July 20, 2023

Imagine! Director of Client Relations Jenna Corder sent the following CMRD information to all Imagine! staff:

 

As you know, we received an intent to award letter from Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) on June 12.  We still have not received official communication of our award declaring we will be the Case Management Agency (CMA) for Boulder, Broomfield and Gilpin counties.  We are also anxiously awaiting our transition date – this is the day we will officially become the CMA for this newly defined catchment area and provide case management for all ten Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) waivers in Colorado.  We hope to hear this month!

 

We submitted our Transition Plan on July 15, which outlines how we will continue providing case management services to the 1,400 people we currently serve, through the transition of adding the non-IDD waivers (in other words joining forces with Adult Care Management, Inc - ACMI). 

 

Soon, Imagine! and ACMI will have the opportunity to apply for ARPA grant funding to support the transition to our newly created Case Management Agency.  These funds will be available for providing support to CMAs to implement CMRD, transition, change management, strategic and organizational planning, capacity, and ensuring member access to a CMA, including developing an infrastructure for a learning collaborative so that CMAs have access to individual resources relevant to their change management needs. The three areas that these funds can be directed towards are:

• Case Management Agencies can use the funding to support the transition and minimize disruption to services. 
• Case Management Agencies can purchase new, mobile touchscreen computing devices. These touchscreen computer devices will be used to support the new Care and Case Management (CCM) system, which will use electronic signatures in the completion of the Colorado Single Assessment and the Person-Centered Support Plan, with members.
• Case Management Agencies can purchase or update an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. 

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July 10, 2023

In the video below, Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour sits down with ACMI Executive Director Barb Wilkins-Crowder to discuss a newly formed Case Management Agency that will combine the talents of their two organizations.

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July 5, 2023

The following information was shared by Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour with Imagine! staff in a company-wide email.

I attended a stakeholder session on June 27 hosted by HCPF specifically regarding the rules revisions change work triggered by case management redesign (CMRD). This work has been underway for several months with regular meetings and feedback sessions regarding opportunities for stakeholders to propose changing some of the rules to streamline service access and bring the rules into compliance with the changes foreseen by the creation of the single case management agency (CMA). As of that meeting, which was the last public meeting to accept new changes, over 500 lines of Colorado rules and regulations were redlined through this effort. In listening sessions throughout the past 8 or 9 months, HCPF has accepted over 75% of the recommended changes from stakeholders. Among the details discussed at last week’s meeting were details regarding processes to be followed when a client would like to change the CMA to which they will be assigned because of where they live. For examples, clients living in Boulder, Broomfield or Gilpin counties will come through the new CMA of which our case management operations will be a part. If a client assigned to this region has a reason to change CMA either because they are moving physically or have some other concern, there is a defined process to use to request the change from HCPF. Some of the stakeholders on the Zoom meeting still wanted HCPF to loosen some of the process steps to be followed to request such a change. Ultimately, in matters like this, HCPF will make the final ruling. The timeline calls for final adoption of new rules in January 2024. There will be several other key steps including the requirement for HCPF to apply to the Medical Board for their approval in September. HCPF has recorded all the stakeholder meetings and they are available along with other meetings on HCPF’s You Tube Channel.

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June 20, 2023

Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour hosted a “Town Hall Meeting” for all Imagine! employees today, and shared the following slides with CMRD information.

 

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June 14, 2023

The following email was sent jointly from Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour and ACMI Executive Director Barb Wilkins-Crowder to staff members at both organizations.

Hello to you, all joint ACMI and Imagine! Case Management Staff.

We are thrilled to announce together to you, all the case managers and related case management staff at both our agencies, that our proposal to be the sole CMA for all waivers, all ages and all disabilities in Boulder, Broomfield and Gilpin counties, was accepted by Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF). 

As of late Monday, June 12, we have received our “intent to award” notice.  We now await more information (from HCPF) about the target date for our full transition into a combined CMA. We will send out more details as we have them.  There are lots of layers to move through but we commit to keeping you informed in a timely fashion.

As we start this journey together, we want to put these thoughts and commitments at the front of our work:

• This is a joining of our case management operations.  It will be a full partnership in every way.  As we have said from the launch of this collaboration, one agency is not acquiring the other and neither has more authority or power than the other.
• Our mission will remain essentially the same: to provide high quality case management services to those who qualify for long-term support and services to assist them in their choice of community living setting. 
• The expertise among the support staff, case managers, supervisors, and management teams in each agency will be honored and will be needed to fulfill our mission.
• We will continue to manage this change in front of us as we have managed the strategic planning and competitive bid preparation – in collaborative conversations and decision-making processes.
• We will begin our journey together under the name “A & I CMA” and will look for the right moment to investigate and pursue a permanent new name, logo, and mission statement.

We will have more information soon on joint gatherings of our teams so that we can start getting to know each other as we build our sense of shared identity.  And we will soon host some opportunities for us to listen to your ideas about how we build a healthy, vital new CMA.

We have exciting times ahead! 

In partnership,

Kathryn & Barb

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June 12, 2023

The following email with fantastic news was sent by Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour to Imagine! staff members:

Hi, Everyone.

Late Monday we received word from the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) that they have accepted the proposal Imagine! and ACMI submitted to combine our case management operations and form a case management agency built on the history and strength of our two organizations.  As the awarded CMA of the new service area 8, the combined case management operations will provide Case Management, Intake, and Family Support expertise to Boulder, Broomfield and Gilpin counties.   We are thrilled and await more details specific to our transition timeline.  Many thanks to our internal team of experts – Robin Grey, our CFO, Jenna Corder, Director of Client Relations, and Kristen Lundy, Assistant Director of Client Relations/Case Management – and our ACMI partners, Barb Wilkins-Crowder, Executive Director, and Jennie Giurgila, Case Management Manager.  Together we produced such an excellent and winning proposal!

We expect to hear and share more details soon.

Thank you all again for your patience and support through the process so far and for the next phases of work that will follow.

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May 31, 2023

Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour recently sent an email to Imagine! employees updating them on many things happening in the organization. The information below is from that email, and relates to CMRD and Imagine!’s future.

The Program Approved Service Agency (PASA) Future subcommittee also held its regular meeting last week.  As I have recorded here, much of the work going on right now is establishing a baseline of information about how our services work and the general demand for our services.  As some of you know, clients and their families/guardians have a number of ways they learn about services.  They often work with their case managers to describe their interests and goals and case managers help prepare a request for proposal (RFPs) that is sent to a variety of PASAs that are listed as offering those services.  Some clients and their families want to stay within a particular location or have a PASA in mind and in those cases a family member might reach out personally to a PASA regarding availability in a particular program.  Our case managers send out hundreds of RFPs every year.  And our Imagine! PASA receives dozens of RFPs from Imagine! and other CCBs in Colorado nearly every day.   The State does not have a central methodology for tracking RFP requests, so getting a handle on true demand for services across the State and in our service area is a challenge.  Our case management team is working currently on some ways to refine internal tracking and general data management of the RFP process.  What we do know is that there is always demand for many types of services.  Not all PASAs offer the same array, so finding services to match needs can often be a significant challenge for clients. 

The State provides a PASA list in Excel format.  You can check it out here.  If you spend any time searching through it, though, you will find a number of issues, not the least of which is that the list won’t work with certain web browsers.  It is often outdated, as well. Mostly you will notice that there are hundreds of PASAs listed.  The State approves PASAs of all types – for-profits, nonprofits, big companies, small companies, and even individual PASAs that are set up by a family to provide care for their loved one only.  So, getting through the list in a meaningful way often takes some guidance from case managers or providers. 

Earlier this year Imagine! learned about an enterprising Colorado software developer, who previously worked as a Direct Service Professional (DSP) in several PASAs, including Easter Seals.  He has been tackling this list of Colorado PASAs for several years now, working on ways to make it more accessible and searchable.  His tool, Wayfinder, is still being refined, but is at an advanced enough stage to prove useful.  We have partnered with him and another CCB to test this tool.  Our case management team and some of their clients are using it currently.  Results are still in the early stages as we just started using it toward the end of March, but having taken some time myself to dig in a bit, I can say it seems infinitely easier to use than the spreadsheet.  Regardless of whether one is using the State provided list or Wayfinder, though, PASAs have the responsibility to keep the updated and relevant.  As those of you working in our direct services know, there is always new information about services, changing waiting list numbers, and shifting staffing needs.  No one has quite figured out yet an easy process for PASAs to keep their information consistently updated. 

So, as we on the Executive Team and the Board Members serving on the PASA Future subcommittee work through establishing a baseline so we can build the future of our Imagine! PASA on sturdy ground, we continue to examine these questions about the number of PASAs and distinct service offerings available to clearly understand the true demand for services and the opportunities to provide meaningful experiences to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.   Imagine!’s senior strategic business analyst, Matt Barnert, has taken on some of the research behind this work.  Thank you, Matt.  Here are some of the numbers:

 

The business of PASAs burgeons, and yet we know that only a handful offer some services, in particular.  For example, we seem to be one of only one of four that provides any type of school age services programming, for example. We continue to research more fully.  Stay tuned.  We will share this work and more specifics as the PASA Future subcommittee continues its work through the summer months.

I also participated in a couple of work sessions last week to refine the Bylaws for what we expect will be the new Case Management Agency (CMA) of the future.  As you may recall, The Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF) will announce the new Case Management Agencies (CMAs) in mid-June (according to their latest advisements).  We fully expect that the proposal submitted jointly between Imagine! and ACMI to combine Imagine!’s case management operations with those of ACMI’s to become the new CMA will be accepted to become the new CMA for Boulder, Broomfield and Gilpin counties.  The Board-comprised CMA subcommittee, which I have referenced previously in these emails, is tasked with helping guide progress towards creating what will become a new organization in the future.  Developing Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws that accurately reflect the future without losing the rich histories of either organization is critical work.  The Executive Director of ACMI, Barb Wilkins-Crowder, and I are playing lead roles in those efforts, including some detailed revision work before our attorney and the subcommittee put their finishing touches on these documents, which represent the backbone of an organization. 

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May 18, 2023

Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour recently presented to Imagine! supervisors and managers on what’s happening currently at our organization. Included in her PowerPoint were these two CMRD related slides.

 

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May 11, 2023

The following was sent in an email from Imagine! IT Director Kevin Harding to Imagine! staff members. It provides a good example of how we’re exploring options for administrative functions in light of CMRD.

 

For the last several months, the IT department at Developmental Disabilities Resource Center, the CCB in Jefferson County, has been short an IT Director.  DDRC was looking for an immediate solution and given the changes coming in our system, asked if I could step in as acting IT Director.  This seemed like the perfect opportunity to see if a business support unit from one CCB could combine with another to provide services to multiple organizations.  I’m happy to say that so far, the experiment seems to be working.  While there hasn’t been a lot of cross team support, that’s about to change.  Imagine!’s Carla Rapp will be working with a member of DDRC’s IT team, Chris Dowd, to project manage an Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) implementation at DDRC.  In addition, members of DDRC’s team will be assisting Imagine!’s Micah Rountree as we roll out Microsoft upgrades.  I hope this cooperation can be a model for other support departments like the business office and human resources as we navigate the case management redesign waters.

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May 1, 2023

The following was sent in an email from Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour to Imagine! staff members and members of the Imagine! and Imagine! Foundation Boards of Directors.

As part of the CMRD conflict-free mandate, Imagine! has the mighty task of separating the two key parts of our business – the case management component and the direct services delivery component. 

As you know, Imagine! had some strict deadlines from HCPF to participate in the first part of the work surrounding case management.  The Department sent out an RFP late December for applications to become the new Case Management Agency of the future.   A decision was made to combine Imagine!’s case management operations with those of ACMI, the Single Entry Point serving Boulder, Broomfield and Gilpin counties.  Imagine!s CEO and ACMI’s Executive Director submitted a proposal to HCPF at the end of February.  HCPF has said they will select the awardees and make announcements in June of 2023.  You can see a number of details related to this part of that important work in the links below.

There has been much work going on at Imagine! regarding our direct services that includes fortifying an organizational structure for the future with the creation of the Chief Services Officer position in the Fall of 2022 and the selection of its permanent leader in March of 2023.   We also created an additional leadership layer of Assistant Directors to ensure support for current day operations and to prepare for the future of change.  Our intent has been to stay focused on today to strengthen services in preparation for the separation that will occur prior to June 30, 2024. 

To get situated in the work going on now around direct services, we offer the following FAQs.  As we did previously, we will address every question submitted and post responses on a regular basis.  Town hall meetings and other forums will also occur throughout the coming months.   As always, everyone is invited to send a personal email to our CEO, Kathryn Arbour or to anyone on the Imagine! executive team.  There is also a form located on this page for you to send your question or comment anonymously.  Responses to those will be posted on this page.

Q:           What is a PASA and why are we referring to our direct services as such going forward?

A:           The Program Approved Service Agency (PASA) is the name HCPF assigns to services for people with IDD that go through an approval process with the State of CO.  There are hundreds of PASAs in CO and as Imagine! we have been authorized to offer services to those on waivers or to clients who pay directly for their services.  As the separation of case management operations and direct services takes place prior to June 30, 2024, our work is to “stand up” our direct services as a full PASA that will compete and complement IDD services delivery to clients across the state. 

Q:           Why haven’t we heard much about the work going on in direct services?

A:           We have been proceeding with “business as usual” on the direct services side of Imagine! while we made changes to the structure and to some programs to strengthen them for the future.  We also have had to address emergent situations, like the one that brought about a decision to close the group home residential services in the Charles Family SmartHome, throughout this past year.  Our intent has always been to stabilize as much as possible after the COVID years and the leadership changes that happened over the past three years.  Updates on these day-to-day service realities have been delivered through the usual mechanisms of emails, town hall meetings, the Digest, and ongoing meetings within work teams.  Our CEO has also spent a number of months learning in depth from other PASAs throughout the State, speaking with their leaders, understanding the array of services being offered statewide and especially in our Boulder and Broomfield counties and surroundings, including how other CCBs are separating the case management and service areas of their organizations, and visiting programs and services.

Q:           What is the specific work to separate and “stand up” the Imagine! PASA?

A:           The good news is that because the case management operations will be separating to join with ACMI’s case management operations to form a new entity, a lot of “work” – especially all the legal and official type things – for the PASA is already done.  For example, direct services as the PASA keep the very special name of Imagine!.   And the details about registering with the State of CO, tax exemption status, and the like?  Same as today.

Q:           What else has to be done?

A:           There is important work that has started with a subcommittee comprised of some Board members from Imagine!’s Board of Directors and some from Imagine!’s Foundation Board members to serve in an advisory capacity to help us look at each program’s strengths and opportunities for growth.  The PASA Future Subcommittee has met twice so far and will continue to meet regularly every other week through the summer.  They will help Imagine!’s leaders develop models to ensure the PASA can separate in a way that has financial viability, leadership strength and the ability to survive and thrive without being part of a much bigger organization, like today, where expenses and support functions can be shared more widely.  Of great importance to the subcommittee and to all of us is honoring our strong legacy of service, preserving much needed services and the high quality always associated with Imagine!, and ensuring as seamless transitions as possible for clients and staff into the newly defined world of the PASA as one of many in the State.  Well, as the best, we hope!

Q:           What about support functions like HR, IT, and financial/business office?

A:           These are such critical areas of our current day operations.  And we must ensure that both the CMA and the PASA have access to high quality services.  We do not currently have any details to share on this work, although the leaders of each area are looking at how they can optimize their service models and researching how some of the other CCBs are approaching these same questions.  We will provide future updates on this part of our ongoing work.

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March 13, 2023

On March 13, Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour hosted a meeting for Imagine! Supervisors, and shared the following CMRD related slides:

February 28, 2023

Exciting news!

Imagine! and ACMI  were able to complete and submit, at the end of day February 27, the RFP for the competitive bid released by the Colorado Department of Health Policy & Financing (HCPF) in order to serve as the Case Management Agency (CMA) for our catchment area, as we had originally planned.  We have confirmation of receipt in hand! We will share more information about next steps once we have them.

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January 17th, 2023

Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour sent an email to the Imagine! community about CMRD. You can see her message here.

January 12th, 2023

On Wednesday, January 11, Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour hosted an all staff Town Hall meeting at Imagine!. The slide below, with the latest information on CMRD, was shared during her presentation.

December 2nd, 2022

Imagine! CEO, Dr. Kathryn Arbour, hosted a Leadership Town Hall today for Imagine! supervisors. Below are some bullet points on what to expect around CMRD for the next 2-3 months at Imagine!:

 

For Case Management work:

• Focus on design and structure of the new Case Management Agency (CMA) (formed by joining case management operations, processes, histories, expertise of Adult Care Management, Inc. (ACMI) and Imagine!)
• Complete financial feasibility studies with information currently available; adjust as new information regarding rates is released
• Identify new name for CMA Prepare to respond to the CMA RFP by deadline (March 2023)

For Program Approved Service Agency (PASA) work:

• Continue to learn about direct services at other Community Centered Boards (CCBs) and how they are considering the future
• Continue to strengthen our current services offerings and mix

November 4th, 2022

On November 4, Imagine! CEO Dr. Kathryn Arbour sent the following email to Imagine! staff members.

Hello,

As we focus on providing as much support for Imagine!’s direct services staff and clients as possible, and with the prospect of significant changes ahead driven by the conflict-free case management redesign (CMRD) mandate, I am happy to share news with you today about some promotions and related organizational changes. Our goals with these changes are to provide support to staff and continuity to our much needed client services for today AND to tackle and address any changes that may lay ahead for us and other CCBs and PASAs over the next year or so. Keeping our clients at the heart of all our work now and in the future will continue to be our best compass for navigating change!

To that end, we have created a single role, Chief Services Officer, to provide leadership across all direct service areas. Laurel Rochester, currently Imagine!’s Director of Residential, Therapeutic and Nursing Services, will take on this critical role in an interim capacity for several months. I am so grateful to Laurel for her willingness to provide the stability and array of talents we need at this time. We will post and hire for this new position, launching our search for a long-term Chief Services Officer soon.

To support Imagine!’s direct services programs and the Chief Services Officer, we have restructured to have three Assistant Directors. Kristin Halvorson will now be an Assistant Director overseeing Therapeutic Services, Family Recruited Employment and our School Age Services program. Brodie Schulze will now be the Assistant Director of Community Services, Employment Services and the Social Enterprise program. Both have provided excellent oversight, stability and support to staff most impacted by many recent changes. I offer sincere appreciation to them both on behalf of our organization for having shown such commitment to staff and clients.

We will be posting for the role of Assistant Director of Residential and Nursing Services shortly. As always, we encourage qualified internal candidates to apply for this position.

As with all organizational changes, we will invest time and talent to make transitions as smooth as possible. We also invite conversation, questions, and ideas as the process of the transition unfolds over the next few months. 

Thank you as always for the passion and commitment you bring every day to your work!

Warmly,

Kathryn

October 26th, 2022

On October 26, Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour sent the email message below to Imagine! employees.

Hi, Everyone.

I am pleased to provide you with another important update regarding the statewide Case Management Redesign process (CMRD) currently underway. As we have explained previously, it has been the ongoing intent of Imagine! to apply for the competitive bid to be released by the Colorado Department of Health Policy & Financing (HCPF) in order to serve as the Case Management Agency (CMA) for our catchment area.

As we continue to explore the various approaches our organization can take as we consider the “conflict free case management” mandate, we have opened and pursued conversations with the case management organization currently servicing the five Medicaid waivers not served by Imagine! for Boulder and Broomfield counties. ACMI, located in Lafayette, has been the Single-Entry Point (SEP) awarded the contract for these Medicaid waivers in Colorado for over 30 years, and specifically in our catchment area for just over 25 years. Because ACMI and Imagine! currently are responsible for critical components of what will constitute the new case management agency (CMA) which will result from this process, it makes sense for our two organizations to come together to explore the ways we can join our expertise, experience and passion for ensuring clients have access to all the services they need to achieve their possibilities and potential. Our shared goal, as Imagine! and ACMI build this new agency, will always be to minimize disruptions to our clients, retain the expertise of our valued staff and stay true to our mission of creating a world of opportunities for all abilities.

A reminder that the current catchment area will expand to include Gilpin county in the future, which means the number of clients needing care coordination/case management and services will grow.

Our companies’ Boards of Directors have authorized me and the Executive Director of ACMI to sign initial agreements outlining our intentions to share information, including confidential and proprietary information, about each of our businesses, and to begin including key employees in assessing the feasibility of working together and establishing some initial designs about what joining forces might look like.

Imagine! will work closely with ACMI over these next two months to find a path for a joint submission to the RFP once it is released in January 2023.

We are excited and honored to be working alongside ACMI, an organization with a 30-year history of providing conflict-free case management to thousands of clients with disabilities throughout Colorado. As we clarify the opportunities for joining our organizations’ case management experience and expertise, we will update you and provide forums for more discussion.

For today, it is business as usual for everyone at Imagine!. We have critical work to do delivering case management expertise and an array of services to clients who rely on us to stay focused on them and their needs.

Thank you for your commitment to our important work and for all you do everyday.

Warmly,

Kathryn

October 17th, 2022

Recently, Imagine! CEO Kathryn Arbour sat down with members of our leadership team to discuss the future of Imagine! in light of CMRD. Below are some key takeaways from her presentation.

How does CMRD impact Imagine!?

Currently, Imagine! provides both service coordination (case management) and direct services. After July 2024, we will no longer be able to do this. There must be a complete separation.

Therefore, Imagine! has made the following decisions:

• Imagine!’s Direct Services, which includes Residential Services, Employment Services, School Age Services, Adult Community Services, Mental and Behavioral Health Services, Imagine!'s Social Enterprise, and Family Recruited Employee Services, will take the name Imagine! and serve as a Program Approved Service Agency (PASA).
• Imagine! will respond to the Request for Proposal (RFP) from Colorado to serve as the Case Management Agency (CMA) for our catchment area (catchment area is the geographical area of service).
• If Imagine! is awarded the contract to serve as the CMA for our catchment area, the CMA will take on a new name and provide case management services to individuals who have intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) on the following waivers: Developmental Disabilities waiver, Supported Living Services waiver, Children’s Extensive Support waiver, as well as for individuals on the following waivers: Brain Injury waiver, Community Mental Health Supports waiver, Elderly, Blind and Disabled waiver, Spinal Cord Injury waiver, Children’s Home and Community Services waiver, and Children with Life Limiting Illness waiver.

If Imagine! is awarded the contract to serve as the CMA for our catchment area, our organization is likely to resemble the visualization below post-CMRD:

What steps is Imagine! taking in preparation for responding to the RFP to serve as the CMA?

Imagine! is currently (as of Oct. 11, 2022) engaging in due diligence for how best to respond to the RFP, including:

• Exploring potential partnerships
• Vetting viability of options through legal, financial, cultural lenses
• Working with a transition coach and an attorney to explore viable organizational structures

Are there any details to share regarding where Imagine! Early Intervention (EI) services and coordination components will land with the future given the mandate to separate Case Management services from PASA services?

EI is under the direction of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC -a newly created department in Colorado) and not Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) and Medicaid waivers, so how we plan for the future of EI is not dictated by the CMRD conflict-free mandate as defined in Colorado.

Additional resources:

The Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing has created a web page full of information and resources regarding CMRD. 

Check out this brief history of CMRD.

June 30, 2023

The Department of Health Care Policy & Financing has clarified that it will notify those who are selected to serve as the Case Management Agency (CMA) for specified regions no later than July 21, 2023 regarding the transition timelines.  We are working currently with our case management partner, ACMI, to submit the required transition/change management plans due to the Department on July 15.  Watch this space for more information soon.

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June 23, 2023

The Notice of Intent to Award the CMA designation to A & I CMA was received from the Department of Health Care Policy & Financing (HCPF) on June 12.  Because HCPF must allow a period of time between announcing the “intent to award” and officially recognizing the awardees in case there are any challenges presented, our communications must be limited and clear.  This period ends on June 27^th.  HCPF has further explained that they will make all official communications regarding the CMA awards in July.  Until that time, we will continue to plan.  Imagine! will send our broader communications to clients and other stakeholders after HCPF releases its official communications next month. 

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May 8, 2023

HCPF has pushed out the date to the middle of June 2023 for the notification to those organizations that will become the newly defined Case Management Agencies (CMA). They have also pushed out to July 15 the due date for the Change Management Plan required by all CCBs, SEPs and counties that may be involved in a transition of some kind around CMRD.   

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May 16, 2023

The Colorado Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing (HCPF) recently shared the following information around CMRD:

Regarding transitions between agencies once CMA’s are announced (mid-June):

Regarding who will be communicating with members:

• HCPF will be communicating via letter and e-mail
• In a nutshell, if you are currently being served outside of your catchment area (i.e. Weld County person being served by Imagine!), you will be moved to the new Weld County CMA if you do not respond to the communication. 

Question to HCPF:

If the State keeps track of clients that we serve outside our catchment area is there a tipping point when they will say, “no you can’t serve any more outside of your catchment area. You are at the limit. “?

Answer: There will not be a limit. We are welcoming family choice.

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March 1, 2023

On December 15, 2022, The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) shared an informational memo announcing Case Manager Retention Payments in response to Case Management Redesign (CMRD).

One of HCPF’s goals during CMRD is to create stability for the case management system during this transition. To help meet that goal, HCPF allowed Case Management Agencies like Imagine! to apply for a Retention Payments Grant.  We were very excited about this opportunity, and applied for a grant on 1/30/2023.  On 2/10, we received notification of approval! 

HCPF requires that anyone receiving a retention payment must have been employed with Imagine! for six months or longer, must have completed training, and be in good standing with their employer.  However, Imagine! feels strongly that our employees are our number one asset, and we wanted to ensure we were able to pay retention bonuses to as many employees as possible.  To that end, we asked Boulder County to fund retention payments for individuals who have been employed here for six months or less, and that request was approved.

Consequently, all qualified Imagine! Case Managers will be receiving a retention payment of $500 at the end of the month. 

 

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February 7, 2023

As part of the ARPA 3.01 Equity Study, HCPF aims to identify and better understand disparities across HCBS. We are reaching out to members and their families, case managers, providers, connectors, and other advocates to ask for your expert input into understanding more about member and provider experiences pertaining to:

 

• Awareness/Outreach
• Enrollment
• Use of HCBS

The survey should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Responses to this survey are anonymous and cannot be traced back to the respondent. Please complete this survey by Feb. 19, 2023. Access the survey here. Thank you in advance!

Have Questions? Click here to fill out the form and let us know!

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