Sen. Janice Marchman

The act requires the department of education (department) to submit a report to the joint budget committee regarding part-time enrichment programs and single- and multi-district online education programs, including online schools, online programs, and supplemental online courses offered by in-person schools.     The act authorizes the department to extend the authorization for the board of cooperative services that is currently administering the statewide supplemental online and blended learning program for up to 2 additional years prior to initiating a new 5-year designation.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Under existing law, an individual licensed, certified, registered, or enrolled in good standing to practice a particular profession or occupation in another state or United States territory or through the federal government is eligible to apply for and receive a license, certification, registration, or enrollment in that profession or occupation in Colorado (accreditation) if the individual meets specific criteria. The act adds an individual licensed, certified, registered, or enrolled in good standing to practice a particular profession or occupation in another country to those individuals eligible for accreditation if the individual meets specific criteria.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the department of health care policy and financing, in coordination with the department of human services and the department of early childhood (state departments), to contract with a single county department of human or social services to administer a centralized member integrity service to conduct fraud investigations concerning eligibility for medicaid, the children's basic health plan, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, the Colorado child care assistance program, temporary assistance for needy families, and adult financial programs (public assistance programs), and benefit overpayments. The act creates the centralized member integrity service cash fund consisting of money recouped from member fraud investigations. The centralized member integrity service must be operational and utilized on July 1, 2027.     On or before February 1, 2027, the act requires the state departments to establish aligned requirements for county departments of human or social services (county departments) to comply with through a performance-based contract established between the state departments and each county department. Prior to February 1, 2027, the state departments shall draft templates of the performance-based contract with the county departments for review and comment. On or before July 1, 2027, the state departments shall enter into a performance-based contract with each county department. The performance-based contract must establish requirements for the state departments and county departments to comply with in administering public assistance programs and establish corrective action protocols that are consistently utilized by the state departments.     On or before September 1, 2026, the act requires the state departments to work together, and in consultation with the county departments, to establish a continuous quality improvement process to review data reported to the state departments by the county departments. The state departments must annually submit a report to the joint budget committee that includes an update on the continuous quality improvement process and data on the impact of the continuous quality improvement process.     Beginning January 2027, and monthly thereafter, the state departments must establish a single, shared online dashboard used to publish county-level and statewide performance data for the public assistance programs on a monthly basis. This data must be published on each of the state department's website's in a publicly accessible format.     Beginning July 1, 2028, the state departments must oversee a streamlined public benefits delivery model that consists of up to 12 cohorts of counties in the state that will coordinate public assistance program eligibility and distribute case processing work. The state departments shall enter into performance-based contracts with each cohort for administering a new public benefits delivery model to ensure public assistance programs are administered consistently and uniformly across the state.     On or before July 1, 2026, the state departments must contract with a third-party contractor to help the state departments and county departments develop and implement a plan for transitioning to the new public benefits delivery model. The act establishes an implementation work group comprised of representatives of counties, the governor's office, the state departments, and nongovernmental organizations, to work with the third-party contractor to develop and implement the transition plan. The transition plan must be delivered to the joint budget committee by January 1, 2027.     The act establishes the state cross-departmental policy alignment team to align the policies of the public assistance programs to improve service delivery and outcomes for recipients of public assistance benefits.     The act makes a household eligible for fuel assistance payments if the household has not received low-income energy assistance program assistance in the previous 12 months and if it is eligible for the standard utility allowance under federal law.     The act requires the department of health care policy and financing to certify to the department of revenue information regarding persons who are obligated to the state for overpayment of medicaid benefits and sets forth the process for distributing money withheld from a person's tax refund owed for overpayment of benefits.     To implement the act, it includes appropriations from the general fund and various cash funds to the department of health care policy and financing, the department of human services, and the department of early childhood. The act appropriates money to the office of the governor for use by the office of information technology and to the department of law from reappropriated money received by other departments. The act decreases the appropriation from the federal child care development funds made in the annual general appropriation act for the 2026-27 state fiscal year to the department of early childhood for intrastate child care assistance program redistribution by $222,598.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act updates the 'Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act' (act) with amendments to the act adopted by the Uniform Law Commission by:Defining 'Uniform Antitrust Pre-Merger Notification Act' for purposes of the act;Requiring the filing of a Hart-Scott-Rodino form with the Colorado attorney general (AG) within one business day after filing with the federal government (rather than contemporaneously);Requiring the AG to provide a secure means to accept and store materials they receive under the act;When receiving information from the attorney general of another state that has also enacted the act, requiring the AG to provide assurances to the other attorney general that the AG will maintain the confidentiality of the documents or information they receive;Requiring the AG to destroy or return the materials submitted to them within 120 days after the close of the transaction subject to disclosure under the act or the conclusion of any legal proceeding directly related to the transaction subject to disclosure under the act, whichever is later; andRequiring the AG to provide written notice and a 3-day period to cure before imposing civil penalties against a person for noncompliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino form filing requirements.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act repeals the teacher recruitment education and preparation program (TREP) after the 2026-27 budget year. The act repeals the teacher recruitment and preparation program and pathways in early technology early college high schools working group on July 1, 2027.     On July 1, 2026, the act requires the state treasurer to transfer $799,200 from the electrifying school buses grant program cash fund to the state education fund. The general assembly declares that TREP may receive funding from the state education fund.     For the 2026-27 state fiscal year, the act caps the amount that a district receives for a student participating in TREP under the school finance formulas at $7,104.     The act increases the cash fund appropriation to the department of education for state share of districts' total program funding and decreases the cash fund appropriation for extended high school in the 2026-27 long bill in order to fund TREP for the 2026-27 state fiscal year. The amount of the changes is contingent on whether House Bill 26-1364, concerning the calculation of the consumer price index for the 2025 calendar year, becomes law.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act creates the strengthen Colorado homes enterprise (enterprise), which is a government-owned business created in the division of insurance (division) in the department of regulatory agencies. The enterprise is governed by a 7-member board (board), including the commissioner of insurance (commissioner), or their designee; members with expertise in home hardening, risk mitigation, resilient roof systems, and insurance underwriting or actuarial analysis; and members representing the interests of insurance companies, consumers, and counties.     The primary purpose of the enterprise is to impose and collect an annual fee (fee) from an admitted insurance company that offers multiperil homeowner's insurance policies in the state and is subject to certain filing requirements with the division, not including the fair access to insurance requirements association (insurer).     The enterprise shall use fee revenue to provide business services to insurers that pay the fee, including:Reducing insurer losses and administrative expenses due to hail damage claims by defraying the cost of retrofitting residential property by providing grants for the installation of resilient roof systems (grants). At least 85% of the fee revenue must be used for grants to Colorado homeowners to retrofit residential property to reduce insurer losses due to hail and windstorms.Analyzing data on hail losses to identify areas of the state to target for installation of resilient roof systems;Setting standards for resilient roof systems and awarding workforce training grants for installing and certifying resilient roof systems;Creating codes of conduct for roofing contractors to ensure roofs are properly and appropriately installed;Evaluating roofing protocols to ascertain if the protocols meet science-based, certifiable standards; Conducting or contracting with a third party to conduct a study to analyze insurance risk in high-risk wildfire areas of the state; andImproving market stability throughout the state.     Beginning in the 2027 calendar year, the amount of the fee imposed and collected by the enterprise is an amount equal to 0.5% of the total premium collected by an insurer on multiperil homeowner's insurance policies in the state in the immediately preceding calender year. The insurer shall not surcharge the fee amount to policyholders. The enterprise may lower or cease collecting the fee from an insurer in any calendar year to ensure that total fee revenue does not exceed $100 million in the first 5 years of the enterprise's existence.          In awarding grants, the board shall prioritize homes that are the homeowner applicant's (applicant) primary residence and shall consider other criteria, including applicant income, the age of the roof, the size of the home, the number of grant applicants, whether the home is in a locality with hail-resistant building codes, and whether the applicant lives in a location that has historically had a higher susceptibility to extreme weather events. In order to ensure the necessary workforce, fee revenue may also be used to award grants to defray the costs of training and certification related to installing and certifying resilient roof systems. A contractor that is awarded bids and receives money from a grant is prohibited from waiving homeowner's insurance deductibles.     In addition, the board shall use fee revenue to conduct or contract with a third party to conduct a study to analyze insurance risk in high-risk wildfire areas of the state, including an analysis of market competition in those areas and the impact of a high risk program on the potential losses in the high-risk wildfire areas of the state and the availability of homeowner's insurance in those areas. The board or third party conducting the study shall engage with relevant stakeholders that include, at a minimum, representatives of reinsurers and reinsurance brokers, insurers writing homeowner's insurance contracts or policies in Colorado, individuals with expertise in complex financial instruments and debt instruments, and consumers or other individuals with expertise in wildfire mitigation. The board shall send the study to certain committees of the general assembly.          The board shall adopt rules and policies for the regulation of the enterprise's affairs and the conduct of enterprise business, including standards for resilient roof systems and standards for contractor-specialized training in the installation of impact-resistant roof systems.     No sooner than January 1, 2027, and upon the commissioner adopting rules, an insurer offering multiperil homeowner's insurance for property or risks located in the state is required to submit an annual filing to the commissioner that includes the number of policies in force, the number of homes that have installed a resilient roof system, the discount applied to homes due to the presence of a resilient roof system, and the wind and hail claims frequency and severity for homes with and without a resilient roof system.     $66,250 is appropriated from the legal services cash fund to the department of law to provide legal services to the department of regulatory agencies to implement the act. The appropriation is from revenue received from the department of regulatory agencies that is continuously appropriated to the department of regulatory agencies from the strengthen Colorado homes enterprise fund. The appropriation to the department of law is based on an assumption that the department of law will require an additional 0.3 FTE to implement the act.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act caps at $400 the amount that a health-care entity or health-care provider may charge for a record request made by a patient's attorney or the attorney of the patient's personal representative pursuant to an authorization in compliance with the federal 'Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996', a valid subpoena, or a valid court order, if the requested record exceeds 664 pages. The health-care entity or health-care provider may charge a reasonable fee above the cap if the record request requires the health-care facility or health-care provider to segregate, withhold, or redact protected health information in order to comply with applicable law or the scope or limitations of the authorization in compliance with the federal 'Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996', a valid subpoena, or a valid court order.     Beginning January 1, 2028, and every even-numbered year thereafter, the act requires the $400 limit to be adjusted for inflation.     The act requires the requested medical records to be delivered in electronic format if the requestor requests electronic format, the original records are stored in electronic format, and the records are readily producible in electronic format.     The act requires the health-care facility or health-care provider to provide the requestor with an invoice for the records provided in response to the record request within 30 days of receiving the request, and the health-care facility or health-care provider must provide the records upon payment of the invoice.     If the health-care facility or health-care provider is unable to comply with the request for records within 30 days after the request, the health-care facility or health-care provider must send written notice of a 30-day extension to the requestor. The health-care facility or health-care provider must provide the records to the requestor at no cost if the records were not provided within 30 days or without written notice of an extension, unless the delay is due to a force majeure event. In the case of a force majeure event, the health-care facility or health-care provider must provide written notice to the requestor within 5 business days of becoming aware of the force majeure event. The 30-day time frame to respond to a request for records commences upon resolution of the force majeure event.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

Current law requires a testing entity to provide accommodations for an individual with a disability who is taking an exam for professional licensing. The current definition of 'testing entity' includes a private entity or a state or local governmental entity offering such an exam and having control over testing accommodation decisions.     The act changes the definition of 'testing entity' to include any person, business, or state or local government agency that offers an examination or course related to an application, license, certification, or credential for secondary or postsecondary education, professional, or trade purposes. The act further requires a testing entity to offer the exam or course in a place and manner that is accessible to an individual with a disability or offer an alternative accessible arrangement in order to accommodate an individual with a disability who has met the requirements to receive the accommodation.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act requires the nonemergency medical transportation broker (broker) to establish the transportation community advisory board (TCAB) and requires the state department of health care policy and financing (state department) to collaborate with the TCAB prior to establishing rules and processes for the safety and oversight of nonmedical transportation services and nonemergency medical transportation (NEMT) services.     The act requires, in collaboration with the TCAB, certain rules for NEMT the state department must adopt. The state department may impose trip caps or market-share restrictions on a transportation provider (provider) as part of corrective action plan. The act requires providers to use vehicles equipped with 2-way video cameras and a video recording system when transporting members.     The act establishes how the broker must roll out their implementation and requires the broker to provide all providers with software, a communication toolkit, training, and technical assistance to facilitate NEMT services. The broker may encourage medicaid members (members) to book transportation services at least 2 days before their requested transportation date, and the broker shall accept and make reasonable efforts to fulfill same-day and next-day transportation requests. The act requires providers, only after all service regions have been implemented, to accommodate member requests for preferred or alternate drivers when operationally feasible.     The act requires the broker, and, if there is no broker, the providers to verify that individuals using the transportation services are eligible members during the scheduling of transportation services. The act prohibits the broker from operating, owning, or controlling a provider in Colorado. The act requires the broker to provide their trip assignment rules and procedures to the state department for approval and for publication on the state department's website. The act allows a transportation network company to provide NEMT services when a provider is unavailable.     The state department shall ensure all transportation providers, drivers, and vehicles are credentialed, and services provided by noncredentialed drivers or in noncredentialed vehicles are not eligible for reimbursement. The act prohibits the state department from denying payment of services to providers if the provider provides scheduled transportation services in good faith based on the information provided by the broker or if the provider had no knowledge of an inaccuracy and the provider followed all applicable rules and procedures. Subject to available appropriations, the act requires the state department to audit providers and audit the broker annually.     The act requires the state department to categorize all NEMT expenditures as medical services and make changes to the NEMT program as necessary to obtain medical services federal match rates for NEMT services. The act also eliminates the requirement that the state department provide transportation services as an administrative cost.     The act reduces appropriations to the state department from the general fund by $76,639 and from the healthcare affordability and sustainability hospital provider fee cash fund by $20,941,853.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

The act establishes the ibogaine research pilot program (pilot program) in the behavioral health administration (BHA) to research the safety and effectiveness of using ibogaine to treat mental health conditions and substance use disorders. The act requires the BHA to establish a committee to review pilot program site applications and make recommendations to the BHA on which applicants to accept. The BHA may select up to 5 ibogaine pilot sites. The act allows the BHA to seek, accept, and expend gifts, grants, and donations and establishes the ibogaine research pilot program cash fund. The pilot program is contingent on the BHA receiving sufficient gifts, grants, and donations to administer the pilot program and award grants to the selected ibogaine pilot sites to help with financing needs.     Under current law, the division of natural medicine advisory board consists of 15 voting members, 8 of whom must have general expertise and experience related to natural medicine and 7 of whom must have specialized expertise and experience in various areas of natural medicine. The act amends the expertise and experience requirements to apply equally to all 15 voting members.     The act adds that a facilitator of natural medicine services is not liable for a physical or psychological injury that a participant may experience as a result of the facilitator's performance or supervision of the natural medicine services that a participant receives, unless the injury is the result of the facilitator's intentional misconduct, gross negligence, or a deviation from the recognized standard of care.     The act authorizes the state licensing authority for natural medicine or natural medicine product (state licensing authority) to adopt rules related to the administration, manufacturing, and use of ibogaine.     The act sets requirements for how the state licensing authority must prioritize reviewing applications for licensure to facilitate natural medicine services and allows the state licensing authority to set different licensing fees depending on the type of natural medicine the applicant is seeking licensure for.     The act allows the state licensing authority to accept gifts, grants, and donations from public or private sources and requires gifts, grants, or donations received to be deposited in the regulated natural medicine division cash fund.     The act requires the BHA to work to secure federal research and development funding available through the advanced research projects agency for health within the federal department of health and human services, or other available funding, in order to advance research on the use of ibogaine for the treatment of serious mental illness.     The act updates the powers and duties of the director of the division of professions and occupations to include adopting rules that guide the use and administration of ibogaine.     A licensee seeking to cultivate, manufacture, dispense, or administer ibogaine shall, in consultation with Indigenous communities, establish a benefit-sharing plan that directly benefits those Indigenous communities.     The act:Updates definition of 'administration session' to include the use of regulated natural medicine and regulated natural medicine product that the participant purchases to consume during the administration session;Prohibits a person from advertising bona fide harm reduction services or bona fide support services offered for remuneration, advertising natural medicine or natural medicine products, or using harm reduction services or support services to conduct sales of natural medicine;Clarifies that the state licensing authority is not required to conduct routine, periodic, or pre-operational inspections as a condition of licensure unless expressly required;Requires state licensing authority to adopt rules regarding licensing privileges and restrictions of a limited regulated natural medicine sales license and eligibility requirements for an applicant to obtain a limited regulated natural medicine sales license;Allows the state licensing authority to adopt rules regarding the application procedures and license requirement for a healing center to operate a temporary premises; and requirements for cultivation, manufacture, testing, or dispensing of ibogaine;Allows the department of public health and environment to issue a temporary premises permit to a licensed natural medicine healing center if certain conditions are met and allows a healing center to apply for a temporary premises permit;Prohibits a healing center licensee from selling regulated natural medicine or regulated natural medicine product unless a co-located limited regulated natural medicine sales licensee conducts the transaction in accordance with certain requirements; andAllows the director of the natural medicine division to issue an order to cease and desist if the director determines that a person is acting or has acted without a license to operate a natural medicine business or to own, grow, harvest, transfer, manufacture, supervise, provide, or administer natural medicine.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)