Substance use disorders - school districts, nonpublic schools, and specified public persons may obtain and administer opiate antagonists - definition of drug paraphernalia - hospitals as clean syringe exchange sites - opiate antagonist bulk purchase fund - household medication take-back program - identity verification for individuals initiating into treatment - appropriation. The act: Allows school districts and nonpublic schools to develop policies by which schools are authorized to obtain a supply of opiate antagonists and school employees are trained to administer opiate antagonists to individuals at risk of experiencing a drug overdose; Allows a prescriber to prescribe or dispense and a pharmacist to dispense an opiate antagonist to law enforcement agencies, schools, or specified public persons; Removes from the definition of "drug paraphernalia" equipment, products, and materials used in testing or analyzing a controlled substance; Specifies that a licensed or certified hospital may be used as a clean syringe exchange site; Creates the opiate antagonist bulk purchase fund to facilitate bulk purchasing of opiate antagonists at a discounted price; Expands the household medication take-back program in the department of public health and environment (department) for the purpose of allowing the safe collection and disposal of needles, syringes, and other devices used to inject medication; Authorizes a public person or entity that makes an automated external defibrilator available to the public to also make an opiate antagonist available to the public; and Requires the department of health care policy and financing to establish a policy on how a substance use disorder treatment program must verify the identity of individuals initiating into detoxification, withdrawal, or maintenance treatment for a substance use disorder. $659,472 is appropriated to the department to implement the act. Specified provisions of the act are contingent upon House Bill 19-1172 becoming law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
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Health care providers' accountability to communities - community health needs assessments - community benefit implementation plans - public meetings. The act requires the following hospitals to complete a community health needs assessment every 3 years and an annual community benefit implementation plan every year: A hospital that is licensed as a general hospital and exempt from federal taxation; A hospital established pursuant to the Denver health and hospital authority; and A hospital established pursuant to the University of Colorado hospital authority. Each such hospital must report to the department of health care policy and financing (department) concerning certain community benefits, costs, and shortfalls in the preceding year, and the department is required to submit an annual summary report to subject matter committees of the general assembly. Hospitals that are licensed as general hospitals but that are not required to report may report in like fashion. The department shall develop and provide a website at which each reporting hospital shall submit reports. The act requires each hospital to convene a public meeting at least once each year to seek feedback regarding the hospital's community benefit activities during the previous year and the hospital's community benefit implementation plan for the following year. Each hospital shall invite representatives from certain local entities and state agencies to participate in the meeting. Each hospital shall also invite the general public to the meeting in an advertisement placed in any major newspaper published in the hospital's community. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
The state constitution authorizes the general assembly to lower the maximum amount of the actual residential value of residential real property that is subject to the senior property tax exemption (exemption). Section 3 of the bill lowers the maximum amount to $0 for all property tax years beginning on and after January 1, 2020, which has the effect of eliminating the exemption. It does not affect the property tax exemption for disabled veterans. Under section 4 , a county assessor is no longer required to mail notices to seniors about the exemption, and under section 5 , an assessor is not required to accept applications or otherwise administer the exemption unless and until the general assembly enacts legislation to increase the maximum actual value of residential real property that is subject to the exemption. If the exemption is made available in the future, seniors must reapply for it. Section 6 creates an income tax credit that is available for 10 tax years beginning on January 1, 2020, for a qualifying senior. A qualifying senior must be 65 years of age or older at the end of the income tax year for which the credit is claimed and have income that is less than or equal to $65,000, adjusted for inflation, or a surviving spouse who is at least 58 and meets the same income qualification. If the qualifying senior's adjusted gross income for the taxable year is less than or equal to the base income amount, which is $12,000, adjusted for inflation, then the credit is equal to the maximum credit amount, which is $700, adjusted for inflation. The amount of the credit decreases by $50, adjusted for inflation, for each income grouping above the base income amount. The amount of the credit that exceeds the qualifying senior's income taxes due is refunded to the qualifying senior. Section 6 also creates the credit stabilization cash fund. The state treasurer is annually required to transfer money from the cash fund to the general fund, or vice versa, depending on whether the total amount of the credits exceeds an approximation of what the state would have had to pay to backfill the senior homestead exemption. If some or all of the credit is paid to the senior as a state income tax refund, and therefore taxable income, section 7 allows a qualifying senior to deduct an amount equal to the refundable amount of the credit from taxable income for purposes of determining state income taxes. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) Read More
Regulation of cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products - local government regulation - state cigarette tax revenue apportionment to local governments - local governments' special sales taxes. Sections 1, 2, and 4 of the act authorize a county to enact a resolution or ordinance that prohibits a minor from possessing or purchasing cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products. Sections 1 and 2 also authorize a county to impose regulations on cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products that are more stringent than statewide regulations, including prohibiting sales to a person under 21 years of age, and section 4 expressly authorizes a county to enact a resolution or ordinance regulating the sale of cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products to minors. Section 3 expressly authorizes a statutory or home rule city or town to enact an ordinance regulating the sale of cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products to minors. From state income tax money, the state currently apportions an amount equal to 27% of state cigarette tax revenues to cities, towns, and counties in proportion to the amount of state sales tax revenues collected within their boundaries. In order to receive their allocation of this money, cities, towns, and counties are prohibited from imposing their own fees, licenses, or taxes on cigarette sales or from attempting to impose a tax on cigarettes. Section 5 removes this prohibition with respect to fees or licenses that a city, town, or county imposes or with respect to a tax that a city, town, or county attempts to impose, thus allowing cities, towns, and counties to impose fees or licenses or to attempt to impose taxes on cigarette sales without losing their apportioned state cigarette tax revenues. A city, town, or county that successfully imposes a tax on cigarette sales loses its apportioned state cigarette tax revenues. Section 6 authorizes a statutory or home rule city or town, city and county, or county, if approved by a vote of the people within the statutory or home rule city or town, city and county, or county, to impose a special sales tax on the sale of cigarettes, tobacco products, or nicotine products. Section 6 also provides a mechanism by which a county's special sales tax applies to a municipality within the boundary of the county unless the municipality, if approved by a vote of the people within the municipality, enacts its own such special sales tax; however, the county and municipality may then enter into an intergovernmental agreement authorizing the county to continue to levy, collect, and enforce its special sales tax within the corporate limits of the municipality.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Hospitals - healthcare affordability and sustainability enterprise board - annual hospital expenditure report - hospital report card and hospital charge report recommendations. The act requires the department of health care policy and financing (department), in consultation with the Colorado healthcare affordability and sustainability enterprise board, to develop and prepare an annual report detailing uncompensated hospital costs and the different categories of expenditures made by hospitals in the state (hospital expenditure report). In compiling the hospital expenditure report, the department shall use publicly available data sources whenever possible. Each hospital in the state is required to make available to the department certain information. Prior to issuing the hospital expenditure report, each hospital referenced in the report has 15 days to review the report and submit clarifications or corrections to the department. Additionally, the department is required to provide a statewide hospital association any information it receives from hospitals in the development of the hospital expenditure report. The department is required to submit the hospital expenditure report to the governor, specified committees of the general assembly, and the medical services board in the department by January 15, 2020, and each year thereafter. The department is also directed to post the hospital expenditure report on the department's website. The act requires the department, in consultation with the department of public health and environment and the division of insurance, to determine whether the hospital report card and the hospital charge report that exist under current law require any structural or substantive changes. Any such recommendations to that effect are required to be made to the general assembly by November 1, 2019. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Current law requires each county to publish a report about its expenses and contracts (expense report), the salaries of public employees and officials in the county (salary report), and the financial statements for each fund kept by the county treasurer (financial statement). The expense report is published monthly and the salary report is published twice per year. The bill changes the salary report to an annual report. Commencing January 1, 2020, the bill allows a county to publish the expense report, the salary report, and the financial statement on a county website with a link to the report published in at least one legal newspaper. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More
Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Interim Study Committee. The bill requires all individual and group health benefit plans to provide coverage without prior authorization for a five-day supply of at least one of the federal food and drug administration-approved drugs for the treatment of opioid dependence for a first request within a 12-month period. The bill prohibits carriers from taking adverse action against a provider or from providing financial incentives or disincentives to a provider based solely on a patient satisfaction survey relating to the patient's satisfaction with pain treatment. The bill clarifies that an 'urgent prior authorization request' to a carrier includes a request for authorization of medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders. The bill permits a pharmacy that has entered into a collaborative pharmacy practice agreement with one or more physicians to administer injectable antagonist medication for substance use disorders and receive an enhanced dispensing fee for the administration. The bill requires the Colorado medical assistance program to authorize reimbursement for at least one federal food and drug administration-approved ready-to-use opioid overdose reversal drug without prior authorization. The bill permits a pharmacy that has entered into a collaborative pharmacy practice agreement with one or more physicians to administer injectable opioid antagonist medication for substance use disorders and receive an enhanced dispensing fee under the Colorado medical assistance program for the administration. The bill requires the department of health care policy and financing and the office of behavioral health in the department of human services to establish rules that standardize utilization management authority timelines for the nonpharmaceutical components of medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) Read More
Opioid and Other Substance Use Disorders Interim Study Committee. The bill restricts the number of opioid pills that a health care practitioner, including physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice nurses, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, and veterinarians, may prescribe for an initial prescription to a seven-day supply and allows each health care practitioner to exercise discretion to include a second fill for a seven-day supply, unless, in the judgment of the practitioner, the patient: Has chronic pain that typically lasts longer than 90 days or past the time of normal healing, as determined by the podiatrist, or following transfer of care from another podiatrist who prescribed an opioid to the patient; Has been diagnosed with cancer and is experiencing cancer-related pain; or Is experiencing post-surgical pain that, because of the nature of the procedure, is expected to last more than 14 days. Additionally, an advanced practice nurse may prescribe a refill if the patient is undergoing palliative or hospice care. The restrictions repeal on September 1, 2021. Current law allows health care practitioners and other individuals to query the prescription drug monitoring program (program). The bill requires health care practitioners to indicate his or her specialty or practice area upon the initial query and to query the program prior to prescribing the second fill for an opioid unless the person receiving the prescription meets certain requirements. The bill requires the department of public health and environment to report to the general assembly its findings from studies regarding the prescription drug monitoring program conducted pursuant to a federal grant program. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More
The bill authorizes the commissioner of insurance to apply to the secretary of the United States department of health and human services for a state innovation waiver, for federal funding, or both to allow the state to implement and operate a reinsurance program to assist health insurers in paying high-cost insurance claims. The state cannot implement the program absent waiver or funding approval from the secretary. The program is established as an enterprise for purposes of section 20 of article X of the state constitution. The division of insurance is to include an update regarding the program in its annual SMART Act report, and the program is subject to sunset review and repeal in 5 years. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More