Colorado water institute recreation. The Colorado water institute was created in 1981 and automatically repealed in 2017. The act recreates the institute.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Current law allows the department of public health and environment (department) to waive certain certification requirements for toxicology laboratories that are accredited by the American board of forensic toxicology or the international standards organization. The bill changes the waiver requirement to allow the department to waive certification requirements if the laboratory is accredited by an entity using nationally or internationally recognized forensic standards.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) , Read More
The bill states that, as used in the existing criminal offense of obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical service provider, rescue specialist, or volunteer, the term 'obstacle' includes an unmanned aircraft system. The bill also adds language stating that the offense does not apply to an unmanned aircraft system operator who complies with certain operational requirements. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) Read More
Transportation Legislation Review Committee. The bill creates the expedited registration program (program). The program authorizes the department of revenue (department) to promulgate rules authorizing private providers to register interstate commercial vehicles. The provider may collect and retain a convenience fee. The bill requires the program to: Operate efficiently; Result in overall cost savings to the state by providing additional services or by increasing the speed or quality of service; and Register commercial vehicles and collect taxes and fees in compliance with state law. To qualify, a private provider must: Be approved by the department; Use appropriate software approved by the department; and Submit evidence of financial responsibility. The department may deny, suspend, or revoke the authority to be a provider if the provider violates the law, makes a material misstatement in an application, or fails to perform. To implement the bill, annual general appropriation to the department for driver services is decreased by $30,747, $25,471 is appropriated to the department from the licensing services cash fund, and $26,141 is appropriated to the department from the Colorado DRIVES vehicle services account. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More
The bill clarifies that a licensed and qualified pharmacist may serve as a practitioner and prescribe over-the-counter medication under the "Colorado Medical Assistance Act" and a statewide drug therapy protocol pursuant to a collaborative pharmacy practice agreement. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) , Read More
The chief information security officer in the governor's office of information technology (OIT), the director of OIT, the department of state, and the executive director of the department of regulatory agencies are required to take certain actions to protect state records containing trusted sensitive and confidential information from criminal, unauthorized, or inadvertent manipulation or theft. The chief information security officer is required to: Identify, assess, and mitigate cyber threats to state government; Annually collect information from all public agencies to assess the nature of threats to data systems and the potential risks and civil liabilities from the theft or inadvertent release of such information; In coordination and partnership with specified agencies, boards, and councils, annually assess the data systems of each public agency for the benefits and costs of adopting and applying distributed ledger technologies such as blockchains; Develop and maintain a series of metrics to identify, assess, and monitor each public agency data system for its platform descriptions, vulnerabilities, risks, liabilities, appropriate employee access control, and the benefits and costs of adopting encryption and distributed ledger technologies. The director of OIT is required to consider the annual metrics from the office of the chief information security officer to recommend programs, contracts, and upgrades of data systems that have good cost-benefit potential or return on investment. In addition, OIT and the office of the chief information security officer are required to consider developing public-private partnerships and contracts to allow capitalization of encryption technologies while protecting intellectual property rights. The department of state is required to consider research, development, and implementation for encryption and data integrity techniques, including distributed ledger technologies such as blockchains. The department of state is required to consider using distributed ledger technologies when accepting business licensing records and when distributing department of state data to other departments and agencies. The executive director of the department of regulatory agencies or the director's designee is required to consider secure encryption methods, including distributed ledger technologies, to protect against falsification, create visibility to identify external hacking threats, and to improve internal data security. In addition, the bill specifies that institutions of higher education may include distributed ledger technologies within their curricula and research and development activities. The bill also specifies that the university of Colorado at Colorado Springs and any nonprofit organization with which the university has a partnership may consider: Encouraging coordination with the United States department of commerce and the national institute of standards and technologies to develop the capability to act as a Colorado in-state center of excellence on cybersecurity advice and national institute of standards and technologies standards; Studying efforts to protect privacy of personal identifying information maintained within distributed ledger programs, ensuring that programs make all attempts to follow best practices for privacy, and providing advice to all program stakeholders on the requirement to maintain privacy in accordance with required regulatory bodies and governing standards; and Encouraging the use of distributed ledger technologies, such as blockchains, within their proposed curricula for public sector education.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More
The bill amends, repeals, and relocates provisions of part 4 of article 5 of title 25.5, Colorado Revised Statutes, relating to managed care provisions under the medical assistance program to align with the federal 'Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care Final Rule of 2016', and to reflect the implementation of the accountable care collaborative as the statewide managed care system. The bill: Updates the definition of the statewide managed care system and makes conforming amendments throughout the statutes; Integrates medicaid community mental health services into the statewide managed care system; Includes capitated rates specifically for community mental health services; Establishes the medical home model of care for the statewide managed care system; Relocates provisions relating to graduate medical education; Clarifies that the statewide managed care system is authorized to provide services under a single managed care entity (MCE) or a combination of MCE types, including primary care case management entities authorized under federal law; Removes duplicate provisions relating to the medicaid reform and innovation pilot program; Relocates provisions relating to the requirement that MCEs certify capitation payments as sufficient; Removes outdated language referencing behavioral health organizations; Updates the definitions for 'managed care' and 'managed care entities' and adds definitions for 'medical home' and 'primary care case management entities'; Aligns provisions in statutes relating to the features of MCEs with new and existing federal managed care regulations that require: Criteria for accepting enrollees and protecting enrollees from discrimination; Provisions relating to network adequacy standards; Revised communication standards; Updated provisions relating to grievances and appeals; Participation in a comprehensive quality assessment and performance improvement program; and Administration of a program integrity system; Removes certain provisions from statute relating to prescription drug contracting practices that were relevant to a competitive managed care organization model or that duplicated provisions established in rule; Removes references to the obsolete primary care physician program; Increases the timeline for the rate setting process for capitation rates to meet new federal review requirements; Repeals statutory sections that contain provisions that are relocated or revised and included in other statutory sections in the bill, and repeals statutory sections that include obsolete programs or policies; and Updates statutory references to reflect the relocated, revised, or repealed provisions.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) Read More
Subject to certain specified conditions, federal law and regulations authorize a state department of transportation to prepare a waiver valuation, rather than a formal appraisal, to value both real property that it seeks to acquire for a federal aid transportation project and real property that it owns and seeks to dispose of if the anticipated value of the real property is $25,000 or less. Accordingly, current state law allows the department of transportation (CDOT) to prepare a waiver valuation for real property with an anticipated value of $25,000 or less when valuing real property that it seeks to acquire. However, current state law is more restrictive than federal law and regulations with respect to property that CDOT owns and seeks to dispose of and allows CDOT to use waiver valuations to value such property only if the anticipated value of the real property is $5,000 or less. In order to fully harmonize state law governing waiver valuations with federal law and regulations, the bill authorizes CDOT to use waiver valuations for the valuation of real property that CDOT owns and seeks to dispose of if the real property is anticipated to have a value of $25,000 or less. The bill also: Clarifies that a waiver valuation is not an appraisal; and Amends the definition of 'real estate appraiser' to clarify that an individual, including an individual who is a licensed or certified real estate appraiser, is not an appraiser for purposes of the state laws regulating appraisers when the individual performs a waiver valuation.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More
The bill requires the department of labor and employment and the state medical services board in the department of health care policy and financing to promulgate rules that require all providers of supported employment services for persons with disabilities to obtain a nationally recognized supported employment training certificate or earn a nationally recognized supported employment certification relating to supported employment services. The rules must specify time frames for completion of the training or certification. The time frames must provide for training to be completed over a 5-year period, subject to appropriations for reimbursement of vendors. The state medical services board shall adopt rules for administering the reimbursements to vendors, which must be $300 for each certification exam and $1,200 for each training program certificate, which includes reimbursement for both the cost of training and wages paid to employees during training. The bill requires that the department of labor and employment's fee schedule for rehabilitation services include the discovery process as an alternative comprehensive assessment if appropriate for persons with disabilities. The bill lists annual employment data, reported by county, that the department of health care policy and financing must collect. The bill corrects the repeal provision language for the employment first advisory partnership and its duties. The bill makes an appropriation. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) , Read More
The bill establishes a primary care payment reform collaborative in the primary care office in the department of public health and environment. To facilitate the collaborative's work, the administrator of the all-payer health claims database is to report data on primary care spending by private health insurers, insurers providing state employee health benefit plans, and the department of health care policy and financing under the state medicaid program and the children's basic health plan.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) , Read More
