The act creates the teen parent driver's license program (program) in the department of human services (department) to provide financial assistance for the cost of driver's education school training for eligible individuals and the cost to obtain a driver's license or permit. A person is eligible for the program if the person is a parent and 15 years of age or older and under 21 years of age. The department must solicit interest and cost distribution proposals from teen parent organizations to administer the program. The department must annual report on: The total number of teen parent organizations contracted with the department; The total amount of money awarded to each teen parent organization; The location of each teen parent organization and the counties served; The total number of eligible individuals who received driver's licenses each year, disaggregated by each month; and The total number of eligible individuals who received training from a driver's education school, disaggregated by each month. The act appropriates $100,000 from the general fund to the department of human services for use by the office of economic security to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
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The act implements the recommendations of the department of regulatory agencies (department), as specified in the department's sunset review of the "Speech-language Pathology Practice Act", as follows: Continues the practice act for 11 years, until September 1, 2033; Allows the director of the division of professions and occupations in the department to extend a provisional certification beyond 24 months; and Specifies that insurance fraud and abuse are grounds for discipline.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act makes changes to the acupuncturists' practice act, including the changes recommended by the department of regulatory agencies' (department) sunset review and report on the licensing of acupuncturists, by: Continuing the licensing requirements for 11 years, until September 1, 2033; Authorizing the director of the division of professions and occupations (director) in the department to impose administrative fines as a disciplinary action; Requiring final actions of the director to be appealed directly to the court of appeals; Modernizing the definition of "acupuncturist" so that it includes only persons licensed under the acupuncturists' practice act and modernizing the titles and designations protected for use by licensed acupuncturists; Authorizing an acupuncturist to supervise unlicensed acupuncture aides in the performance of specific tasks as determined by rule of the director and directing the director to adopt rules specifying the tasks that may be performed by acupuncture aides, the training and supervision required, and the number of acupuncture aides that an acupuncturist may supervise; Replacing the term "oriental", in references to the methods and concepts of acupuncture, with more modern terminology; Requiring each acupuncturist to devise a plan for the safe storage, security, and disposal of patient records; Requiring each applicant for acupuncturist licensure to pass an examination approved by the director; Repealing the reference to the specific national organization that establishes standards for auricular acudetox training and allowing the director to designate a national organization; Making it a unlawful act for a person to use the term "medical acupuncturist" or other similar term unless the person is practicing in accordance with medical practice act; Updating the grounds for discipline of an acupuncturist relating to the use or abuse of alcohol, habit-forming drugs, and controlled substances to align with other regulated professions; Adding as a grounds for discipline the failure to respond to a complaint filed against the acupuncturist in an honest, responsive, and timely manner; and Authorizing the director to adopt rules to establish the appropriate use of telehealth to provide acupuncture services.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act amends the criteria that the department of regulatory agencies and the general assembly must consider in sunset review hearings by removing some of the current criteria, adding new criteria, and modifying the criteria to apply to the regulation of professions and occupations and other governmental programs. The act removes the following criteria: Whether the conditions that led to the initial regulation have changed and whether other conditions have arisen that would warrant more, less, or the same degree of regulation; and Whether entry requirements encourage affirmative action. The act adds the following criteria: Whether the conditions that led to the initial creation of the program have changed and whether other conditions have arisen that would warrant more, less, or the same degree of governmental oversight; Whether regulatory oversight can be achieved through a director model; and Whether entry requirements encourage equity, diversity, and inclusivity.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act establishes 3 new grant programs within the division of criminal justice (division) in the department of public safety: A multidisciplinary crime prevention and crisis intervention grant program to award grants to law enforcement, other local governmental agencies, federally recognized Indian tribes, community-based organizations, and third-party membership organizations or administrators to identify high-crime areas and to implement crime prevention and intervention strategies in those areas; A law enforcement workforce recruitment, retention, and tuition grant program to award grants to law enforcement agencies to address workforce shortages, improve training, and improve relationships between law enforcement and impacted communities; and A state's mission for assistance in recruitment and training (SMART) policing grant program to increase the number of P.O.S.T.-certified and non-certified law enforcement officers who are representative of the communities they police and provide training for those additional law enforcement officers. The act directs the executive director of the department of public safety to establish policies and procedures and create advisory committees consisting of diverse members to review applications and make recommendations on who should receive grants and the amount of the grants. The act requires the division to create a project management team to coordinate grant programs. The act requires the division to host a statewide forum which may be facilitated by a national criminal justice organization to solicit suggestions on crime prevention measures related to the grant programs. The act requires the general assembly to appropriate money for the grant programs in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal years, for the statewide forum in the 2022-23 fiscal year, and for the project management team in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal years. The act appropriates from the general fund: $300,000 to the division of criminal justice in the department of public safety to implement the act; $7.5 million to the multidisciplinary crime prevention and intervention grant fund; $3.75 million to the law enforcement workforce recruitment, retention, and tuition grant fund; and $3.75 million to the SMART policing grant fund.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
House Bill 21-1198 established health-care billing requirements for indigent patients beginning June 1, 2022. The act changes the beginning date to September 1, 2022. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act creates the crime prevention through safer streets grant program (grant program) in the department of public safety (DPS). Local governmental agencies or local government in partnership with a community-based nonprofit organization can apply to DPS for grants for improvements designed to decrease crime and create safer streets. The act directs DPS to establish policies and procedures for the grant program. It also creates an advisory committee to review grant requests and make recommendations to the executive director of DPS. The executive director reviews responses to the requests for proposals and grants and determines which local governmental agencies will receive money and the amount of each grant. The act appropriates from the general fund $10.3 million to DPS for the grant program. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
The act implements the recommendations of the behavioral health transformational task force concerning youth and family residential care. Specifically, the act: Provides operational support for psychiatric residential treatment facilities and qualified residential treatment programs for youth; Creates in-home and residential respite care in up to 7 regions of the state for children and families; and Provides funds to build and staff a neuro-psych facility at the Colorado mental health institute at Fort Logan. The act makes the following appropriations to the department of human services from the behavioral and mental health cash fund: $11,628,023 is appropriated for respite and residential programs; $7,500,000 is appropriated for use by the behavioral health administration to expand substance use residential treatment beds for adolescents and for crisis response service systems; and $539,926 is appropriated for use by the behavioral health administration and is for building maintenance costs associated with the youth neuro-psych facility at the Colorado mental health institute at Fort Logan. An additional $35,000,000 is appropriated for capital construction costs related to the construction of a youth neuro-psych facility at the Colorado mental health institute at Fort Logan.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Beginning in 2023, the act requires each health insurance carrier (carrier) that offers an individual or small group health benefit plan in this state to offer at least 25% of its health benefit plans on the Colorado health benefit exchange (exchange) and at least 25% of its plans not on the exchange in each bronze, silver, gold, and platinum benefit level in each service area as copayment-only payment structures for all prescription drug cost tiers. Starting in 2024, a carrier or, if a carrier uses a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) for claims processing services or other prescription drug or device services under a health benefit plan offered by the carrier in the individual market, the PBM, or a representative of the carrier or the PBM, is prohibited from modifying or applying a modification to the current prescription drug formulary during the current plan year. The act repeals and reenacts the current requirements for step therapy and requires a carrier to use clinical review criteria to establish the step-therapy protocol. For each health benefit plan issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2024, the bill requires each carrier or PBM to demonstrate to the division of insurance that: 100% of the estimated rebates received or to be received in connection with dispensing or administering prescription drugs included in the carrier's prescription drug formulary are used to reduce costs; For small group and large employer health benefit plans, all rebates are used to reduce employer or individual employee costs; and For individual health benefit plans, all rebates are used to reduce consumers' premiums and out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and that health insurers will maximize the use of rebates to reduce consumer costs. The act requires the division of insurance to conduct and complete a study to evaluate how rebates my be applied in the individual market to reduce consumers' costs. The act requires health insurers to annually report: Data demonstrating that discounts and rebates received are used to reduce costs for policyholders; and An actuarial certification attesting that the health insurer and PBM are compliant with the law and that the data submitted to the division is accurate. The act requires the commissioner of insurance (commissioner) to promulgate rules to implement the rebate requirements in the act. Beginning in 2023, the act requires the department of health care policy and financing, in collaboration with the administrator of the all-payer claims database, to conduct an annual analysis of the prescription drug rebates received in the previous calendar year, by carrier and prescription drug tier, and make the analysis available to the public. For the 2022-23 state fiscal year, $252,667 is appropriated from the division of insurance cash fund to the department of regulatory agencies for use by the division of insurance to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)
Under current law, a qualified student who is selected to participate in the accelerating students through concurrent enrollment (ASCENT) program by the department of education (department) may enroll in postsecondary courses and be included in the pupil enrollment of a school district, board of cooperative services, or charter school (local education provider) for funding during the year following the student's fourth year of high school. The number of students who are selected to participate in the ASCENT program is limited each year through the budget process. The bill removes the limit on the number of program participants and allows each qualified student selected by the enrolling local education provider to participate in the program. The bill reduces the number of postsecondary credits a qualified student must have completed to be eligible to participate in the ASCENT program. The bill directs the department to distribute to each local education provider for each ASCENT program participant an amount equal to 3% of the per-pupil extended high school funding amount to pay for non-tuition expenses the qualified student incurs in participating in the postsecondary courses. Under existing law, a qualified student who fails to complete a concurrent enrollment course must repay the local education provider for the amount of tuition, and a local education provider may require a qualified student to repay the tuition amount if the qualified student earns a failing grade for a concurrent enrollment course. The bill repeals these provisions. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)