Department of Health Care Policy and Financing officials told the Legislative Audit Committee they have made measurable progress addressing an Office of the State Auditor performance audit that found problems with the clarity, accuracy and completeness of Medicaid correspondence.

Rachel Bridal, who oversees policy, communications and administration at the department, and Natalie Coulter, who leads a new member correspondence team, described work to centralize review, reduce duplicate notices and establish a formal auditing process. Coulter said the department has reviewed 55 Colorado Benefits Management System (CBMS) letters, removed 11, and updated 44 to meet audit recommendations; the office also reports a 95% reduction in duplicate notices.

The department said it has created a dashboard with Deloitte (which administers CBMS) to monitor CBMS‑generated member correspondence and is reviewing 100 live letters each week to find defects. The department has hired new staff including a correspondence quality improvement supervisor and a partner communications and compliance specialist to work with vendors and county partners.

Officials described timelines for completing remaining work: internal auditing tools are expected by summer and an ongoing auditing process by fall; full implementation of some training and vendor contract amendments is expected by November of the year cited by presenters; centralization of correspondence staff funded by recent appropriations began in July 2024 and additional hires are underway.

Committee members asked how the public health emergency (PHE) unwind affected the work. Deputy director Rachel Bridal said the PHE unwind and related backlogs delayed some improvements because the department lacked dedicated correspondence resources until July 2024; department officials said county caseworkers are caught up and additional training materials and a fact sheet for staff are planned.

Department officials said they implemented a department‑wide standard operating procedure in October 2023 that applies to staff and vendors creating or updating member correspondence and are piloting a document management system with the Office of Community Living that the department plans to expand across other divisions.