Category: Blog

The release of the Rand research report “Prices Paid to Hospitals by Private Health Plans Are High Relative to Medicare and Vary Widely” by Chapin White and Christopher Whaley represents a major step forward in enabling value-based purchasing.  MAJOR! For the very first time it allows employers to assess the reasonableness of the prices they […] Read Article

May 9, 20-19 Colorado Business Group on Health held their Annual Forum at the Hilton Denver Inverness Hotel. The line up of speakers included Lt Governor, Dianne Primavera, Kim Bimestefer, Executive Director of HCPF, David Blumenthal MD, President, The Common Wealth Fund, and Shane Wolverton, SR VP, Quantros. The article was about the Forum focus […] Read Article

 Bob Smith was requested by Representative Chris Kennedy to give testimony in support of HB19-1001, the Hospital Financial Transparency Bill on January 16th. This bill would require hospitals to disclose their current Medicare cost reports to the State and allow the State to evaluate why hospitals are shifting costs to employers and the degree to which […] Read Article

The final evaluation of the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative published in Health Affairs in June described the project and “HEALTH AFFAIRS BLOG”.  Concluded that it “did not reduce Medicare spending enough to cover care management fees or appreciably improve  physician experience.” READ MORE Cited: “The Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative: Another Side Of The Story, […] Read Article

Denver, CO – Nov. 8, 2018 – The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit aiming to improve health care quality for consumers, employers, and purchasers, announced today the fall 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. The independent grading system assigns “A,” “B,” “C,” “D” and “F” letter grades to general acute-care hospitals in the U.S. based on their […] Read Article

A recently released report with the stunning but purposeful title “Healthcare USA: A Cancer on the American Dream” details the degree to which our health care market lacks any reasonable level of reciprocal value for American consumers. Issued by Willis Towers Watson in collaboration with the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, the report shows how premium […] Read Article

Why Does CIVHC Release Health Care Price Information? As administrator of Colorado All Payer Claims Database (CO APCD), the state’s most comprehensive healthcare claims database, and as part of the legislative intent of the CO APCD, Center for Improving Value in Health Care (CIVHC) provides facility-specific price and quality information for free! Imaging Prices Now […] Read Article

The verdict is in: Colorado Court Ruling Supports Reference-Based Pricing The Referenced-Based Pricing (RBP) reimbursement model in health insurance (does not include Rx, by the way) is an evolving self-insured plan/claim cost control model that has been in the market in various forms for about a decade. While there are some true believers in this […] Read Article

Kim Bimestefer, Executive Director, Department of Health Care Policy and Financing presented at the June 14th CBGH Strategy Session at the Denver Metro Commerce and announced they have two job openings!     Read Article