State health care agency loses leader
Medicaid under fire for mistakes, faces big budget cuts
The top official in charge of administering health care assistance to Coloradans is leaving the agency she has led since 2018.
Kim Bimestefer, the head of the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, or HCPF, reportedly chose to resign rather than being removed from her post by a bipartisan “no-confidence” vote in the state Senate.
Her resignation leaves the agency with a leadership void as it faces potential budget cuts and scrutiny over past spending errors.
Bimestefer led the state Medicaid agency through a big expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic and became known for efforts to bring down health care costs. But opponents of public health care assistance have criticized the HCPF over the growth of its budget, which is now the state’s biggest expenditure.
That criticism intensified after a series of expensive errors recently came to light, including billing mistakes that cost tens of millions of dollars and an estimated $25 million loss from a fraud scheme.
Not all of the growing costs of Medicaid are due to bad accounting by the HCPF. Lawmakers have added programs that have ended up costing much more than expected. But forcing Bimestefer out shifts the focus onto the agency’s missteps as lawmakers prepare to slash health care assistance in the context of a larger state budget crisis.
Need to Know
⏱️ Social media companies will have 72 hours to respond to Colorado police search warrants, under a law Gov. Jared Polis signed on Monday. Previously, companies had 35 days to respond, but police, parents’ groups and anti-gun violence advocates support shorter time limits, saying they could help prevent crimes like mass shootings. (Colorado Newsline, Denver Post, Denver Gazette, Golden Transcript)
🚏 The board that runs the Regional Transportation District (RTD) could be cut from 15 elected members to just five, plus four people appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate. State lawmakers proposed the reshuffle after a report earlier this year said the mass transit agency’s large board makes it difficult to reach consensus for timely decisions on persistent issues like safety and reliability. Some officials worry the changes could make the board less democratically accountable. (Axios, Denverite, Colorado Newsline)
👁️ Gov. Jared Polis lost a bid to end a lawsuit over how the state responds to information requests from the federal immigration agency ICE. A former Colorado Department of Labor official sued last year to block Polis from giving ICE information on 35 people. Polis asked a state judge a few weeks ago to end the case, saying ICE no longer wants the information anyway. But the judge rejected that request yesterday, saying the larger issue of policies for sharing information with ICE remains unresolved. (Colorado Sun)
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Something Good
🗣️ My home city of Lakewood is in the middle of a special election that closes April 7, which will decide whether we repeal zoning ordinances passed last year aimed at addressing affordability by making it easier to build multi-family housing in the city. The changes are complicated and controversial, but this debate hosted by the League of Women Voters of Jefferson County was very informative and an excellent example of how to have productive conversations about contentious issues.