The act changes the term "HIV infection prevention drug", as used in the Colorado Revised Statutes, to "HIV prevention drug". The act specifies that, for health benefit plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, if counseling, prevention, and screening for a sexually transmitted infection (STI) are covered services, the health benefit plan must provide coverage without cost sharing, regardless of the covered person's gender, and the coverage must include HIV prevention drugs and the services necessary for initiation and continued use of an HIV prevention drug consistent with federal guidelines. The act prohibits, before July 1, 2027, a health insurance carrier from requiring a covered person to undergo step therapy or to receive prior authorization before a health-care provider may prescribe or dispense a medication for the treatment of HIV that is included on the insurance carrier's prescription drug formulary as of March 1, 2023. The act requires the division of insurance to contract for a study, which includes consultation with the HIV community, to consider the predicted costs and health impacts of removing step therapy and prior authorization before a health-care provider may prescribe or dispense HIV treatment drugs and to provide the study to the general assembly by October 1, 2026. The act specifies the requirements and time frames for health insurance carriers for certain prior authorization requests related to HIV prescription drug coverage. Regarding the state medical assistance program, the act prohibits the department of health care policy and financing (state department), before July 1, 2027, from using prior authorization or step therapy requirements for prescription drugs prescribed for the treatment or prevention of HIV, except for utilization review that is necessary for patient safety or for ensuring the prescribed use is for a medically accepted indication. For health benefit plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2025, if sterilization services are a covered service, a health benefit plan must provide the coverage regardless of the covered person's sex or gender and without deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, annual or lifetime maximum benefits, or other cost sharing; except that this provision does not apply to a high deductible health benefit plan until the deductible has been met, unless allowed pursuant to federal law. The act requires mandatory preventive health-care services coverage for health benefit plans to include, in addition to the A and B recommendations of the United States preventive services task force, the recommendations of the advisory committee on immunization practices to the centers for disease control and prevention in the federal department of health and human services (HHS) and the women's, infants', children's, and adolescents' preventive services guidelines of the health resources and services administration in the HHS. The act requires large employer health benefit plans issued or renewed on and after January 1, 2025, to provide coverage for the total cost of abortion care without policy deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance. Individual and small group health benefit plans must provide this coverage if the HHS confirms the state's determination that the coverage is not subject to state defrayal pursuant to federal law. The provisions relating to abortion care do not apply to a high deductible health benefit plan until the deductible has been met, unless allowed pursuant to federal law. Employers are exempted from providing coverage if providing coverage conflicts with the employer's sincerely held religious beliefs or the employer is a public entity prohibited by section 50 of article V of the state constitution from using public funds to pay for induced abortions. With the minor's consent, a health-care provider acting within the scope of the health-care provider's license, certificate, or registration, may furnish contraceptive procedures, supplies, or information to a minor without notification to or the consent of the minor's parent or parents, legal guardian, or any other person having custody of or decision-making responsibility for the minor. The act expands the reproductive health-care program administered by the state department to include additional family planning services and family-planning-related services. The act requires the department of public health and environment (department) to convene a family planning access collaborative, on or before September 1, 2023, to advise the department in identifying access gaps that contribute to Coloradans lacking family planning access. The department shall publish its recommendations on or before December 15, 2023. To implement the act, for the 2023-24 state fiscal year the act appropriates: $200,000 to the department of public health and environment from the general fund for the family planning access collaborative and corresponding report; $67,627 and 0.5 FTE to the department of regulatory agencies from the division of insurance cash fund; and $23,263 and .1 FTE to the department of law from reappropriated funds received from the department of regulatory agencies for legal services. APPROVED by Governor April 14, 2023 EFFECTIVE April 14, 2023(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act requires a person who solicits a fee for filing a document with, or retrieving a public record from, the secretary of state to include specific disclosure language in the solicitation. The person must also include information on where the document can be filed directly with the secretary of state, or where the public record can be retrieved, and the name and physical address of the person who is soliciting. The act also prohibits the use of any form, deadline dates, or other language that makes the document used for solicitation appear to be issued by a state agency or local government or that appears to impose a legal duty on the person being solicited. Violation of these requirements is an unfair or deceptive trade practice. APPROVED by Governor April 11, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The bill specifies that a Colorado-licensed, -certified, or -registered health-care professional may render care via telehealth to patients or clients located in another state if the professional is authorized to practice the profession in the other state pursuant to an interstate compact or other grant of authority from the other state.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)
The act updates information associated with Prader-Willi syndrome to conform to current laws and regulations. APPROVED by Governor March 31, 2023 EFFECTIVE March 31, 2023 (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires every home warranty service contract issued or renewed in Colorado on or after July 1, 2024, that provides coverage for the replacement of any of certain gas-fueled appliances to include terms: Allowing the homeowner the option to replace the gas-fueled appliance with a similar device of the homeowner's choosing that operates on electricity rather than gas; and Providing that the home warranty service company is required to provide a replacement appliance that satisfies statutory efficiency requirements. A home warranty service contract may require a homeowner to pay any additional cost to replace a gas-fueled appliance with an appliance that has a cost that exceeds the cost of replacing the gas-fueled appliance with another gas-fueled appliance under the terms of the home warranty service contract, but any additional cost to the homeowner, excluding any installation or other associated costs, must not exceed the retail cost of the replacement electric appliance minus the retail cost of a replacement gas-fueled appliance. In the case of replacement of a gas-fueled furnace, HVAC system, boiler, or water heater, a home warranty service contract must include terms that allow the homeowner to replace the furnace, HVAC system, boiler, or water heater with a heat pump-based system. In the case of replacement of a gas-fueled stove, a home warranty service contract must include terms that allow the homeowner to replace the gas-fueled stove with either an electric stove or an induction stove, at the homeowner's discretion. APPROVED by Governor March 31, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act authorizes the executive director of the department of revenue (state licensing authority), pursuant to standards and processes that the state licensing authority establishes by rule, to: Issue an administrative hold on the movement of medical or retail marijuana pending an investigation; Embargo medical or retail marijuana when the state licensing authority finds objective and reasonable grounds to believe that the health, safety, or welfare of the public imperatively requires emergency action; and Order the destruction of embargoed medical or retail marijuana after notice and opportunity for a hearing. APPROVED by Governor March 23, 2023 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2023 NOTE: This act was passed without a safety clause and takes effect 90 days after sine die. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the behavioral health administration (BHA) in the department of human services (department) to create and implement a behavioral health-care provider workforce plan on or before September 1, 2022. The plan must: Include recruitment methods to increase and diversify the behavioral health-care provider workforce; Require the BHA to partner with the department of higher education to better prepare the future behavioral health-care provider workforce for public sector service, to develop paid job shadowing and internship opportunities, and to develop partnerships with learning facilities and training centers; Include strategies for the BHA to work with community colleges and other institutions of higher education to recruit residents of health professional shortage areas, with the goal of educating these individuals in behavioral health-care fields so that they will return to practice in areas of need; In collaboration with institutions of higher education, the community college system, the department of higher education, and the work force development council, create a new program to help behavioral health-care providers advance in their respective fields; Require the BHA to expand the peer support professional workforce; Include proposals to work with law enforcement organizations to cross-train first responders in behavioral health, increase cultural competencies, and reduce the stigma of receiving mental health services; and Through an interagency agreement with other state agencies, raise awareness among health-care providers concerning opportunities to invest in and strengthen their behavioral health-care staff. The act requires the division of professions and occupations in the department of regulatory agencies (DORA) to make recommendations to expand the portability of existing credentialing requirements and behavioral health-care practice through telehealth. The act requires the BHA to: In collaboration with DORA, establish workforce standards that strengthen the behavioral health-care provider workforce and increase opportunities for unlicensed behavioral health-care providers; Work with other state agencies to reduce the administrative burden across agencies to ensure behavioral health-care providers have additional time to focus on patient care; Collaborate with other state agencies on behavioral health-care issues; Use the learning management system to develop and implement a comprehensive, collaborative, and cross-system training certification and training curriculum of evidence-based treatment and evidence-based criminal justice approaches for behavioral health-care providers working in programs to obtain a criminal justice treatment provider endorsement; and Develop methods to strengthen Colorado's current behavioral health-care provider workforce. In 2023 and 2024, the department is required to provide an overview of the BHA's progress toward addressing the behavioral health-care provider workforce shortage during the hearings held prior to the regular session of the general assembly under the "SMART Act". On or before January 1, 2023, and January 1, 2024, the community college system is required to submit a report to the BHA that includes a summary of the behavioral health career pathway and it implementation. Pursuant to the relief authorized by the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, for the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the act, appropriates the following amounts from the behavioral and mental health cash fund for the purposes of the act: $36,806,984 to the department for use by the BHA; $20,000,000 to the department of public health and environment for use by the primary care office to provide loan repayment and scholarships for behavioral health-care providers and candidates for licensure who are participating in the Colorado health service corps; and $15,193,018 to the department of higher education.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act requires the state forest service, on and after September 1, 2022, to develop a publicly accessible statewide carbon accounting framework that yields carbon stock and flux estimates for: Ecosystems by county and forest cover type; and Wood products. The state forest service must also develop a forest carbon co-benefit framework for project-level forest management practices, including wildfire mitigation. The state forest service must use this framework to train practitioners in adaptive management practices to be incorporated into current forest management practices, including wildfire mitigation. The state forest service must provide technical expertise to assist industry and landowners with carbon inventories and monitoring. The act also allows money from the existing healthy forests and vibrant communities fund to be used for new purposes, including the new statewide carbon accounting framework. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, the act: Transfers $3,000,000 and appropriates $95,407 from the general fund to the healthy forests and vibrant communities fund; Transfers $2,200,000 from the general fund to the forest restoration and wildfire risk mitigation grant program cash fund; and Transfers $2,00,000 from the general fund to the wildfire mitigation capacity development fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)