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State and hospitals will keep graduate medical education payments on the agenda as stakeholders express interest
Summary
Department staff said GME payments are currently embedded in inpatient base rates; hospitals asked for continued conversations and the department will keep GME as a standing placeholder on future stakeholder agendas and accept written input.
The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing said graduate medical education (GME) payments are currently built into inpatient hospital base rates and that the department will continue stakeholder conversations to assess interest in any separate GME add-on or approach.
"GME payments are included as an add on in our inpatient hospital base rates, which were rebased as recently as 07/01/2025," Andrew Abelos, facility rate section manager, said. He added that some GME-related reimbursements also occur as lump-sum managed-care payments handled outside this team's direct work.
Abelos said the department lacks a distinct outpatient GME add-on now because the existing outpatient base-rate methodology is derived from older EAPG aggregates that do not disentangle GME costs. He said the department could consider a GME add-on when it updates the outpatient EAPG methodology, which staff currently expect will be a multi-year effort.
Stakeholder response: Kevin, speaking for Children's Hospital Colorado, said his organization "would love to participate" in ongoing GME discussions. Abelos said the department will treat GME as a regular placeholder on future stakeholder agendas and encouraged hospitals to email the team with interest or feedback ahead of the July meeting.
Next steps: the department will accept written feedback by email, keep GME on future agendas, and consider whether a breakout group or further technical work is warranted before proposing specific rate mechanics or an add-on.
