The bill defines a "health-care cost-sharing arrangement" as a health care sharing ministry or medical cost-sharing community that collects money from its members on a regular basis, at levels established by the arrangement, for purposes of sharing, covering, or defraying the medical costs of its members. A health-care cost-sharing arrangement is required to: Report specified information to the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) regarding its operations, financial statements, membership, and medical bills submitted, paid, and denied in Colorado; Provide certain written disclosures to potential and renewing members, post the disclosures on its website, if the arrangement has a website, and include the disclosures in its marketing materials; Provide specified written statements about arrangement finances and guidelines about arrangement procedures to members; and Respond to requests for payment of medical expenses from members or health-care providers within a period specified by the commissioner by rule. An insurance broker that offers a health-care cost-sharing arrangement in this state is required to provide written or electronic disclosures about the product to prospective members before selling the arrangement to the person. The commissioner is authorized to: Adopt rules to implement the data reporting, disclosure, and response time requirements; Impose fines for failure to comply with the requirements and prohibitions specified in the bill; Issue an emergency, ex parte cease-and-desist order against a person the commissioner believes to be violating the bill if it appears to the commissioner that the alleged conduct is fraudulent, creates an immediate danger to public safety, or is causing or is reasonably expected to cause significant, imminent, and irreparable public injury; and Impose a civil penalty, order restitution, or both, against a person that violates an ex parte cease-and-desist order. A person is prohibited from making, issuing, circulating, or causing to be made, issued, or circulated any statement or publication that misrepresents the medical cost-sharing benefits, advantages, conditions, or terms of any health-care cost-sharing arrangement. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
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Under current law, when an employer is going to hire a person to work in a position in which the person has contact with at-risk adults, the employer must perform a check of the system that contains substantiated claims of mistreatment against an at-risk adult (CAPS check). The act makes various clarifying changes to the adult protection statutes related to the CAPS check program. The act states that if an employer receives a CAPS check on a person and does not hire the person at the time of receiving the check but wants to hire the person at a subsequent time, the employer shall request a new CAPS check prior to hiring the person. The act requires that if the employer is also an employee, the employer and employer's parent or oversight agency would get the results if the employer was a substantiated perpetrator. The act prohibits using a CAPS check request for a person who is not going to be an employee. The act prohibits an employee or volunteers from knowingly providing inaccurate information for a CAPS check or an employer or other person or entity conducting an employee screening on behalf of the employer from knowingly providing inaccurate information in the request for a CAPS check. The act requires entities that care for at-risk adults to cooperate with a county or district department of human or social services in investigations into allegations of mistreatment at the entities' facilities pursuant to department rule. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act prohibits a health insurance carrier from: Imposing specific requirements or limitations on the HIPAA-compliant technologies used to deliver telehealth services; Requiring a covered person to have a previously established patient-provider relationship with a specific provider in order to receive medically necessary telehealth services from the provider; or Imposing additional certification, location, or training requirements as a condition of reimbursement for telehealth services. The act specifies that, to the extent the state board of health adopts rules addressing supervision requirements for home care agencies, the rules must allow for supervision in person or by telemedicine or telehealth. For purposes of the medicaid program, the act: Requires the department of health care policy and financing (state department) to allow home care agencies to supervise services through telemedicine or telehealth; Clarifies the methods of communication that may be used for telemedicine; Requires the state department to reimburse rural health clinics, the federal Indian health service, and federally qualified health centers for telemedicine services provided to medicaid recipients and to do so at the same rate as the department reimburses those services when provided in person; Requires the state department to post telemedicine utilization data to the state department's website no later than 30 days after the effective date of the act and update the data every other month through state fiscal year 2020-21; and Specifies that health care and mental health care services include speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, hospice care, home health care, and pediatric behavioral health care. The act appropriates $5,068,381 to the state department from the care subfund for telemedicine expansion services and prohibits the state department from using the appropriation for the state-share of medicaid services. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the Colorado affordable health care coverage easy enrollment program (program) for the purpose of leveraging the tax filing process to connect uninsured Coloradans to free or subsidized health care coverage through a health care coverage affordability program, which includes medicaid, the children's basic health plan, or a subsidized health benefit plan, or other creditable coverage. The program will allow Coloradans to request on their state income tax returns that the Colorado health benefit exchange (exchange) assess whether uninsured household members are potentially eligible for free or subsidized health care coverage. If the tax filer requests that the eligibility of uninsured household members be assessed under the program, the tax filer will receive information about coverage options and assistance with enrollment. The act creates the affordable health care coverage easy enrollment advisory committee (advisory committee) to guide implementation of the program. The advisory committee is co-chaired by the executive director of the exchange and the executive director of the department of revenue (department), or their designees, and consists of the following 9 members, appointed by the board of directors of the exchange: A representative of the department of health care policy and financing; A representative of the division of insurance in the department of regulatory agencies; A representative of consumer advocacy groups; A representative of small employers; A representative of insurers; A health care consumer; A health coverage guide or other person with expertise in the process of applying for federal insurance or assistance; An insurance producer; and A tax preparer. If the exchange verifies that the uninsured individual is a United States citizen, the exchange, through procedures determined by the advisory committee, will assess whether uninsured individuals identified through the program are potentially eligible for a health care coverage affordability program or other creditable coverage, notify uninsured individuals about their potential eligibility, and enroll or assist with enrolling uninsured individuals in creditable coverage. The department is required to implement the tax forms and schedules created by the advisory committee and to share the tax information gathered, as authorized by individual tax filers, with the exchange. The executive director of the department is required to promulgate rules to implement the new tax forms and schedules and to implement the authorized sharing of the tax information provided on the state individual income tax return forms for the purpose of enrolling uninsured individuals in a health care coverage affordability program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Subject to federal authorization and funding, the act authorizes working adults with disabilities who are 65 years of age or older to continue participating in the existing medicaid buy-in program (program). The act directs the department of health care policy and financing (department) to seek federal authorization to expand the program to include individuals in the work incentives eligibility group, which is defined, to match federal eligibility criteria, as individuals who are age 65 years or older with a disability who, except for assets or income, would be eligible for the supplemental security income program. The department shall submit necessary state plan amendments to implement the program and must implement the program by July 1, 2022. For the 2020-21 fiscal year, the act appropriates $50,000 from the general fund to the department, with $50,000 anticipated in federal funds. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act makes the following modifications to the "Colorado Governmental Immunity Act" (CGIA): Unless otherwise excepted under the CGIA, the act excludes from the definition of "public employee" under the CGIA any health care practitioner or any health care professional who is employed by the university of Colorado hospital authority (authority) unless the practitioner or professional is providing services within the course and scope of the person's responsibilities as an employee or volunteer of the authority in a facility that is either located on the Anschutz medical campus (AMC) or that is operating under the hospital license issued to the university hospital, including off-campus locations. The act specifies that the "Health Care Availability Act" (HCAA) is applicable to health care practitioners and health care professionals employed by the authority that are not immune from liability because of the definition of "public employee". The act also specifies that the basic immunity from liability granted to public entities by the CGIA does not apply to the authority except for any hospital, clinic, surgery center, department, or other facility it owns or operates that is located on the AMC or that is a facility operating under the hospital license issued to the university hospital, including off-campus locations. The HCAA is applicable to health care institutions that are not immune from liability under the CGIA.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill defines a "health care cost-sharing arrangement" as a health care sharing ministry or medical cost-sharing community that collects funds from its members on a regular basis, at levels established by the arrangement, for purposes of sharing, covering, or defraying the medical costs of its members. A health care cost-sharing arrangement is required to: Report specified information to the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) regarding its operations, financial statements, membership, and medical bills submitted, paid, and denied; Provide certain disclosures on its website, in marketing materials, and to potential members; and Respond to requests for payment of medical expenses from health care providers within a period specified by the commissioner by rule. If an insurance broker offers to enroll or enrolls individuals or groups in a health care cost-sharing arrangement, the broker must provide the same disclosures that a health care cost-sharing arrangement is required to provide. The bill also prohibits a health care cost-sharing arrangement or insurance broker from offering or enrolling participants in the arrangement during the annual open enrollment period for health benefit plans. The commissioner is authorized to adopt rules to implement the data reporting, disclosure, and response time requirements and to impose fines for failure to comply with the requirements and prohibitions specified in the bill. A person is prohibited from making, issuing, circulating, or causing to be made, issued, or circulated any statement or publication that misrepresents the medical cost-sharing benefits, advantages, conditions, or terms of any health care cost-sharing arrangement. The commissioner is authorized to issue an emergency, ex parte cease-and-desist order against a person the commissioner believes to be violating this prohibition if it appears to the commissioner that the alleged conduct is fraudulent, creates an immediate danger to public safety, or is causing or is reasonably expected to cause significant, imminent, and irreparable public injury. If a person violates the emergency order, the commissioner may impose a civil penalty, order restitution, or both. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill clarifies that the existing authority of cities and counties (local governments) to plan for and regulate the use of land includes the authority to regulate development or redevelopment in order to promote the construction of new affordable housing units. The provisions of the state's rent control statute do not apply to any land use regulation that restricts rents on newly constructed or redeveloped housing units as long as the regulation provides a choice of options to the property owner or land developer and creates one or more alternatives to the construction of new affordable housing units on the building site.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill replaces the term "illegal alien" with "undocumented immigrant" "unauthorized worker" as it relates to public contracts for services. (Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.) (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The act creates the Colorado legion of merit medal, which may be awarded by the department of military and veterans affairs (department) to any person who has rendered service in a clearly exceptional, unprecedented, or superior manner. The act makes changes regarding eligibility and criteria for certain medals awarded by the department and repeals awards that are duplicative of other department or federal awards. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)