Colorado’s only Medicaid HMO provider, Colorado Access, recently announced that it would no longer be providing Medicaid HMO services effective August 31, 2006, because reimbursement cuts have made it financially untenable.
Now, an informational hearing of the Joint Budget Committee and relevant health care committees in the General Assembly will be held tommorrow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to see if the crisis can’t be averted.If those receiving HMO services are transferred to fee for service care, the state’s Medicaid costs could skyrocket.
Negotiations are ongoing, and the hearing is informational only, as the legislature is not in session. But, the hope is that legislators could point Colorado Access and the state towards a resolution that could keep Medicaid HMO service available to the tens of thousands of Coloradans who rely upon it now.
