A Cross-Sector Coalition
Behavioral-health policy, rooted in the person seeking help.
A Colorado alliance of providers, payers, advocates, and network administrators — at one table, building the durable policy this state actually needs.
What People First Means
A different organizing logic for behavioral-health policy.
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Built around the person seeking help.
Most behavioral-health policy in Colorado is shaped to defend the institution that provides, pays for, or advocates around care. People First is shaped around the person whose life is on the line — and the policy positions the alliance carries are measured against whether they actually serve that person.
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Cross-sector before consensus.
Providers, payers, advocates, and network administrators sit at the same table — and don't walk away when the work gets hard. The positions that emerge have been pressure-tested across the system, not negotiated within a single sector. The difficulty of the room is the source of the durability of the work.
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Durable across budget cycles.
Reform that survives an election year requires infrastructure, not a campaign. The alliance is built to outlast administrations, election cycles, and the next funding fight — so the work compounds across years instead of resetting with each new legislative session.
Member
Voice
We were tired of the same old, same old. Trade groups argue for trade interests. The person seeking help loses. We affiliated because the work needed someone whose first allegiance is to that person — not to any single sector's bottom line.
1 in 5
Coloradans report a behavioral-health need each year
20+
state-funded BH programs scattered across departments
40+
rural Colorado counties designated mental-health shortage areas
The Colorado Challenge
Real challenges. Specific work.
Colorado spends more than a billion dollars a year on behavioral health. People who need durable care still struggle to access it. Funding is fragmented across departments. Coordination across providers, payers, and advocates is rare. Civil-rights gaps persist for the people least able to advocate for themselves. None of this is hopeless — these are specific challenges with specific solutions, achievable when the right organizations work the problem together.
Policy Priorities
What we're working on.
- 01
Financing stabilization
Stabilize behavioral-health financing through efficiency, accountability, and durable funding that survives election cycles.
- Reform contracting, rate-setting, and regulatory incentives so providers align with state priorities — not narrow new programs.
- Partner with HCPF and the RAEs on utilization management, network design, and value-based incentives.
- Consolidate scattered state behavioral-health funding into a coherent systemic approach.
- 02
Healthcare integration
Align behavioral and physical health in Medicaid so people don't fall between systems.
- Align payment and management approaches across physical and behavioral health to simplify access.
- Analyze further alignment opportunities through the RAEs, BHAOs, and commercial insurance.
- Apply managed-care principles thoughtfully where they improve access and quality of care.
- 03
Task Force completion
Finish the Behavioral Health Task Force agenda — and address what the state left undone.
- Map where the state achieved the Task Force recommendations and where reform stalled.
- Streamline funding lines that fall outside the BHA and overlap with its work.
- Push for a big-picture approach to provider licensing focused on quality and accountability.
- 04
Civil-rights gaps
Close the civil-rights gaps in Colorado's treatment of people with mental health disorders.
- Partner with Disability Law Colorado on access and outpatient certification for people transitioning from state hospitals.
- Build an alternative to a state-run Assisted Outpatient Program through the Comprehensive Safety Net Providers.
- Strengthen Colorado's involuntary treatment laws to balance individual rights and public safety.
The Breadth at the Table
Not one perspective on policy. The whole field, in conversation.
Most coalitions sit one role. PFBHA's room has every kind of voice behavioral-health policy actually contains.
Frontline care
Providers
Behavioral-health organizations running clinics, community programs, and rural services. Ground-truth on what reform actually changes for the people doing the work.
Financing reality
Payers / RAEs
Regional Accountable Entities and Medicaid behavioral-health payers. What rate, network, and managed-care choices actually do to access and quality.
Voice of the person
Advocates
Advocacy organizations grounded in lived experience and civil-rights work. Keeping the room honest about whose life is on the line.
The plumbing
Network Administrators
ASOs and BHASOs running the contracts and infrastructure between the state and providers — and the people who know where the system breaks.
About PFBHA
How a different kind of coalition happens.
Founded by Daniel Darting and Camille Harding alongside seven Colorado member organizations, PFBHA exists to build the durable policy this state actually needs. Cross-sector by design. Person-centered by intent. Transparent about the work.
Read the full storyRecent
What we're paying attention to.
All news →April 27, 2026 · PFBHA
People First Behavioral Health Alliance launches with seven Colorado organizations
Seven cross-sector Colorado behavioral health organizations affiliate to advance policy reform around the person seeking help — providers, payers, advocates, and culturally specific service at the same table.
Read
April 21, 2026 · Colorado BHA
BHA proposes consolidated financing approach for behavioral health safety-net
Colorado's Behavioral Health Administration moves toward a unified safety-net financing strategy. The Alliance is tracking the proposal across all four pillars.
April 14, 2026 · Colorado Sun
Colorado Sun feature on competency-services backlog
Strong long-form journalism on Colorado's incompetent-to-proceed system, including patterns the Alliance has flagged as central to the civil-rights pillar.
Stay Informed
An occasional briefing, by email.
Updates on what we're working on, what's moving in Colorado behavioral health policy, and what we're paying attention to. No more than once a month.
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