The Senate Health & Human Services Committee confirmed Gretchen Hammer as HCPF Executive Director amid pointed questions about audit failures and Medicaid profiteering, advanced a kidney disease screening coverage bill unanimously, and sent a non-opioid pain parity bill to Appropriations 6-1 after stripping Medicaid patients from its coverage — a move that drew sharp criticism from the chair.
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Chair Mullica argued it was 'difficult' to hear that the bill was important enough to mandate for private insurers but 'not important enough for Medicaid patients,' calling the optic problematic. Senator Kirkmeyer responded: 'We don't like the amendment but we need it because of the budget year we're in.'
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“We need to be accountable. And we need to be accountable for a number of reasons. One, because the services are critical. Services are critical to helping the Coloradans that we serve live their best lives and live safely in the communities that they're choosing. And if we are not able to do that, we compromise on that core commitment. We also have to be accountable because these resources are finite. And to the extent we are not, we could crowd out other public priorities.”
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Sign in to subscribeSenate 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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