(1) The general assembly finds and declares that: (a) Over the past decade, Colorado has had the second-fastest-growing rate of residents over sixty-five years of age in the United States, growing at roughly fifty-one percent; (b) Currently, twenty-one percent of the population in Colorado is over sixty-five years of age; (c) By 2030, Colorado will have more residents over sixty-five years of age than residents under eighteen years of age; (d) There are only ninety-six physicians trained in geriatrics across the state, and two hundred eighty-nine physicians trained in geriatrics are needed by 2050 to serve ten percent of Coloradans over sixty-five years of age; (e) Only twenty-three percent of dental schools across the United States offer clinical training specific to dental care for older adults; (f) There is a severe shortage in the United States of geriatric-trained clinicians across all health-care disciplines; (g) The number of older Coloradans places high resource demands on the state's health- care system; (h) During a health-care study conducted between 1993 and 1997, older patients who were admitted to the hospital were placed either in an acute care for elders unit or a usual-care control unit. On average, the length of stay for older patients treated by a geriatric-trained interdisciplinary team, including geriatricians, advanced practice nurses, social workers, pharmacists, and physical therapists, was significantly shorter, at just over six days per patient for those receiving care in the acute care for elders unit versus just over seven days per patient for those in the usual-care control unit. The difference in care produced lower total inpatient costs from nine thousand four hundred seventy-seven dollars per patient for those patients in the acute care for elders unit versus ten thousand four hundred fifty-one dollars per patient for those patients in the usual-care control unit. The difference in care for those patients in the acute care for elders unit maintained patients' functional abilities and did not increase hospital readmission rates. (i) The study described in subsection (1)(h) of this section resulted in fifty-eight fewer days of hospitalization for every one hundred patients admitted to the acute care for elders unit versus the usual-care control unit. Over the course of the study, this resulted in savings of ninety- seven thousand four hundred dollars for every one hundred patients admitted to the acute care for elders unit versus the usual-care control unit. (j) Hospital readmission rates for patients released from hospitals with acute care for elders units were nearly ten percent less compared to readmission rates for patients released from hospitals without acute care for elders units; (k) Colorado accounts for twelve percent of the national medicare budget as measured by medicare part A or part B program payments. Payments from the medicare program for Colorado equal four billion five hundred eighty million four thousand five hundred nine dollars, which covers five hundred twenty-eight thousand medicare enrollees. (l) Medicaid covers one in five Americans and accounts for seventeen percent of the national health expenditures. Medicaid spending growth is expected to be a substantial contributor to national health spending increases over the next ten years, primarily due to a population of older adults who are enrolling in medicaid with long-term services and supports and health-care needs. (2) Therefore, the general assembly declares that by establishing a multidisciplinary health-care provider access training program to train and support clinical health professions graduate students in advanced practice provider programs; dentistry; medicine, including osteopathic medicine; nursing; occupational therapy; pharmacy; physical therapy; psychology; social work; and speech-language therapy, future clinicians trained specifically in geriatrics will better meet the needs of medically complex, costly, compromised, and vulnerable older Coloradans. The multidisciplinary health-care provider access training program is core to the future expansion of multidisciplinary geriatric practices among each health-care discipline. Meeting the needs of Colorado's older adults will save the state millions of dollars in health-care costs each year. The general assembly further declares that collaboration between participating institutions of higher education, communities, and health-care providers will allow Colorado to provide the highest standard medical care to medically complex, costly, compromised, and vulnerable older Coloradans and to better fill the present and future need for geriatric care in urban, rural, and underserved communities across the state.
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