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A Special Message from the Executive Director
Community Partners:
The federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 has stretched and challenged all of us, and transformed our health care system in ways that were unimaginable pre-pandemic. I want to sincerely thank you for your partnership to support and care for our members over the last three years. Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program) and Child Health Plan Plus have grown by more than 500,000 members since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (from 1.25 million in March of 2020 to 1.78 million in March 2023), reflecting the struggles felt by families and businesses across the state caused by COVID-19.
Together, we have been there through this chapter for Coloradans with disabilities, those in between jobs, pregnant persons and more than half-a-million of Colorado’s children. You helped encourage our members to mask-up, expanded testing, disseminated important public health messages, got Coloradans vaccinated, figured out telehealth, helped us stand up alternate care sites as the system was pushed to capacity, evolved critical safety precautions and implemented new protocols to protect the most vulnerable and all Coloradans – all without a playbook.
We know that during this time, many of your staff experienced incredible personal challenges, heartache and loss while still coming to work each day to be there for Coloradans. Thank you for stepping up again and again during this unprecedented chapter to go above and beyond to support and care for our members and the communities you serve. We sincerely appreciate you and the contributions that you have made.
With the end of the federal COVID-19 PHE, we are transitioning back to normal operations while escalating our collaborative, united focus to Keep Coloradans Covered through this time of coverage transition. Thank you for your partnership through our 14-month March 2023 to April 2024 eligibility renewal period to ensure that those who qualify for Health First Colorado and CHP+ remain covered and those no longer eligible are connected to affordable, alternative coverage such as Medicare, employer-sponsored health insurance, or Connect for Health Colorado individual coverage. Please continue to visit KeepCOCovered.com to stay updated on emerging information, tools and messaging.
This special edition of our COVID-19 newsletter outlines policy changes we made under the PHE’s temporary federal flexibilities. Some of these emergency flexibilities granted were never needed, thankfully; other policy changes we have made permanent, while others will need to be rolled back in accordance with federally mandated timeframes. The policy changes outlined in the link below will be communicated through the Department’s regular member, provider, partner and stakeholder communication channels as well.
Thank you again for your partnership. We sincerely appreciate you.
Kim Bimestefer
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