Senate Health & Human Services

Wednesday, April 8, 2026·2h 31m·▶ Watch / Listen

Senators unanimously advanced the Hammer nomination to lead the troubled HCPF and a kidney-screening mandate, but the emotional centerpiece was SB26-006's non-opioid parity bill, which cleared committee 6-1 only after its sponsors stripped out Medicaid and state employees — a retreat that drew a pointed no vote from the chair.

Key Actions

·Kidney Screening Mandatory Preventive CoveragePassed

+ 2 more actions

Notable Quotes

“a mother with the child with autism told me she got up at 6am to get in the queue so that she could try and get a phone call in before she had to go to school. And I was devastated, is perhaps too strong of a word, disappointed that we were still in a place where that was how customer service was being delivered.”
Gretchen Hammer (nominee, Executive Director HCPF) · witness — The nominee's illustration of the customer-service failures at HCPF she is being asked to fix, and the standard senators expect her to meet.

+ 5 more quotes

Votes

Referred to Committee of the WholeAction

Yes (7)Scott Bright, Lisa Cutter, Lindsey Daugherty, Lisa Frizell, Mike Weissman, Iman Jodeh, Kyle Mullica

Referred to Committee on AppropriationsAction

Yes (6)Scott Bright, Lisa Cutter, Lindsey Daugherty, Lisa Frizell, Mike Weissman, Iman Jodeh

No (1)Kyle Mullica

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TranscriptPreview

Senate Health and Human Services will come to order. Mr. Brown, please call the roll. Senators Bright. Here. Cutter. Daugherty. Here. Frizzell. Present. Weissman? I think I'm present. Judah? Present. And Mr. Jeramillica. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Members, our first order of business is a confirmation hearing for the Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing. Okay, do we have Gretchen Hammer with us? And I think we have. Mr. David Oppenheim would like to come on up. Mr. Oppenheim, thank you for being here today with us. It's a pleasure having you in Senate Health and Human Services, would you like to introduce Ms. Hammer? Thank you. Chair Molka, Vice Chair Joda, and members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. My name is David Oppenheim and I serve as Chief of Staff for Governor Polis. It is my distinct honor to appear before you today to introduce Gretchen Hammer as the Governor's nominee for Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing. The Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing, or hicpf, administers Medicaid, the Child Health Plan plus, and related programs that provide health coverage and services to over a million Coloradans. Working families,…

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