Two Important Health Care Proposals at the Colorado State Legislature

Telemedicine and Advanced Directives proposals are currently being reviewed by Colorado lawmakers.

There is no doubt that health care has become a consistent — and sometimes contentious — topic of discussion among government officials at both the national and state levels. Along with the increased debate, policy leaders are also increasingly deliberating the need to monitor, incentivize or regulate health information technologies. As such, CORHIO wants to ensure that we are providing our participants and stakeholders with important information about legislative proposals at the Colorado General Assembly, regulatory changes happening at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), and proposals in front of Congress. To that end, we will be providing you with a brief policy update in CORHIO Connect every month.

Telemedicine Proposal

There are two proposals at the General Assembly we are watching. The first, HB15-1029 Health Care Delivery via Telemedicine Statewide, removes the population restriction and precludes a health benefit plan from requiring in-person care delivery when telemedicine is appropriate, regardless of the geographic location of the health care provider and the recipient of care. A provider need not demonstrate that a barrier to in-person care exists for coverage of telemedicine under a health benefit plan to apply. This bill has passed out of the House and is on its way to the Senate (as of February 2, 2015).

Advanced Directives Proposal

SB15-125, requires the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to maintain a statewide registry of Advanced Directives, including a website. This bill was just introduced on January 27th, and has been assigned to its first committee for a hearing.

There are a number of other proposals, notably several impacting the Colorado’s Health Insurance Marketplace. You can read about those bills here. If you would like to see the full roster of bills the legislature is considering thus far this year, please visit www.leg.state.co.us.

We want your feedback! If you liked receiving this type of information or have suggestions, please contact Kate Horle, CORHIO’s state and federal initiatives director.