Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's morning news. The Senate's passage of the
Big Beautiful Bill is a step closer to being laws.
It it waits a final vote, which is going out at
the moment in the House. One of the biggest impacts
of the legislation is cuts and reforms to Medicaid. Those
cuts and reforms going to be felt here in Colorado.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health
Hotline is executive director of the Colorado Department of Health
Care Policy and Financing. It's Kim bin Steffer. Kim, thank
you so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
You bet glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Can you start with explaining a little bit about the
makeup of Colorado's on medicaids in our state?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Sure, glad to think about forty percent of the children
that live in this state are covered by Medicaid. That
includes foster kids too. More than forty percent of the
burse are covered in the state people with disabilities that
need special services and supports, or are older and low
income adults. Those services for people with disabilities and older
(00:54):
adults are not available other than Medicaid. So we're talking
about twenty two percent of the population. One point three
million Colorados are covered by Medicaid.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
What are your concerns with the legislation in regards to
medicaid here in Colorado?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
You know, this bill is extraordinarily concerning. It's a bit
of a train wreck. If you wear your heart on
your sleeve or your financial cap is firmly in place,
this train wreck is going to impact Colorados. Doctors, hospitals,
and the biggest part of our economy, which is healthcare.
They're all right in that train right now. So there's
two major areas of significant concern. One has to do
(01:35):
with how people get and stay covered, and the other
has to do with how much money the federal government
puts up in order to cover the cost of Medicaid claims.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Work requirements have been a big one and big talk
and discussion when it comes to Medicaid. Is that one
of the ones that you're concerned about or is that
something that could be a silver lining to make sure
that the people who need medicaid are on medicaid.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Definitely, work is one of the provisions we're concerned about,
as is determining doing the full determination of eligibility every
six months instead of once. Here, both of those will
become administrative barriers that will prevent people from being on
Medicaid who would otherwise qualify and should qualify, they just
can't get through the paperwork. So we're talking about far
(02:21):
more than one hundred thousand people losing coverage in Colorado
because of that. Now we need to wait for some
of those rules to come out to see the specifics,
but just walk in the shoes of somebody who's trying
to get on Medicaid and think about what they're going through.
That's the safety net for a reason. So think about
a mother losing her child, what a devastating experience. Think
(02:42):
about a husband losing his wife. Think about somebody losing
their job, a foster child who's lost their parents, and
now put a whole bunch of paperwork in front of
them when they're just trying to put one foot in
front of the other, and they don't even fully realize
that they have to do that. And so we're talking
about people the most vulnerable parts of their life with
mountains of paperwork in front of them which are intended
(03:05):
to make it harder to qualify for Medicaid. So it's
quite a moral crossroads and a disturbing set of provisions
with twice a year eligibility as an example, that's going
to dramatically increase costs. From an administrative perspective, work requirements
will dramatically increase cost The first estimates are in the
(03:27):
fifty seven million dollar range. Those monies are not being
put up by the FED, and so we're going to
have a combination of administrative barriers, people fallen off the rosters,
and all of those will have downstreaming effects. And what's
more disturbing about it is we have already have in
the medicaid processes in Colorado lots of checks and balances
(03:48):
to make sure all during the period of time the
people are on Medicaid that they still qualify because their
income still meets requirements or they're still living in the states,
so they're checks and balances That mean that many of
these provisions are actually quite a nice, necessary, and inefficient.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Again, we keep hearing about fraud, waste and abuse. Does
anything in this legislation actually address that? In kim how
much fraud, wasted abuse exists with medicaid. Within Medicaid here
in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Fraud is actually pretty rare. Waste and abuse is actually
more of what we struggle with the good news for Colorado,
the provisions that they have in the bill, we're largely
doing all of them now. It's a very high priority
under the governor policy's administration and for the legislature to
make sure that we're paying claims appropriately. So we have
(04:35):
actual ton of fact sheets and all sorts of information
and all sorts of tools and techniques that we use
to make sure that the claims that we're paying are appropriate.
That people who are honor rosters should be on our rosters.
But there are circumstances when fraud, wasted abuse happens, it
gets through. So there's opportunities to improve and we're pursuing
those opportunities every day.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Do you see any positives in the legislation? Do you
see something that does make sense when it comes to Medicaid?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
The Medicaid provisions in there are not ones that I'm
supportive of as a thirty seven year expert in healthcare.
To me, there's an opportunity to control healthcare costs in
this nation, and that is the root of the issue,
and the horizon cost of health care in this nation,
which is higher than any other country on this globe.
(05:30):
That's the root cause. And so if you want to
get at the root cause, that will be to the
benefit of all taxpayers of Medicaid, medicare, employers, state budgets,
the federal budget. That is where the core is. And
when you focus on medicaid and throw people off the
rosters who are in the hardest time to their life,
who need the safety net, that's not the right way
(05:50):
to get at the issues and the challenges that we
have from a fiscal issue at the federal level or
the state level. It actually moves us backwards because it's
threatening income to the biggest part of the economy in
this nation, which is healthcare, and in the state, which
is healthcare. And when you start threatening the economy by
pulling money out inappropriately and threatening the most vulnerable, that
(06:13):
means that those people will show up for care, but
they will show up with the heart attack because they
didn't have the coverage to pay for the medication that
should have prevented it. And they'll show up with the
breast cancer because they didn't have the coverage that would
have paid for the preventative care to identify it earlier.
So it actually does the opposite of what we want
to do as a nation, as is a state. We
want to get to the root of health care costs
(06:34):
and drive them down. We want to make sure that
everybody is covered, so we get and catch things early.
We want to I'm sure that people have the coverage
that allows them to take the drugs and get the
care that they need, and this is doing the opposite.
We will end up with hundreds of thousands of people
thrown off the rosters inappropriately with barriers, and that will
not be the wealthy that can afford to walk in
and get coverage somewhere else. It will be to people
(06:55):
who cannot afford coverage. Think about a Medicaid person, a
single person take in less than twenty one thousand dollars
a year, that's what you need to do to qualify
for Medicaid, well forty thousand for a family of four.
You show me a family or a person making that
income that can afford health insurance coverage without Medicaid, and
(07:16):
I will show you a family that's going to have
problems in affording care.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Executive director of the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing.
It's Kim bim Steffer. Thank you,
It is Colorado's morning news. The Senate's passage of the
Big Beautiful Bill is a step closer to being laws.
It it waits a final vote, which is going out at
the moment in the House. One of the biggest impacts
of the legislation is cuts and reforms to Medicaid. Those
cuts and reforms going to be felt here in Colorado.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health
Hotline is executive director of the Colorado Department of Health
Care Policy and Financing. It's Kim bin Steffer. Kim, thank
you so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
You bet glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Can you start with explaining a little bit about the
makeup of Colorado's on medicaids in our state?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Sure, glad to think about forty percent of the children
that live in this state are covered by Medicaid. That
includes foster kids too. More than forty percent of the
burse are covered in the state people with disabilities that
need special services and supports, or are older and low
income adults. Those services for people with disabilities and older
(00:54):
adults are not available other than Medicaid. So we're talking
about twenty two percent of the population. One point three
million Colorados are covered by Medicaid.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
What are your concerns with the legislation in regards to
medicaid here in Colorado?
Speaker 3 (01:11):
You know, this bill is extraordinarily concerning. It's a bit
of a train wreck. If you wear your heart on
your sleeve or your financial cap is firmly in place,
this train wreck is going to impact Colorados. Doctors, hospitals,
and the biggest part of our economy, which is healthcare.
They're all right in that train right now. So there's
two major areas of significant concern. One has to do
(01:35):
with how people get and stay covered, and the other
has to do with how much money the federal government
puts up in order to cover the cost of Medicaid claims.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Work requirements have been a big one and big talk
and discussion when it comes to Medicaid. Is that one
of the ones that you're concerned about or is that
something that could be a silver lining to make sure
that the people who need medicaid are on medicaid.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Definitely, work is one of the provisions we're concerned about,
as is determining doing the full determination of eligibility every
six months instead of once. Here, both of those will
become administrative barriers that will prevent people from being on
Medicaid who would otherwise qualify and should qualify, they just
can't get through the paperwork. So we're talking about far
(02:21):
more than one hundred thousand people losing coverage in Colorado
because of that. Now we need to wait for some
of those rules to come out to see the specifics,
but just walk in the shoes of somebody who's trying
to get on Medicaid and think about what they're going through.
That's the safety net for a reason. So think about
a mother losing her child, what a devastating experience. Think
(02:42):
about a husband losing his wife. Think about somebody losing
their job, a foster child who's lost their parents, and
now put a whole bunch of paperwork in front of
them when they're just trying to put one foot in
front of the other, and they don't even fully realize
that they have to do that. And so we're talking
about people the most vulnerable parts of their life with
mountains of paperwork in front of them which are intended
(03:05):
to make it harder to qualify for Medicaid. So it's
quite a moral crossroads and a disturbing set of provisions
with twice a year eligibility as an example, that's going
to dramatically increase costs. From an administrative perspective, work requirements
will dramatically increase cost The first estimates are in the
(03:27):
fifty seven million dollar range. Those monies are not being
put up by the FED, and so we're going to
have a combination of administrative barriers, people fallen off the rosters,
and all of those will have downstreaming effects. And what's
more disturbing about it is we have already have in
the medicaid processes in Colorado lots of checks and balances
(03:48):
to make sure all during the period of time the
people are on Medicaid that they still qualify because their
income still meets requirements or they're still living in the states,
so they're checks and balances That mean that many of
these provisions are actually quite a nice, necessary, and inefficient.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Again, we keep hearing about fraud, waste and abuse. Does
anything in this legislation actually address that? In kim how
much fraud, wasted abuse exists with medicaid. Within Medicaid here
in Colorado.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Fraud is actually pretty rare. Waste and abuse is actually
more of what we struggle with the good news for Colorado,
the provisions that they have in the bill, we're largely
doing all of them now. It's a very high priority
under the governor policy's administration and for the legislature to
make sure that we're paying claims appropriately. So we have
(04:35):
actual ton of fact sheets and all sorts of information
and all sorts of tools and techniques that we use
to make sure that the claims that we're paying are appropriate.
That people who are honor rosters should be on our rosters.
But there are circumstances when fraud, wasted abuse happens, it
gets through. So there's opportunities to improve and we're pursuing
those opportunities every day.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Do you see any positives in the legislation? Do you
see something that does make sense when it comes to Medicaid?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
The Medicaid provisions in there are not ones that I'm
supportive of as a thirty seven year expert in healthcare.
To me, there's an opportunity to control healthcare costs in
this nation, and that is the root of the issue,
and the horizon cost of health care in this nation,
which is higher than any other country on this globe.
(05:30):
That's the root cause. And so if you want to
get at the root cause, that will be to the
benefit of all taxpayers of Medicaid, medicare, employers, state budgets,
the federal budget. That is where the core is. And
when you focus on medicaid and throw people off the
rosters who are in the hardest time to their life,
who need the safety net, that's not the right way
(05:50):
to get at the issues and the challenges that we
have from a fiscal issue at the federal level or
the state level. It actually moves us backwards because it's
threatening income to the biggest part of the economy in
this nation, which is healthcare, and in the state, which
is healthcare. And when you start threatening the economy by
pulling money out inappropriately and threatening the most vulnerable, that
(06:13):
means that those people will show up for care, but
they will show up with the heart attack because they
didn't have the coverage to pay for the medication that
should have prevented it. And they'll show up with the
breast cancer because they didn't have the coverage that would
have paid for the preventative care to identify it earlier.
So it actually does the opposite of what we want
to do as a nation, as is a state. We
want to get to the root of health care costs
(06:34):
and drive them down. We want to make sure that
everybody is covered, so we get and catch things early.
We want to I'm sure that people have the coverage
that allows them to take the drugs and get the
care that they need, and this is doing the opposite.
We will end up with hundreds of thousands of people
thrown off the rosters inappropriately with barriers, and that will
not be the wealthy that can afford to walk in
and get coverage somewhere else. It will be to people
(06:55):
who cannot afford coverage. Think about a Medicaid person, a
single person take in less than twenty one thousand dollars
a year, that's what you need to do to qualify
for Medicaid, well forty thousand for a family of four.
You show me a family or a person making that
income that can afford health insurance coverage without Medicaid, and
(07:16):
I will show you a family that's going to have
problems in affording care.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Executive director of the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing.
It's Kim bim Steffer. Thank you,
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