Colorado medical practice act - continuation under sunset law - pro bono license - letter of admonition - repeal. The act implements recommendations in the 2018 sunset review and report by the department of regulatory agencies by: Continuing the "Colorado Medical Practice Act" (Act) and the Colorado medical board (board) until September 1, 2026; Eliminating the restriction on the number of days that a physician may practice in a calendar year with a pro bono license; Repealing the requirement that the board send a letter of admonition to a licensee by certified mail; and Making technical amendments to 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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Colorado food systems advisory council - relocation to Colorado state university - repeal of interagency farm-to-school coordination task force - duties - appropriation. The act relocates the Colorado food systems advisory council (council) from the department of agriculture to Colorado state university and repeals the interagency farm-to-school coordination task force. The act ends the terms of current members of the council and provides for the appointment of new members. As updated in the act, the council's duties are to: Grow local, regional, and statewide food economies within which producers have access to new markets and low-income populations have access to fresh, affordable, and healthy foods. The council will collaborate and coordinate with producers, relevant state and federal educational institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and consumers to connect state and federal agencies and to provide Colorado producers, including fruit and vegetable producers, with viable market opportunities. Support the implementation of the recommendations in the Colorado blueprint of food and agriculture project, ensure that the blueprint, or its successor project, is updated as needed, and ensure alignment with other state or local food plans if relevant; Conduct research regarding national best practices regarding food and nutrition assistance, direct and intermediated market development, institutional procurement, and farm-to-school programs as well as other priorities determined by the council; Collaborate with, serve as a resource to, and receive input from local and regional food policy councils in the state; and Explore methods of collecting and assessing statewide data relating to council activities and report the relevant information and data regarding council activities as required by current law. $100,317 is appropriated from the general fund to the department of higher education to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
At-risk persons - unlawful abandonment - false imprisonment - appropriation. The act makes it a crime to unlawfully abandon an at-risk person. The intentional and unreasonable desertion of an at-risk person in a manner that endangers the safety of that person constitutes unlawful abandonment. Unlawful abandonment is a class 1 misdemeanor. The act creates the crime of false imprisonment of an at-risk person if: The person knowingly confines or detains an at-risk person in a locked or barricaded room or other space; and Such confinement or detention was part of a continued pattern of cruel punishment or unreasonable isolation or confinement of the at-risk person; or The person knowingly and unreasonably confines or detains an at-risk person by tying, caging, chaining, or otherwise using similar physical restraints to restrict the at-risk person's freedom of movement; or The person knowingly and unreasonably confines or detains an at-risk person by means of force, threats, or intimidation designed to restrict the at-risk person's freedom of movement. False imprisonment of an at-risk person is a class 6 felony pursuant to the first 2 ways to commit the crime and a class 1 misdemeanor pursuant to the third. To comply with the statutorily-required prison costs of the act, the act appropriates: For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, $110,652 from the capital construction fund to the corrections expansion reserve fund; For the 2020-21 state fiscal year,$26,220 to the department of corrections from the general fund; and For the 2021-22 state fiscal year, $1,902 to the department of corrections from the general fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Public guardianship - commission - office of public guardianship - appropriation. The act removes the condition that the public guardianship commission (commission) and director for the office of public guardianship (office) wait to carry out certain duties until the public guardianship cash fund has received $1,700,000 in gifts, grants, and donations. The act requires the office, upon receiving sufficient funding, to begin operations in the second judicial district prior to operating in any other judicial district. The office's reporting deadlines are extended from 2021 to 2023. The office is required to implement its discontinuation plan if there is no legislation to continue or expand the office prior to adjournment sine die of the 2023 legislative session. The act increases specified court fees and requires the state treasurer to deposit the balance of the increased fees in the office of public guardianship cash fund. For the 2019-20 state fiscal year, $835,386 is appropriated to the judicial department for use by the office of public guardianship. Of this amount, $427,000 is from the general fund and $408,386 is from the office of public guardianship cash fund. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Statewide health care review committee - creation - membership - duties - appropriation. The act recreates the former health care task force, renamed as the statewide health care review committee, to study health care issues that affect Colorado residents. The committee consists of no more than 10 of the members from the house of representatives committees on health and insurance and public health care and human services and the senate committee on health and human services. The committee may hold 2 meetings during the interim between legislative sessions, each of which may be a field trip. $16,062 is appropriated from the general fund to the legislative department to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Background checks - access to child abuse and neglect records - individuals who work with children - required fingerprint-based background checks. Current law specifies what entities and agencies have access to child abuse or neglect records and reports. The act adds to that list the department of human services, when requested in writing by an individual to check records or reports of child abuse or neglect for the purpose of screening that individual when such individual's responsibilities include the care of children, treatment of children, supervision of children, or unsupervised contact with children. The act requires a fingerprint-based criminal history record check for the following: Child care center employees under 18 years of age; Out-of-state employees working at a child care center in a temporary capacity; and All owners, employees, volunteers, and adults residing in a family child care home.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Medical marijuana - disabling medical conditions - conditions for which a physician could prescribe an opioid. The act adds a condition for which a physician could prescribe an opioid to the list of disabling medical conditions that authorize a person to use medical marijuana for his or her condition. Under current law, a child under 18 years of age who wants to be added to the medical marijuana registry for a disabling medical condition must be diagnosed as having a disabling medical condition by 2 physicians, one of whom must be a board-certified pediatrician, a board-certified family physician, or a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist who attests that he or she is part of the patient's primary care provider team. The act removes the additional requirements on specific physicians to align with the constitutional provisions for a debilitating medical condition. The act states if the recommending physician is not the patient's primary care physician, the recommending physician shall review the records of a diagnosing physician or a licensed mental health provider acting within its scope of practice. The act limits a patient with a disabling medical condition who is under eighteen years of age to using medical marijuana only in a nonsmokeable form when using medical marijuana upon the grounds of the preschool or primary or secondary school in which the student is enrolled, or upon a school bus or at a school-sponsored event.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
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Behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorders - parity in coverage - private insurance - medicaid - coverage of medication-assisted treatment - parity reporting requirements - compliance with federal law - complaints from ombudsman for behavioral health access to care - rules - appropriation. The act enacts the "Behavioral Health Care Coverage Modernization Act" to address issues related to coverage of behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorder services under private health insurance and the state medical assistance program (medicaid). With regard to health insurance, the act: Specifies that mandatory insurance coverage for behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorders includes coverage for the prevention of, screening for, and treatment of those disorders and must comply with the federal "Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008" (MHPAEA) (section 3 of the act); Requires services for behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorders to continue while a claim for coverage of those services is under review until the carrier notifies the covered person of the determination on the claim (section 3); Requires carriers to comply with treatment limitation requirements specified in federal regulations and precludes carriers from applying nonquantitative treatment limitations to behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorder services that do not apply to medical and surgical benefits (section 3); Requires carriers to establish procedures to authorize treatment by nonparticipating providers when a participating provider is not available under network adequacy requirements and to reimburse treatment or services for behavioral, mental health, or substance use disorders obtained from a nonparticipating provider because the covered service was not available within established time and distance standards using the same methodology the carrier uses to reimburse covered medical services provided by nonparticipating providers (section 3); Requires the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) to adopt rules to establish reasonable time periods for visits with a provider for treatment of a behavioral, mental health, or substance use disorder after an initial visit with a provider (section 3); Modifies the definition of "behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorder" to include diagnostic categories listed in the mental disorders section of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (section 3); Updates the required coverage related to alcohol use and behavioral health screenings to reflect the current requirements of that coverage as specified in recommendations of the United States preventive services task force (section 3); Requires the commissioner to disapprove a carrier's requested rate increase for failure to demonstrate compliance with the MHPAEA in accordance with rules adopted by the commissioner (section 5); For purposes of denials of reimbursement for behavioral, mental health, or substance use disorder services, other than denials based on nonpayment of premiums, requires carriers to include specified information about the protections included in the MHPAEA, how to contact the division of insurance or the office of the ombudsman for behavioral health access to care (office) related to possible violations of the MHPAEA, and the right to request medical necessity criteria from the carrier free of charge (section 6); For health benefit plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2020, requires carriers that provide coverage for an annual physical examination as a preventive health care service to also cover and reimburse for behavioral health screenings using a validated screening tool for behavioral health to the same extent the physical examination is covered (section 8); Requires carriers to submit an annual parity report to the commissioner and requires the commissioner to examine complaints received from the office regarding compliance with the requirements of the act or the MHPAEA upon the request of the office (section 9); Starting January 1, 2020, for a carrier that provides prescription drug benefits for the treatment of substance use disorders, with regard to prescription medications that are on the carrier's formulary, requires the carrier to provide coverage of any FDA-approved prescription medication for treating substance use disorders without prior authorization or step therapy requirements and to place at least one covered substance use disorder prescription medication on the lowest tier of the drug formulary, and precludes those carriers from excluding coverage for those medications and related services solely on the grounds that they were court ordered (section 10); and Requires the commissioner to provide a report by December 1, 2022, to specified legislative committees regarding the effects of the act on premiums (section 10). With regard to medicaid, the act: Requires the department of health care policy and financing (department) to ensure that medicaid covers behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorder services to the extent that medicaid covers a physical illness and complies with the MHPAEA (section 11); Requires the medical services board (state board) to establish a procedure, by rule, to allow for reimbursements of medically necessary state plan behavioral, mental health, or substance use services under medicaid when a managed care entity (MCE) denies coverage of the service based on diagnosis (section 11); Requires the statewide system of community behavioral health care in the managed care system to require MCEs to provide an adequate network of providers of behavioral, mental health, and substance use disorder services and to cover all medically necessary covered treatments for covered behavioral health diagnoses, regardless of any co-occurring conditions (section 12); Requires the department to include utilization management guidelines for the MCEs in state board managed care rules and to provide information on its website specifying how the public may request the network adequacy plans and quarterly network reports for an MCE (section 12); Requires the department to examine complaints received from the office regarding compliance with the requirements of the act or the MHPAEA upon the request of the office (section 12); Requires MCEs to include specified statements regarding the applicability of the MHPAEA to the managed care system in medicaid and how to contact the office regarding possible violations of the MHPAEA (section 14); Requires the department to submit an annual parity report to specified legislative committees and to contract with an external quality review organization annually to monitor MCEs' utilization management programs and policies to ensure compliance with the MHPAEA (section 15); and Starting January 1, 2020, requires an MCE that provides prescription drug benefits for the treatment of substance use disorders to provide coverage of any FDA-approved prescription medication for treating substance use disorders without prior authorization or step therapy requirements and precludes those MCEs from excluding coverage for those medications and related services solely on the grounds that they were court ordered (section 15). The act appropriates $167,000 to the department of health care policy and financing and $88,248 to the department of regulatory agencies to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Emergency management - resiliency office - continuation - appropriation. The act continues the Colorado resiliency office, which administers the resiliency and community recovery program as part of the state's disaster recovery and response functions. The requirement that the office be funded solely through grant funding is repealed, making general funds available to pay for the work of the office. The office is repealed effective September 1, 2022, and is scheduled for a sunset review prior to its repeal. The act appropriates $249,454 to the department of local affairs from the implementation of the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More