Bill Tracker

The bill allows a person with a currently valid license, certificate, or registration in good standing from another state to practice his or her profession in this state for up to one year before the person has to meet the licensing, certification, or registration requirements in Colorado. For the person to be eligible to practice in this state, he or she shall have no other basis for disqualification from practice other than the lack of a license, certificate, or registration and shall apply for a license, certificate, or registration within 30 days after engaging in practice in Colorado.

The bill requires the division of registrations (division) in the department of regulatory agencies, by January 1, 2013, to develop an electronic system to monitor and store in a secure database information pertaining to:

• The prescribing of prescription drugs;
• The dispensing or delivery of prescription drugs by aprescription drug outlet (PDO) or health care practitioner (practitioner); and
• The dispensing or delivery of restricted over-the-countersubstances, also known as methamphetamine precursor drugs, by a PDO or practitioner.

Practitioners and PDOs are required to maintain biometric scanning devices and to use those devices to obtain a biometric scan of a person's biometric identifier, such as a fingerprint or retinal scan, and to submit the scan to the database. Practitioners and PDOs are also required, prior to prescribing or dispensing a prescription drug or dispensing a restricted over-the-counter substance, to submit specified information to the database, including:

• The date of the prescription order;
• The name of the substance prescribed or dispensed, including strength, quantity, and directions for use;
• The name and address of  the practitioner or PDO, as applicable; and
• The name and address of the person receiving the substance, as applicable, in an encrypted format.

Once the information is received, the database assigns a unique identifying number to the particular prescription order or restricted over-the-counter substance and immediately transmits to the practitioner or PDO, as applicable, the following:

• The identifying number for the substance;
• The names of the substances prescribed or dispensed in connection with the biometric scan that may conflict with or overlap the practitioner's prescription order or the restricted over-the-counter substance; and
• The name and address of the practitioner whose prescription order may conflict with or overlap the prescribing practitioner's prescription or restricted over-the-counter substance and the name and address of the practitioner or PDO that dispensed or delivered the conflicting or overlapping prescription or restricted over-the-counter substance.

Before dispensing or delivering a prescription drug or restricted over-the-counter substance, the practitioner or PDO is to submit the biometric scan to the database, and the database is to immediately transmit to the practitioner or PDO the following:

• The names of the substances that have been prescribed in connection with the biometric scan that may conflict with or overlap the substance to be dispensed or delivered;
• The name and address of the practitioner whose order may conflict with or overlap the prescription drug or restricted over-the-counter substance to be dispensed or delivered and the full name and address of the practitioner or PDO that dispensed or delivered the conflicting or overlapping prescription or restricted over-the-counter substance;
• A graduated alert system indicating the potential dangers related to dispensing or prescribing the substances as they relate to any conflicting or overlapping prescriptions;
• A warning or critical alert relating to the severity of the conflict or overlap, requiring the practitioner to biometrically acknowledge receipt of the conflict or overlap; and
• A warning or critical alert relating to the severity of the conflict or overlap to additional practitioners who provided or delivered the conflicting or overlapping substances.

The bill makes exceptions for practitioners who administer a substance directly to the patient and for substances dispensed in an inpatient or residential facility. A person who fails to comply with the requirements of the bill commits a class 1 misdemeanor.

The bill creates a 13-member group purchase of health care insurance by government employees task force (task force) to meet in the 2012 interim to study issues involving the pooling of resources among state and local government employees in the state to purchase health care insurance and related products, report its findings and recommendations, and, if appropriate, propose statutory modifications.

The bill specifies the required qualifications of the members of the task force and additional requirements governing the appointing authorities and procedures of the task force.

The task force is required to study, make recommendations, and report findings on all matters relating to the group purchase of health care insurance by government employees, including, without limitation, innovative solutions and strategies for leveraging the purchasing power of state and local governments to expand health care coverage for the employees of such governments and their families at the lowest cost to the taxpayer while addressing any impediments to such goals provided by federal or state law.

The task force is required to submit a written report of its findings and recommendations to the relevant committees of the general assembly by December 15, 2012. The task force is required to meet at least 4 times, with the first meeting occurring no later than August 1, 2012. Meetings of the task force are public meetings. The task force is required to solicit and accept reports and public testimony and may request other sources to provide testimony, written comments, and other relevant data to the task force.

Members of the task force will serve without compensation and will not be reimbursed for their expenses. Any staff assistance required by the task force shall be performed by existing employees of the department of personnel within existing appropriations.

The bill clarifies that an intermediary between a health insurance carrier and health care provider is a "person or entity" for purposes of complying with health care contract disclosure requirements.

Each health care provider who provides outpatient health care or treatment is required to disclose to a patient the right to request the nondiscounted charge for the care or treatment and, upon request, make that information available before the scheduling of care or treatment.

Each health insurance carrier shall:

• Provide notice to covered persons advising them of therelationship with the third-party administrator, the policyholder, and the insurance carrier;
• Disclose to the covered person all charges, fees, andcommissions paid to the third-party administrator; and
• Prohibit a third-party administrator from altering a healthcare provider's charges or adding charges to any of the insurance claims submitted by a health care provider.

Each carrier must disclose to each covered person any charges for administrative costs that are in addition to the charges for the care or services provided by the health care provider.

The bill makes technical corrections to the law concerning the contractual relationship with a third-party intermediary. Current law uses the term "intermediary" when the proper entity is "third-party administrator".

Under current law, a pharmacy is prohibited from dispensing a prescribed schedule II, III, IV, or V controlled substance absent a written prescription from the practitioner prescribing the substance. The bill allows a pharmacy to dispense those controlled substances if the practitioner electronically creates and transmits the prescription drug order in conformance with federal law.

The bill repeals the "Colorado Health Benefit Exchange Act" if the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" as amended by the "Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010" (federal act) is repealed or the United States supreme court rules that all or any part of the federal act is unconstitutional.

The bill requires the commissioner of insurance to develop by July 1, 2013, and requires prescribing providers and health benefit plans to use by January 1, 2014, a uniform prior authorization form for purposes of submitting and receiving requests for prior coverage approval of a prescription drug. If the health benefit plan fails to use or accept the prior authorization form or fails to respond to a request within 2 business days, the request is deemed granted. An approved prior authorization form is valid for 12 months after the date of approval.

The bill requires each hospital to make available to patients, and to communicate to each patient, information about the hospital's charity program and discount program in a clear and understandable manner and in languages appropriate to its communities. The bill also requires hospitals to offer a discount to each qualified patient. A qualified patient is defined as an uninsured patient who has a family income of not more than 400% of the federal poverty income level and who does not receive a discount through the Colorado indigent care program.

A hospital is prohibited from charging a patient for more than the cost of providing care. The bill requires each hospital to offer to screen each patient for the discount program and any other financial assistance offered by the hospital.

Each hospital is required to offer a payment plan to an eligible patient and to fulfill specific obligations before sending a bill to a collection agency for payment.

The bill creates a rebuttable presumption that information concerning a public hazard (information) must be disclosed in a court action. A party objecting to the disclosure can seek a protective order to limit disclosure if the court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that certain factors have been met, including that the information is not relevant to the public hazard and is not useful to members of the public in protecting themselves from injury resulting from the public hazard.