The bill creates the office of public guardianship (office) within the judicial department to provide legal guardianship services to indigent and incapacitated adults who: Have no responsible family members or friends who are available and appropriate to serve as a guardian; Lack adequate resources to compensate a private guardian and pay the costs and fees associated with an appointment proceeding; and Are not subject to a petition for appointment of guardian filed by a county adult protective services unit or otherwise authorized by law. The office is established as a pilot program, to be evaluated and then continued, discontinued, or expanded at the discretion of the general assembly in 2021. On or before January 1, 2021, the director of the office shall submit a report to the judiciary committees of the senate and the house of representatives. The report, at a minimum, must: Quantify, to the extent possible, Colorado's unmet need for public guardianship services for indigent and incapacitated adults; Quantify, to the extent possible, the average annual cost of providing guardianship services to indigent and incapacitated adults; Quantify, to the extent possible, the net cost or benefit, if any, to the state that may result from the provision of guardianship services to each indigent and incapacitated adult in each judicial district of the state; Assess whether an independent statewide office of public guardianship is preferable and feasible; Analyze costs and off-setting savings to the state from the delivery of public guardianship services; and Provide uniform and consistent data elements regarding service delivery in an aggregate format that does not include any personal identifying information of any person. The bill creates the public guardianship commission (commission) within the judicial department and charges the commission with appointing a director of the office. The director serves at the pleasure of the commission. The bill creates the office of public guardianship cash fund (fund) in the state treasury. The fund consists of any money that the office receives from gifts, grants, or donations as well as any other money appropriated to the fund by the general assembly. The bill requires the director of the office to develop rules to implement the pilot program. The bill delays the creation of the pilot program and the appointment of the director of the pilot program until the fund receives at least $1,700,000 in gifts, grants, and donations. The office and the fund are repealed, effective June 30, 2021. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
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Interim Study Committee on Communication Between the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) and Medicaid Clients. The bill requires the department of health care policy and financing (department) to engage in an ongoing process to improve medicaid client communications, including client letters and notices, that concern eligibility for or the denial, reduction, suspension, or termination of a benefit. Among other requirements included in the bill, the department shall ensure that client communications are accurate, readable, and understandable, clearly conveying the purpose of the letter or notice and the specific action or actions that the client must take in response to the letter or notice. The bill requires the department to include in certain notices a specific and plain language explanation of the basis for the denial, reduction, suspension, or termination of a benefit; and a description of necessary information or documents that the client has not provided. If sufficient state and federal appropriations are available, on and after July 1, 2018, the department shall make available electronically a client's information concerning household composition, assets, and income sources and amounts, if relevant to the determination for which the client correspondence was issued. The department may test new or significantly revised client communications against the requirements included in the bill with a representative sample of medicaid clients, advocacy organizations, and counties prior to implementing the client communications. The department shall also develop a process to consider feedback from stakeholders and counties prior to implementing significant changes to correspondence. The department shall also ensure that letters and notices affecting clients with disabilities, seniors, and other vulnerable populations are appropriately prioritized for improvement consistent with the requirements in the bill. The department shall receive feedback from the workgroup established to provide customer and community partner feedback regarding client communications as part of the department's involvement in state-level decision-making relating to computer system changes and training. The department shall provide information concerning medicaid client communications improvements as part of its annual presentation to its legislative committee of reference. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Joint Budget Committee. The bill updates the department of health care policy and financing's (state department) annual reporting on efforts to detect and prosecute medicaid client fraud and the attorney general's annual reporting on medicaid provider fraud. The bill requires the state department to annually submit a single, comprehensive report on client and provider fraud in the medicaid program, including information received annually from the attorney general. The bill adds the joint budget committee to the legislative committees receiving the report and requires that the report include additional cost and savings information. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Joint Budget Committee. The bill directs the department of human services (department) to work with counties and the Colorado work force development council to develop program and reporting requirements for an employment opportunities with wages program (employment program). The department shall seek input from community-based organizations and businesses when creating the employment program. The department is authorized and directed to contract with an independent entity to evaluate the employment program to annually assess its efficacy and effectiveness in meeting the objectives of the Colorado works program. A final evaluation report must be completed on or before October 1, 2020. The department is required to submit 3 annual reports to the joint budget committee and joint health and human services committee, beginning October 15, 2018. The employment program is repealed, effective September 1, 2021. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Joint Budget Committee. The state personnel director is required to submit an annual compensation report and recommendations and estimated costs for state employee compensation for the next fiscal year to the governor and the joint budget committee. Currently, the report is due by August 1 of each year. The bill changes the deadline for submission of the report to September 15 of each year beginning with the 2017 report.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
Joint Budget Committee. The bill authorizes the department of heath care policy and financing (department) to continue its implementation of the medicaid care delivery system, referred to as the accountable care collaborative (ACC). The bill defines the goals of the ACC and the department's implementation of the ACC, including, in part, establishing primary care medical homes for medicaid clients, providing regional coordination and accountability, and integrating physical and behavioral health care delivery. The medical services board is required to promulgate rules implementing the ACC. The bill requires the department to submit an annual report concerning the implementation of the ACC to the joint budget committee and to the health care committees of the house of representatives and of the senate that oversee the medicaid program. Among other information listed in the bill, the report must include information on the number of medicaid clients participating in the ACC, performance results, and fiscal impacts of the ACC. The bill authorizes the department of health care policy and financing (department) to implement performance-based payments for medicaid providers. Prior to implementing performance-based payments, the department shall report to the joint budget committee concerning the performance-based payments, including whether the payments require a budget request, the amount of the payments compared to total reimbursements for the affected service, and a description of the stakeholder process and the department's response to stakeholder feedback. After implementation of performance-based payments, the department shall report to the joint budget committee and the health care committees of the house of representatives and the senate that oversee the medicaid program concerning the design of the performance-based payments, the stakeholder engagement process with respect to the payments, and other information regarding the implementation of the performance-based payments described in the bill. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
At the 2016 general election, the voters of the state approved 2 initiated measures affecting primary elections: Proposition 107, which restored a presidential primary election, and Proposition 108, which allows participation by unaffiliated voters in primary elections. The bill makes several modifications to some of the statutory provisions that were affected by Propositions 107 and 108 in the following respects for the purpose of facilitating the effective implementation of the state's election laws: Section 1 of the bill adds to the list of questions that a prospective elector who is unaffiliated with a political party may answer prior to registering to vote by means of paper registration to include what political party, if any, whose primary election ballot the elector desires to receive in the mail. For a regular primary election, section 2 requires the county clerk and recorder to send to all active electors in the county who have not declared an affiliation or provided a ballot preference with a political party a mailing that contains the ballots of all the major political parties and eliminates the use of a single combined ballot for regular primary elections.. Section 3 requires the governor to consult the secretary of state (secretary) in selecting the date of the presidential primary election. This section requires, for a presidential primary election, the county clerk and recorder to send to all active electors in the county who have not declared an affiliation or provided a ballot preference with a political party a ballot packet that contains the ballots of all the major political parties as with a regular primary election; authorizes the secretary to adopt by rule additional ballot requirements to avoid voter confusion in presidential primary elections; and repeals provisions requiring the state to reimburse the counties for expenses incurred in connection with the preparation and conduct of presidential primary elections in lieu of the provisions in section 6. Section 4 moves the deadline by which a candidate in the presidential primary election is to submit to the secretary required filing materials to run in the primary election from the second day of January in the year of the primary election to 85 days before the date of the primary election. This section also requires challenges to the listing of a candidate on the presidential primary ballot to be filed with the district court, as with other election challenges, and not the secretary. . In the case of a primary mail ballot election, section 5 deletes an existing statutory requirement that a notice be sent advising eligible electors who are not affiliated with a political party of the ability to vote in the primary election of any political party. This section of the bill also modifies existing law requiring mail ballot packets in a primary mail ballot election to be mailed only to those active registered electors who are affiliated with a political party that is participating in the election to require that the mail ballot packet be mailed only to active registered electors. Section 6 requires the county clerk and recorder or designated election official to record in the statewide voter registration system the names and precinct numbers of eligible electors, together with the date on which the mail ballot was sent and the date on which each mail ballot was returned or otherwise cast. For unaffiliated electors in a primary election, the bill requires the county clerk and recorder to record which political party's ballot the elector cast. If a mail ballot is not returned or otherwise cast, or if it is rejected and not counted, that fact must be recorded in the statewide voter registration system. The information is subject to public inspection under applicable laws and rules. 7 requires the general assembly to appropriate money from the state's general fund to cover the costs of the election incurred by the state arising from the preparation and conduct of a presidential primary election. Section 8 appropriates $208,811 from the department of state cash fund for the 2017-18 state fiscal year. To implement the act, the department of state may use $180,456 of the appropriation for personal services for information technology services and $28,355 of the appropriation for operating expenses for the elections division.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)
The bill establishes the center for research into substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery support strategies at the university of Colorado health sciences center. The bill makes an appropriation. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)