit collections against a​​ patient.   

Advisory Committee

The Hospital Discounted Care Advisory Committee created under House Bill 24-1399 25.5-3-507 advises the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) on operations and policies for Hospital Discounted Care (HDC) and makes recommendations to the Medical Services Board regarding rules.

How to Apply

In accordance with House Bill 24-1399 25.5-3-507, the Executive Director of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing is to appoint eleven (11) members to the Hospital Discounted Care Advisory Committee.

Members of the Hospital Discounted Care Advisory Committee will be appointed beginning July 1, 2025 or upon appointment whichever is later to represent the following seats:

  • Three health care consumers, of whom no more than two members may be representatives from a health care consumer advocate organization- One of the three will serve initially for a two year term
  • One member from HCPF- will serve initially for a two year term
  • One member from a Safety Net hospital for which the percent of Medicaid-eligible inpatient days relative to the hospital's total inpatient days is equal to or greater than one standard deviation above the mean
  • One member from a rural hospital
  • One member from an urban hospital- will serve initially for a two year term
  • One member from a statewide organization of hospitals- will serve initially for a two year term
  • One member from a licensed health care professional who provides services to patients in a hospital setting- will serve initially for a two year term
  • One member from an organization of a Colorado community health centers or a representative of a Colorado community health center- will serve initially for a two year term
  • One member from an organization of safety-net health providers or a safety-net health provider that is not a community health center

Members are to serve for three-year terms. As referenced above, for the initial term appointments, the Executive Director will appoint six members for two-year terms and five members for three-year terms. From the eleven members, the Executive Director will select a chair for the Advisory Committee. Members of the Advisory Committee serve without compensation.

If you wish to apply for any vacancies, please fill out the application and submit your resume or curriculum vitae in the form by May 5, 2025. Appointments will be announced through email in June and the Hospital Discounted Care Advisory Committee meeting schedule will be announced at a later time.

Reasonable accommodations for the meetings will be provided upon request for persons with disabilities. Please contact the Program Coordinator at hcpf_HospDiscountCare@state.co.us  one week prior to the scheduled meeting if you need special arrangements.

Hospital Discounted Care Operation Manual and Rules

Questions about the policies and procedures contained in the Operations Manual can be sent to hcpf_HospDiscountCare@state.co.us. In your email, please include the article and/or section number your question stems from.

Rules

The rules for Hospital Discounted Care were finalized at the May Medical Services Board meeting. The current version of the Hospital Discounted Care rules can be accessed here and on the Secretary of State website. The rules begin at section 8.920. 

 

Hospital Office Hours

HCPF will be holding Office Hours every other Wednesday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. for Hospital Discounted Care providers to attend as needed to ask questions about the rules, policies, integration with CICP, etc. No advance registration is required. Please note the Office Hours topics are not set in stone, they can change without notice. Topic requests can be sent to hcpf_HospDiscountCare@state.co.us , and the schedule may be adjusted to accommodate requested topics as needed.

Office Hours will be moving to once a month sessions on the third Wednesday of each month beginning in July, after suggestions from Office Hours attendees. All Office Hours will change to an open agenda with no set topic. HCPF will be holding formal quarterly training sessions as a replacement for the Office Hour topics, dates to be determined. Please send training topic requests to hcpf_HospDiscountCare@state.co.us.

Hospital Discounted Care Office Hours, Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. 

Call in number: +1 720 707 2699

Meeting ID: 960 6539 2091

Office Hours Discussion Topics

  • May 14, 2025-  Open Agenda
  • May 28, 2025-  Cancelled
  • June 11, 2025- Open Agenda
  • June 25, 2025- Open Agenda
  • July 16, 2025- Open Agenda
Professional Office Hours

Office hours will not be held on 6/12/2025 due to the Data Submission Template training for professionals that will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on 6/12/2025. Register Here for the training session.

HCPF will be holding Office Hours every second Thursday from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m., and every fourth Thursday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. for professionals to attend as needed to ask questions about the rules, policies, reporting, etc. No advance registration is required.

Hospital Discounted Care Professional Office Hours, Thursdays at 9:00 a.m.

Call in number: +1 720 707 2699

Meeting ID: 992 4027 1118

Hospital Discounted Care Professional Office Hours, Thursdays at 5:00 p.m.

Call in number: +1 720 707 2699

Meeting ID: 992 4027 1118

Forms
Patient's Rights

Per HB 21-1198, The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (the Department) developed a Patient's Rights form using feedback from numerous stakeholders. The form is provided below in both English and Spanish and has been updated to reflect the September 1 effective date.

Effective September 1, 2022, Health Care Facilities, which include general acute care or critical access hospitals or free standing emergency departments must have this patient's rights form available to the public and to each patient. This includes: 

  • Posting the Spanish and English patient's rights form conspicuously on the Health Care Facilities website, including a link to the information on the Health Care Facilities main landing page;
  • Make the form available in patient waiting areas;
  • Make the information available to each patient, or the patient's legal guardian, verbally, which may include using a professional interpretation service, or in writing in the patient's or legal guardian's preferred language before the patient is discharged from the Health Care Facility; and
  • Inform each patient or the patient's legal guardian on the billing statement of the patient's rights. Including the right to apply for discounted care, and provide the website, email address, and telephone number where the information may be obtained in the patient's preferred language.

Hospital Discounted Care - Patient Information Page

Decline Screening Form

Patients may decline the screening for public health care coverage and/or discounted health care. The decision to decline screening is not final. 

Generally, a decline screening form only covers one episode of care and any services provided related to the original episode of care. A decline screening form may cover additional past dates of service if the patient or their guardian signs a decline screening form that notes those specific past dates of service or a past date range that includes those specific past dates of service. A decline screening form cannot be collected for dates of service that have not occurred yet and are not related to a previous episode of care.

A patient’s decision to decline the screening that is documented and complies with Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing CCR Rule is a complete defense to a claim brought by a patient under CSR Section 25.5-3-506 (2) for a violation of CSR Section 25.5-3-506 (1)(a) OR (1)(b).

Determination Notice Samples

HCPF has created the following sample Determination Notices for Eligible and Ineligible patients that apply for financial assistance under Hospital Discounted Care and CICP.

Services and Rates
What services are covered?

Health care services covered include all medically necessary care received in a general acute or critical access hospital or free-standing emergency department. Services provided by health care professionals in these settings are also covered. HB 21-1198 requires that all uninsured patients be screened for eligibility for Health First Colorado, CHP+, Medicare, Emergency Medicaid, the CICP, and discounted health care. Uninsured patients must be screened or formally waive their screening. Insured patients may request to be screened.

Hospital Discounted Care Frequently Asked Questions

Hospital Discounted Care Rates

Rates for Hospital Discounted Care and the Maximum Payment Calculator are now available online. Hospital Discounted Care limits the cost of hospital care for low income, uninsured Coloradans receiving services through hospitals’ financial assistance. Rates approximate 100% of Medicare or 100% of Medicaid, whichever is greater. These rates are the maximum that can be charged for hospital services under Hospital Discounted Care. 

Rates are effective September 1, 2022. New rates will be posted annually by July 1 and updated with new codes January 1. Contact us by email at the Hospital Discounted Care inbox hcpf_HospDiscountCare@state.co.us with any questions regarding these rates. 

Hospital Discounted Care Rates

Implementation

There have been three bills that have directly impacted Hospital Discounted Care:

  • HB 21-1198, known as Health Care Billing Requirements for Indigent Patients, created the statute now referred to as Hospital Discounted Care and was originally effective June 1, 2022. This bill has been fully implemented.
  • HB 22-1403 pushed back the HB 21-1198 implementation date for 3 months, resulting in Hospital Discounted Care going into effect on September 1, 2022. This bill has been fully implemented.
  • SB 24-116 known as Discounted Care for Indigent Patients, was signed by the Governor on May 31, 2024. HCPF is currently working on the implementation of this bill.

If you would like to stay up to date with the implementation processes and receive information on how you can participate, you can sign up to receive the Hospital Discounted Care newsletter.

Stakeholder Meetings

HCPF will be hosting stakeholder meetings for the implementation of SB 24-116 and HB 24-1399. These meetings will be open to all stakeholders and are intended for HCPF to share information and receive feedback from the stakeholders. We would like to remind our CICP Advisory Council Members that only one member may attend each of the stakeholder meetings to ensure we abide by the Sunshine Law. If you would like to attend a meeting, please let us know in advance. We will ensure that there is an opportunity to attend at least one meeting for each Council Member who is interested. All Council members may send comments via email for any meeting they are unable to attend. If Council members show up to a meeting without letting us know beforehand and another Council member is already in attendance, we may have to remove the second Council member. As mentioned at the October 2024 Advisory Council meeting, there will be information shared with the Council related to the feedback HCPF receives at each of the stakeholder meetings. We welcome all comments that can be sent via email to hcpf_HospDiscountCare@state.co.us or hcpf_cicpcorrespondence@state.co.us.

Meetings have been scheduled for various days and times in an effort to ensure stakeholders are able to attend at least a couple of meetings. The topics include but not limited to- Draft communications related to CICP Sunset, Updates on Rules, Plan/timeline and updates of Presumptive Eligibility (PE) implementation (topics may be subject to change). Interested parties can join via the Zoom link. The schedule of the stakeholder meetings are as follows:

Training
Spring Training 2025

HCPF will be holding the following training sessions in May and June 2025. Please register in advance for the sessions you would like to attend.

Hospital Data Reporting

Income Documents & Calculations

Screening & Decline Screening Forms

Physician/Groups Data Reporting

Hospital Discounted Care Q&A

Past Training
Winter Training 2025

Professional Data Reporting

Spring Training 2024
 
Screening and Application Process

Reviewing the Screening and Application processes for patients, including but not limited to timelines, screening best efforts, and decline screening form.

Screening Application Process Training
Payment Plans and Collections

Covering payment plans and collections processes, including but not limited to guidance on starting, adjusting, combining and/or ending payment plans, collections timeline for uninsured vs insured patients, and collections for patients who were approved for HDC vs those who opted out.

Payment Plans and Collections Training
Question and Answer Session
Uniform Application Training Slides - August 2022
Hospital Data Reporting

Data reporting for Hospital Discounted Care is due annually to HCPF by September 1 covering the previous State Fiscal Year which runs from July 1 to June 30. Data will be submitted directly to HCPF using a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) site. Submission data files must be in the template HCPF has created, linked below. Any questions regarding the use of the template should be sent to hcpf_HospDiscountCareData@state.co.us.  In addition, we have added in the template a Definitions, Troubleshooting and Instruction tab for extra resources. Please note that any elements not included in the data reporting may be subject to a more thorough audit in order for HCPF to meet statutory requirements.

Professional Data Reporting

Data reporting for Hospital Discounted Care is due annually to HCPF by September 1 covering the previous State Fiscal Year which runs from July 1 to June 30. Data will be submitted directly to HCPF using a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) site. Submission data files must be in the template HCPF has created, linked below. Any questions regarding the use of the template should be sent to hcpf_HospDiscountCareData@state.co.us. In addition, we have added in the template a Definitions, Troubleshooting and Instruction tab for extra resources. Please note that any elements not included in the data reporting may be subject to a more thorough audit in order for HCPF to meet statutory requirements.

Updates and Communications
Legislative Information
Newsletters

Contact Information

Email:  HCPF_HospDiscountCare@state.co.us