Fees provide health coverage for more than 500,000 Coloradans
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2021
Media Contact
Marc Williams
720-626-0801 (c)
DENVER - On Monday, the Colorado Supreme Court denied the writ of certiorari in the TABOR Foundation case challenging the state’s collection of hospital provider fees as authorized by HB09-1293 and later by SB17-267. Monday’s decision effectively ended a six-year legal battle. The provider fees are known today as the Colorado Healthcare Affordability and Sustainability Enterprise (CHASE) fees.
The Hospital Provider/CHASE fees are collected by the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (the Department) from hospitals and matched by the federal government. The matched funds are used to support supplemental payments to hospitals that increase Medicaid reimbursements, support rural hospital sustainability, and fund health care coverage expansions which serve more than 500,000 Coloradans including:
- Pregnant women and children under Child Health Plan Plus (CHP+),
- Medicaid buy-in programs for children and working adults with disabilities,
- Continuous 12 months of Medicaid eligibility for children, once eligible, and
- Medicaid expansion, covering parents and adults without children.
"Our Department is now providing health care coverage to about 1.5 million Coloradans through Colorado Medicaid. The CHASE fee is critical to our ability to fund and serve more than one-third of those individuals," said Kim Bimestefer, Executive Director of Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy & Financing. "We join Colorado families, hospitals and other providers as well as the state in celebrating the Court’s decision."
About the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing: The Department administers Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid program), Child Health Plan Plus, and other programs for Coloradans who qualify. For more information about the Department, please visit hcpf.colorado.gov.