The act amends statutory provisions relating to unused medication in facilities, including correctional facilities, nursing care facilities, assisted living residences, hospice, and other facilities, to change the defined term "medication" to "medicine" and specifies the types of unused medicines that may be redispensed to patients or donated to another entity that has legal authority to possess the medicine. The act creates the Colorado drug donation program (donation program). The donation program allows a person legally authorized to possess medicine, including an individual donor who is a member of the public and other donors, including a pharmacy, a long-term care facility, a surgical center, a prescriber or other health-care professional or facility, a wholesaler, a distributor, a third-party logistics provider, and others (donor), to donate certain unused medicine (donated medicine), as specified in the act. The act prohibits the donation of prescription drugs that are subject to risk evaluation and mitigation strategies (REMS), unless all of the required guidelines are followed, or REMS drugs that were initially dispensed by a pharmacy pursuant to a restricted distribution channel. A donor or an individual donor may donate unused medicine to a donation recipient that is authorized to possess medicine and that has a credential in good standing in the state in which the donation recipient is located. A donation recipient includes a hospital, pharmacy, clinic, health-care provider, or prescriber office, and may include a wholesaler, distributor, third-party logistics provider, reverse distributor, or repackager if the entity is a nonprofit entity or is directly or indirectly owned, controlled, or could be controlled by a nonprofit entity. The act requires the donation recipient to keep a record of the donated medicine, separate the donated medicine from regular stock, and have donated medicine inspected by a licensed pharmacist. The donation recipient may transfer the donated medicine to another donation recipient or entity, repackage the donated medicine, or, if the donation recipient is a prescription drug outlet or other outlet, replace medicine of the same drug name and strength. The act requires donated medicine to first be dispensed to an eligible patient who is an individual who is indigent, uninsured, or underinsured. Donated medicine must not be resold; except that a donation recipient may charge a handling or dispensing fee for the donated medicine. When acting in good faith, the participants in the donation program are not subject to civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action. The act also shields drug manufacturers from liability for donated medicine that is subject to REMS under federal law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Rep. Kyle Brown
Sponsored bills
The act prevents a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) from prohibiting a rural independent pharmacy from using a private courier or a delivery service to deliver a prescription drug to a patient. A PBM is required to reimburse a rural independent pharmacy for a prescription drug in an amount not less than the national average drug acquisition cost for the dispensed prescription drug ingredients, plus pay a dispensing fee. When a PBM conducts an audit of a rural independent pharmacy and the audit results in a recoupment of more than $1,000 or a penalty of more than $1,000, the PBM must: Electronically notify the rural independent pharmacy of the rural independent pharmacy's rights to appeal at least 30 days before the recoupment of funds; If the rural independent pharmacy does not respond to the electronic notification within 30 days after the electronic notification, again electronically notify the rural independent pharmacy of the rural independent pharmacy's rights to appeal at least 30 days before the recoupment of funds; and If the rural independent pharmacy does not respond to the second electronic notification within 30 days after the second electronic notification, serve process on the rural independent pharmacy notifying of the rural independent pharmacy's rights to appeal at least 30 days before the recoupment of funds. The act allows a rural independent pharmacy to operate without being under the direct charge of a pharmacist if the initial interpretation and final evaluation of the prescription is done by a state-licensed pharmacist in person or remotely. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act authorizes the department of health care policy and financing (HCPF) to seek and accept gifts from private or public sources for the primary care fund. The act authorizes a federally qualified health center (FQHC) to establish a separate subsidiary company for the purpose of providing fee-for-service services outside of the FQHC's standard cost report if the subsidiary is providing fee-for-service services that have historically been provided and reimbursed on a fee-for-service basis and if HCPF determines that the subsidiary's reimbursements would be budget neutral. Upon receiving any necessary federal authorization, HCPF is required to reimburse a subsidiary of an FQHC on a fee-for-service basis for services that are eligible for fee-for-service reimbursement. A subsidiary that receives reimbursement is authorized to pass through money received from the reimbursement directly to the FQHC operating as the subsidiary's parent corporation. Services reimbursed to an FQHC's subsidiary are excluded from the FQHC's cost report. The act requires HCPF to exclude all costs associated with a subsidiary company from the calculation of a FQHC's reimbursement rates and requires a FQHC that establishes a separate subsidiary company to include the costs associated with the subsidiary in its cost report that is necessary to calculate reimbursement rates. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
On or after July 1, 2025, the act requires a person, before commencing a project to install or substantially repair a contiguous fence of at least a specified certain size in the Sangre de Cristo land grant lands (covered fencing project), to submit an application for the covered fencing project to the local government with jurisdiction over the covered fencing project (application) if the local government has opted into the act's requirements. No later than 14 days after the local government's receipt of an application, the local government must publish notice of the application on the local government's website. No later than 60 days after the local government's receipt of an application, the local government must either approve or reject the application based on certain criteria; except that, despite the criteria, a local government may approve an application if it determines that the benefits of the covered fencing project outweigh the harms. If the local government finds that a covered fencing project presents no significant environmental impacts, then the local government shall not require a person commencing the covered fencing project to submit an application or pay a fee. The act does not apply to a covered fencing project that is necessary for a public utility or department of transportation project, an energy sector public works project, the safety or security of a public school or prison, or fences provided by the division of parks and wildlife. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The Tony Grampsas youth services grant program (grant program) provides grants to community-based programs to reduce incidents of youth crime and violence. The youth mentoring program, the student dropout prevention and intervention program, and the student before-and-after school project (collectively, the "programs") were created within the grant program. The act repeals the individual programs and instead lists the programs as allowable uses for grant money under the grant program. The act transfers certain responsibilities from the Tony Grampsas youth services board (board) to the department of human services (department). The act repeals local public-to-private funding match requirements. The act requires each entity that receives a grant to annually report certain information to the department; except that an entity that has an operating budget of less than $1.5 million, or that receives a grant in the amount of not more than $25,000, is not required to report on the outcomes achieved by the services provided and the methods used to track the outcomes. The act decreases the appropriation from the marijuana tax cash fund to the youth mentoring services cash fund by $500,000 and reappropriates the money to the grant program by $500,000. The act decreases the appropriation from the youth mentoring services cash fund to the grant program by $504,120. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act extends the achieving a better life experience state income tax deduction (ABLE deduction) until December 31, 2030. The act specifies that the purposes of the ABLE deduction are to provide support to individuals with disabilities and their families and to provide an incentive for individuals with disabilities and their families to set aside money in an account to cover future disability-related expenses. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The statewide welcome, reception, and integration grant program provides grants to community-based organizations that provide culturally and linguistically appropriate navigation of services to migrants who have arrived in the United States within the past year and do not qualify for federal support services or refugee resettlement assistance benefits. The act removes the requirement that a migrant must have arrived in the United States within the past year and instead requires community-based organizations to prioritize assisting migrants who have arrived in the United States within the past 3 years. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act implements the recommendation of the department of regulatory agencies in its 2024 sunset review and report on the rural alcohol and substance abuse prevention and treatment program by continuing the program until September 1, 2030. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act implements the recommendation of the department of regulatory agencies in the department's 2024 sunset report that the title insurance commission be repealed. The act also requires the commissioner of insurance to hold twice each year a meeting of representatives of the title insurance industry, who are referred to as the "title insurance advisory group" (advisory group). The commissioner or the commissioner's designee must attend each of the 2 meetings, and the commissioner must respond in writing to formal, written proposals or recommendations presented to the commissioner by the advisory group at a meeting. The advisory group is repealed, effective September 1, 2029, subject to a sunset review. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act permits the state, a county, a city and county, a school district, or a municipality to, with approval from a school district's board of education, install and utilize automated vehicle identification systems (system) on the school district's school buses to detect a driver of a vehicle that overtakes a stopped school bus with actuated visual signal lights in violation of current law. A school district that installs and utilizes a system for this purpose must enter into a memorandum of understanding with one or more law enforcement agencies. If a system detects a violation, the state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality may impose a civil penalty of up to $300. The act creates a rebuttable presumption that when an image produced by a system includes an electronic indicator signifying that a school bus's visual signal lights are actuated, the visual signal lights are presumed to be actuated and operational and the school bus is presumed to be stopped to receive or discharge school children. The act mandates that the fines collected through the use of the system must not be used as the basis for the compensation to the system manufacturer or vendor and that the compensation must not be based exclusively upon the number of citations issued or revenue generated by the system.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)