Usually, an owner of a powered wheelchair must seek diagnostic, maintenance, or repair services of the wheelchair from the manufacturer. Starting January 1, 2023, the act requires a manufacturer to provide parts, embedded software, firmware, tools, or documentation, such as diagnostic, maintenance, or repair manuals, diagrams, or similar information, to independent repair providers and owners of the manufacturer's powered wheelchairs to allow an independent repair provider or owner to conduct diagnostic, maintenance, or repair services on the owner's powered wheelchair. A manufacturer's failure to comply with the requirement is a deceptive trade practice. In complying with the requirement to provide these resources, a manufacturer need not divulge any trade secrets to independent repair providers and owners. Any new contractual provision or other arrangement that a manufacturer enters into on or after January 1, 2023, that would remove or limit the manufacturer's obligation to provide these resources to independent repair providers and owners is void and unenforceable. A manufacturer is not liable for faulty or otherwise improper repairs that an independent repair provider or owner performs on a powered wheelchair. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Sponsored bills
In 2021, the general assembly authorized the broadband deployment board (board) to award money that the state received under the federal "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021" (federal act) for broadband deployment projects. The act updates the requirements for awarding grant money pursuant to the federal act to require that applications comply with finalized federal regulations regarding use of money under the federal act. The act also: Reduces the notice and comment period for an interested party to review and comment on a grant application from at least 60 days to 45 days; Exempts a grantee from the requirement to complete an approved project in 2 years or less if the grantee demonstrates to the board that the project is delayed due to a relevant disruption in the supply chain; Requires the board to apply the updated requirements to previously denied applications that sought grant awards under the federal act; and Establishes a process and remedies for appeals of a board decision regarding a grant application.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The state is authorized to enter into one or more financed purchase of an asset or certificate of participation agreements for the implementation costs of the Colorado operations resource engine upgrade and continuous improvement project. The office of information technology (office) and the department of personnel (department) are required to ensure that the Colorado operations resource engine system includes any functionality that the legislative branch deems to be of particular importance or promptly explain why such functionality cannot be incorporated. The office and the department are also required to report to the joint technology committee and the joint budget committee regarding their progress on the project in a format and at time intervals specified by the joint technology committee and the joint budget committee in writing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires mandatory reserve studies for common interest communities that have major shared components, including common elements or property that the unit owners' association (association) is responsible for maintaining, repairing, or replacing. The act: Specifies the level of reserve study required and the necessary components of the reserve study at each level; Requires a declarant to obtain reserve studies commencing with the development of the common interest community and to provide reserve studies to potential purchasers of units in the common interest community in the seller's disclosures; and Requires the declarant to provide a reserve study at the time the declarant turns the common interest community property over to the association, along with reserve funds recommended by the reserve study. The act defines "emergent life circumstances" and authorizes an association's executive board to obtain additional funding from unit owners to address dangerous conditions if the reserve funds are not sufficient to address the conditions. The act limits the investment of reserve funds in financial instruments that are not insured by a federal agency. The act clarifies that certain reserve study requirements in the act apply to preexisting common interest communities with respect to events and circumstances occurring on or after July 1, 2024. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the statewide care coordination infrastructure to include a cloud-based platform to allow providers that do not utilize an electronic health record to actively participate in the care coordination infrastructure. The act requires the behavioral health administration (BHA) to: Ensure navigators are available through the statewide care coordination infrastructure website and mobile application, as well as in specific regional locations; and Utilize behavioral health administrative service organizations to help individuals and families initiate care and ensure timely access to services. To implement the care coordination infrastructure, the act requires the BHA to train new and existing navigators on behavioral health safety net system services, behavioral health service delivery procedures, and social determinants of health resources; ensure that the care coordination infrastructure can direct individuals where to seek in-person or virtual navigation support; ensure that the administrative burden associated with provider enrollment and credentialing for navigators and care coordination providers is minimal; include a summary of outcomes for individuals who access the infrastructure in the BHA's annual report; and ensure the 988 crisis hotline responds to anyone experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis, documents referrals and transfers of care of persons with one or more community-based service providers, and includes connections to available behavioral health systems and services. Beginning January 2025, and each January thereafter, the act requires the department of health care policy and financing to assess the care coordination services provided by managed care entities and provide a report as part of its State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act hearing. The act appropriates $12.2 million from the behavioral and mental health cash fund to the department of human services for use by the behavioral health administration for the care coordination infrastructure. The act only takes effect if House Bill 22-1278, which creates the behavioral health administration, becomes law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the public defender and prosecutor behavioral health support program (program) in the department of local affairs (department). The department allocates fifty percent of program money and any gifts, grants, and donations received to the office of the state public defender and the remaining fifty percent to the Colorado district attorneys' council (CDAC). CDAC administers a grant program to award grants to individual district attorney's offices. A grant recipient and the office of the state public defender may use program money for counseling services, including reimbursements for the costs of counseling services; training and education programs that teach the symptoms of job-related trauma and how to prevent and treat trauma; and peer support programs. The office of the state public defender and CDAC are annually required to report to the House and Senate judiciary committees about the grant program. The act prohibits a district attorney or public defender peer support team member from being examined as a witness in court about any communication between the peer support team member and a person receiving peer support services without the consent of the person who received the peer support services. The act appropriates $500,000 from the general fund for the public defender and prosecutor behavioral health support program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Beginning January 1, 2023, the bill grants a survivor of torture who is receiving care and rehabilitation services from a rehabilitative service provider eligibility for medical assistance without federal financial participation. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The bill creates the Colorado multidisciplinary geriatric provider pipeline program (program) in the university of Colorado Anschutz medical campus. The program coordinates and expands geriatric training opportunities for clinical graduate students enrolled in participating institutions of higher education who study in the health-care fields of medicine, medicine with a focus on training to be a physician assistant, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, psychology, and social work. The bill creates the geriatric training executive advisory committee (committee) to ensure that the training for the program is consistent and collaborative across the health-care fields of study. The committee is required to: Set the program's standards for training and delivery of medical care to the most frail and medically complex, costly, and compromised older Coloradans; Collaborate with participating institutions of higher education across Colorado to select clinical graduate students who have an interest in geriatric care to participate in the program; Analyze data collected by the program; Build relationships, collaborate, and create a multidisciplinary team that provides opportunities for clinicians to work together in teams to better understand the roles of each discipline and better place clinical graduate students for experiential training opportunities; and Coordinate with graduates of the program for opportunities to become trainers to future clinical graduate students once practicing in the graduate's field of study.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The act grants immunity from the charge of prostitution, soliciting for prostitution, or prostitute making display or an equivalent municipal offense (prostitution offense) to a person who seeks assistance from a law enforcement officer, the 911 system, or a medical provider for a victim or as a victim of a violent crime or offense (crime) if the evidence for the charge of a prostitution offense was obtained as a result of the person seeking assistance or as a result of the need for assistance. A person who receives immunity for a prostitution offense is not immune from prosecution for other offenses, and a district attorney or law enforcement officer may obtain or use evidence obtained from a report, recording, or other statement provided as a result of the initial prostitution offense to prosecute any other offense. For the purposes of the act, "person" is defined as the victim of a crime, a person who is a victim of human trafficking for sexual servitude, or a witness to a crime. The act sets forth the applicable violent crimes or offenses. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act authorizes the state review panel to recommend that a district public school be converted to a community school if the district public school fails to make substantial progress under its turnaround plan. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)