Sen. Joann Ginal

The act states that the department of health care policy and financing (department) may expand the Canadian prescription drug importation program (program) to allow a manufacturer, wholesale distributor, or pharmacy from a nation other than Canada to export prescription drugs into the state under the program if certain conditions are met. If, upon the satisfaction of these conditions, the department decides to expand the program, the executive director of the department shall notify the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, and specified legislative committees of the department's intent to do so.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act allows an adult with a disability (adult) to voluntarily enter into a supported decision-making agreement (agreement) with one or more members of the supportive community. Under the agreement, the adult may request the member of the supportive community to do any of the following:Provide supported decision-making, including assistance in understanding the options, responsibilities, and consequences of the adult's life decisions, without making those decisions on behalf of the adult; Assist the adult in accessing, collecting, obtaining, and understanding information that is relevant to a given life decision from any person; and Assist the adult in communicating the adult's decisions to appropriate persons when expressly authorized by the adult. The agreement may be in any form but is only valid if it contains certain information and is voluntarily signed by the adult and each member of the supportive community in the presence of 2 or more attesting and disinterested witnesses who are 18 years of age or older, or a notary public.The act requires any person who receives the original or a copy of the agreement to rely on the agreement. A person is not subject to criminal and civil liability and does not engage in professional misconduct for an act or omission if the act or omission is done in good faith and in reliance on an agreement.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The bill requires the division of insurance (division) to retain a contractor on or before November 1, 2021, for the purpose of performing actuarial reviews of proposed legislation that may impose a new health benefit mandate on health benefit plans. The contractor, under the direction of the division, shall conduct an actuarial review of up to 5 legislative proposals for each regular legislative session, each at the request of a member of the general assembly. Each actuarial review performed by the contractor must consider the predicted effects of the legislative proposal during the 5 years immediately following the effective date of the proposed legislation, including specifically described considerations. In preparing a fiscal note for any legislative proposal that may impose a new health benefit mandate on health benefit plans, the legislative service agency charged with preparing the fiscal note shall either: Include in the fiscal note information that is produced by the contractor in review of the legislative proposal; or If no information is produced by the contractor in review of the legislative proposal, indicate such fact in the fiscal note.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill specifies that a patient admitted to a hospital for inpatient care and a resident of a nursing care facility or assisted living residence may have at least one visitor of the patient's or resident's choosing during the stay or residency. A hospital, a nursing care facility, and an assisted living residence (collectively referred to as "health-care facility") must have written policies and procedures regarding the visitation rights of patients and residents, including policies and procedures setting forth any clinically necessary or reasonable restriction or limitation that the health-care facility may need to place on patient and resident visitation rights and the reasons for the restriction or limitation. The bill prohibits a health-care facility from adopting policies or procedures that prohibit visitation of a patient or resident if the sole reason for the prohibition is to reduce the risk of transmission of a pandemic disease, but a health-care facility may impose specified requirements and limitations for visitors to reduce the risk of transmission of the pandemic disease. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

Current law allows specific entities to purchase opiate antagonists through the opiate antagonist bulk purchase fund (fund) and also allows specific entities to receive opiate antagonists pursuant to standing orders and protocols. The act aligns these sections of law so that:A unit of local government may purchase opiate antagonists through the fund pursuant to a standing order and protocol; and A harm reduction organization, law enforcement agency, or first responder to which opiate antagonists have been prescribed or dispensed through a standing order and protocol may purchase the opiate antagonists through the fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Under current provisions of the Open Meetings Law (OML), if elected officials use electronic mail to discuss pending legislation or other public business among themselves, the electronic mail constitutes a meeting that is subject to the OML's requirements. The act substitutes the word "exchange" for the word "use" in describing the type of electronic mail communication that triggers the application of the OML.The act also clarifies existing statutory provisions to specify that electronic mail communication between elected officials that does not relate to the merits or substance of pending legislation or other public business is not a meeting for OML purposes. Under the act, the type of electronic communication that also does not constitute a meeting for OML purposes includes electronic communication regarding scheduling and availability as well as electronic communication that is sent by an elected official for the purpose of forwarding information, responding to an inquiry from an individual who is not a member of the state or local public body, or posing a question for later discussion by the public body. The act defines the term "merits or substance" to mean any discussion, debate, or exchange of ideas, either generally or specifically, related to the essence of any public policy proposition, specific proposal, or any other matter being considered by the governing entity.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The bill requires a cooperative electric association (association) to adopt a wildland fire protection plan. The plan must include information on: Areas where the association has powerline facilities that may have an increased risk of wildland fires; The procedures and standards that the association will use to inspect and operate its powerline facilities and perform vegetation management around those facilities; The modifications or upgrades that the association will implement to reduce risks of wildland fires; The procedures for de-energizing powerline facilities to mitigate potential wildland fires; Community outreach efforts during the wildland fire season; and The potential for coordination with other wildland fire protection plans. An association must file its wildland fire protection plan with the public utilities commission every 3 years and must submit an annual report to the commission detailing its compliance with the plan. The bill allows, but does not require, an association to remove or partially remove vegetation outside of a powerline facility easement as necessary following a major weather event or other emergency situation. In addition, an association may designate vegetation as "hazard vegetation" if the association finds that the vegetation is dead, likely to fail, or likely to fall, sway, or grow into a powerline facility and finds that the vegetation is likely to cause substantial damage, disrupt service, or come within a minimum clearance distance of the powerline facility. An association may, but is not required to, remove or partially remove hazard vegetation outside of an easement after providing notice to the landowner. The association is not required to provide notice if removal of the hazard vegetation is necessary to continue safe operation of its facilities or if the removal is done as part of trimming or removing vegetation after a storm or other emergency event. If vegetation outside of a powerline facility easement dies as the result of being trimmed or partially removed by an association, the landowner may request that the association remove the vegetation at the association's expense. The association is required to remove the vegetation within ninety days; except that the association may offer and the landowner may accept payment for the reasonable cost of removal instead of the association removing the vegetation. An association is not liable for personal injury, property damage, or fire suppression costs resulting from a wildland fire if any of the following apply: The association filed a wildland fire protection plan and completed the activities described in it; A landowner failed to control vegetation outside of a powerline facility easement on the landowner's land; The association requested and was denied access to perform vegetation management in a right-of-way on land owned by a local government, the state, a federal agency, or a tribal agency; or A landowner prevented the association from maintaining its powerline facility easement or from removing hazard vegetation outside the easement. If none of those circumstances apply and an association is found liable for a wildland fire, the prevailing plaintiff is limited to actual damages and cannot recover noneconomic, punitive, or exemplary damages. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill authorizes the director of the division of professions and occupations or the applicable regulatory board in the department of regulatory agencies (regulator) to suspend or waive statutes or rules governing a health care profession or occupation over which a regulator has authority during a disaster emergency declared by the governor. The suspension or waiver of a statute or rule is limited to those in which strict compliance would prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action in coping with or responding to the disaster emergency and may not suspend, waive, or modify any supervisory requirements. The bill allows a regulator to promulgate emergency rules commensurate with the nature of the disaster emergency and within the limits of the declaration and the applicable practice act for a health care profession or occupation. The emergency rules automatically expire 60 days after the termination of the declared disaster emergency. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The bill requires a person who owns, leases, leases to, or operates a movie theater open to the public in Colorado to provide, on or before January 1, 2022, and ongoing thereafter, open captioning at all indoor and outdoor movie showings of each movie that is produced and offered with open movie captioning, including trailers. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

The act clarifies 2008 legislation prohibiting discretionary clauses in certain plans and insurance policies and providing for the de novo standard of review (roughly translated as "anew" or "from a clean slate") in any court by: Declaring that the legislation should be construed broadly to effectuate its remedial purpose, notwithstanding any contractual or statutory choice-of-law provision to the contrary; Nullifying any contract provision that purports to give an insurer or its agent discretionary authority to determine the insured person's entitlement to benefits in any specific circumstance; and Separating the provision requiring de novo review of policy disputes from the provision allowing a claimant to demand a jury trial, to clarify that these are separate issues. The act applies to all plans and policies existing, offered, issued, delivered, or renewed in Colorado or providing health or disability benefits to a resident or domiciliary of Colorado on or after the applicable effective date of the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)