Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today announced that Colorado won a $2,000,422 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to further develop and refine its comprehensive State Health Care Innovation Plan.

“Colorado continues to be a national leader in developing new ways to integrate health care services that will improve the quality of care and reduce costs,” Bennet said. “The state’s plan to integrate behavioral and clinical health care will help Coloradans get the services they need more efficiently. I look forward to seeing the results of this phase and the plans to implement this strategy with other types of health care services.”

This grant is a Pre-Testing Award from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and builds upon the Colorado’s proposal to implement and test its Statewide Health Innovations Fostering Transformation program (SHIFT) that will integrate behavioral health and clinical health care.  The grant is funded through the State Innovation Models initiative of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation.

The State Innovation Models initiative is for states that are prepared for or committed to planning, designing, testing, and supporting evaluation of new payment and service delivery models in the context of larger health system transformation. Participating states will test innovative payment and service delivery models that have the potential to lower costs for Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), while maintaining or improving quality of care for program beneficiaries. The goal is to create multi-payer models with a broad mission to raise community health status and reduce long-term health risks for beneficiaries.