Rep. Dave Young

Joint Budget Committee. The bill directs the department of health care policy and financing (department) to provide community transition services and supports to persons who are in an institutional setting, who are eligible for medicaid, and who desire to transition to a home- or community-based setting (eligible persons). The services and supports must be available to eligible persons who transitioned from an institutional setting for up to one year. The bill requires the department to submit an annual report to specified committees of the general assembly on the effectiveness of providing the services and supports. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

Joint Budget Committee. The bill creates the Colorado open educational resources council (council) in the department of higher education (department). The council includes persons appointed by the executive director of the department from public institutions of higher education, including a student; the executive director of the department; the commissioner of education; and the state librarian. The council is directed to: Recommend to the Colorado commission on higher education (commission) statewide policies for promoting the adaptation, creation, and use of open educational resources at public institutions of higher education across the state; Facilitate professional development and the sharing of knowledge regarding open educational resources for public institutions of higher education, faculty, staff, and students; Implement the open educational resources grant program (grant program) created in the bill; and Submit to the commission, the joint budget committee, and the education committees of the general assembly an annual report concerning the use of open educational resources in public institutions of higher education across the state. The bill creates the grant program to provide grants to public institutions of higher education to develop the use of open educational resources at the institutions and grants to faculty and staff, individually or in groups, to create and adapt open educational resources. Each grant recipient must submit information to the council concerning its use of the grant and the effectiveness of the open educational resources initiative funded by the grant. The council must include a summary of the information received in the annual report. The council and the grant program are repealed, effective November 1, 2021. The bill directs the commission to adopt guidelines requiring public institutions of higher education, beginning in the fall of 2021, to inform students concerning those courses that use open educational resources. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

Joint Budget Committee. The bill directs the department of health care policy and financing (department) to initiate a stakeholder process for purposes of preparing and submitting a redesigned children's habilitation residential program (program) waiver for federal approval that allows for home- and community-based services for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who have complex behavioral support needs. The department may also request federal authorization to change the agency designated to administer and operate the program from the department of human services to the department. The bill includes language creating the redesigned program, relocates the program in statute, and makes conforming changes in statute to reflect the new location of the program. The new program will become effective once federal approval has been granted for the redesigned children's habilitation residential program waiver. The bill makes and reduces appropriations to the department and the department of human services to implement the bill. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

The bill creates a new public school funding distribution formula to replace the existing formula (1994 formula). The new distribution formula is effective for the second budget year following voter approval of a ballot measure that increases state revenue for funding preschool through high school public education, which is not included in the bill. The new public school funding distribution formula: Calculates a school district's (district's) total program funding by starting with statewide base per pupil funding and adding additional funding for student and district characteristics in the form of district factor funding as follows: Size factor funding; Poverty factor funding for students eligible for free or reduced-price meals; English language learner factor funding, adjusted for district size; Gifted child factor funding, adjusted for district size; Special education factor funding, adjusted for disability and district size; and Cost of living factor funding, limited to a percentage of statewide cost of living factor funding. In calculating district total program funding, the new formula: Counts kindergarten students as half-day or full-day pupils depending on the length of the kindergarten program; Counts preschool students as half-day pupils, anticipating conforming changes to the Colorado preschool program, following enactment of the bill, to remove limits on the number of 4- and 5-year-old pupils attending state-funded preschool and the pupil eligibility criteria for 4- and 5-year-old pupils; Differentiates between pupils with specified disabilities for purposes of determining the new special education factor funding, anticipating conforming changes to categorical funding programs, following enactment of the bill, to use special education categorical funding only for high-cost disability reimbursement grants; and Applies English language learner factor funding for up to 7 years to all English language learners, except for those students with no English proficiency, anticipating conforming changes to categorical funding programs, following enactment of the bill, to use categorical funding only for students with no English proficiency. The bill creates a hold-harmless provision if a district's total program funding under the new public school funding distribution formula is less than it was under the 1994 formula without the budget stabilization reduction in funding. The bill takes effect only if voters approve a ballot measure no later than the 2022 statewide general election that increases funding for preschool through high school public education. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) , Read More

The bill implements conflict-free case management for individuals enrolled in home- and community-based services under Colorado's medicaid program. The definition of conflict-free case management is included in the bill and reflects the policy that case management services are provided to an individual who is enrolled in home- and community-based services by an agency that is not also providing the same individual services and supports. The bill defines and authorizes case management agencies that will provide case management services and contains provisions for the department of health care policy and financing's oversight of case management agencies. The medical services board shall promulgate rules upon the enactment of the bill for the certification and decertification of case management agencies, as well as rules that ensure that an individual enrolled in home- and community-based services has access to case management services and that there is a process for a person to select the case management agency of his or her choice. The bill authorizes the department of health care policy and financing to seek a federal exemption from conflict-free case management for rural single entry point agencies, as defined in the bill. The bill contains time frames for the implementation of conflict-free case management in Colorado, and includes a date by which all persons receiving home- and community-based services will be served through a system of conflict-free case management. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

Joint Budget Committee. The bill authorizes a supplemental payment of state-only money to providers under the medicaid program of certain office-administered drugs relating to oncology who experienced a decrease in aggregate reimbursements in the 2017-18 fiscal year as a result of the implementation of the federal department of health and human services final rule for covered outpatient drugs, 81 FR 5169, published in the federal register on February 1, 2016. The bill directs the department of health care policy and financing (department) to distribute a supplemental payment to qualified providers, as defined in the bill, and includes provisions for determining the amount of each qualified provider's supplemental payment. The bill authorizes the medical services board to adopt rules as necessary. The bill appropriates general fund money to the department for the supplemental payment to qualified providers. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

Joint Budget Committee. The bill authorizes the general assembly to appropriate general fund money to the department of health care policy and financing (department) to pay for expenses related to the all-payer health claims database (database). The bill also establishes a grant program to assist nonprofit organizations and governmental entities, other than the department, in accessing the database to conduct research. The bill authorizes the advisory committee to oversee the database, review grant applications, and recommend to the department which grant applications to fund and the amount of each grant. The department is authorized to develop and review grant applications and determine which grant applications to fund and the amount of each grant. The medical services board is authorized to adopt rules governing the grant program. The bill appropriates money to the department to pay for the database and the grant program. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

Joint Budget Committee. The bill amends the 'Increasing Access to Effective Substance Use Disorder Services Act' to: Clarify that a designated managed service organization (designated MSO) may use money allocated to it from the marijuana tax cash fund for expenditures for substance use disorder services and for any start-up costs or other expenses necessary to increase capacity to provide such services; Permit a designated MSO to spend an unused allocation in the next state fiscal year after it has been received, but requires any unspent amount after that time to be returned to the department of human services (department); Allow the appropriation of the money unspent by a designated MSO in the year it is received to roll forward to the next state fiscal year; Require a designated MSO to submit an annual expenditure report to legislative committees in addition to the department, which is currently the only entity that receives this report; Eliminate an annual mid-year expenditure report that a designated MSO is required to submit to the department and replaces it with a requirement that the designated MSO provide the department with information about expenditures as required by the department; Eliminate the requirement that a departmental report about expenditures to legislative committees must continue after the first report is made; and Require the department to report on outcomes related to the implementation of the act as part of its 'State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act' hearing.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More

Current law requires every driver of and every front-seat passenger in a motor vehicle equipped with a safety belt system to wear a fastened safety belt while the motor vehicle is being operated. The bill extends this requirement to every passenger in a motor vehicle. Current law provides that a law enforcement officer may not cite a driver of a motor vehicle for a failure to wear a safety belt unless the driver was stopped for a different alleged traffic violation. The bill repeals this limitation, allowing a law enforcement officer to stop and cite a driver solely for a failure to wear a safety belt.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) , Read More

Joint Budget Committee. The bill sets forth guidelines for the establishment of provider rates for licensed out-of-home placement providers (providers). Rules adopted by the department of human services (department) concerning provider rates shall include cost-of-living adjustments and provider rate increases approved by the general assembly. The department is directed to continue completing an annual review of the methodology by which counties evaluate and negotiate provider rates and outcomes and submit a report to the joint budget committee. As part of the continuing review, the department shall contract with an independent vendor to: Perform a salary survey and study related to the delivery of child welfare services. The study must include salary surveys for providers; child placement employees; residential child care facility employees; and state and county employees involved with the provision of child welfare services. Perform an actuarial analysis of the costs necessary to provide services at a level required by state statute, departmental rule, or federal rules and regulations, as appropriate for the families referred; and Develop a rate-setting methodology for provider compensation using the salary survey and actuarial analysis. In developing the rate-setting methodology, the independent vendor shall solicit input from representatives of the state department, counties, the provider community, and the department of health care policy and financing. The rate-setting methodology must clearly include a process by which the full amount of any provider rate adjustments to the base rate or previously contracted rate approved by the general assembly are included as part of any final contract with a provider. The department shall provide the joint budget committee with a report defining the new rate-setting methodology on or before April 2, 2018. The new rate-setting methodology must be implemented on or before June 1, 2018, except for those rates that must be approved by the federal centers for medicare and medicaid services. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)