Immunizations, Housing, Pharmaceutical Costs: 2020 Bills Focus on Health

Allie Morgan

February 14, 2020
Health Care Costs
Legislation and Policy
Payment Reform

Happy Valentine’s Day to all our friends in Health Policy Land! We appreciate everything you do to help Coloradans live healthier lives. We humbly submit this contribution as part of our favorite annual tradition, Twitter’s #HealthPolicyValentines:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Colorado leads on policy innovation

And it’s all thanks to you!

Legislators are sticking with their resolution to introduce and debate bills earlier in this year’s session. In 2019, bills were unusually slow to trickle in, leading to a mad dash in the session’s final two weeks that required legislators and staff to work until the wee hours of the morning, sometimes for days at time. Only 404 bills were introduced by the 2019 session’s 62nd day, which is just past the halfway point; this year, on the 38th day, there are 468 bills.

Is it possible this means no 2 a.m. hearings in 2020? Maybe, maybe not — especially considering that some of the biggest policy proposals have yet to be introduced, including bills focused on the public option and a paid family and medical leave insurance (FAMLI) program. But it’s a nice thought.

CHI is tracking more than 100 bills that relate to health this session. The year’s health policy agenda ranges from immunizations to housing to the cost of prescription drugs. A few notable ideas on the table:

  • Pharmaceutical Costs (House Bill (HB) 1160 and Senate Bill (SB) 107): These two bills aim to create more transparency around pharmaceutical costs and pricing in Colorado. They would enact new requirements impacting insurance carriers, drug manufacturers, and pharmacy benefit managers, and would charge the Division of Insurance with helping to review and regulate costs. Both bills passed their first committee hearings this week.
  • Cost-Sharing Payments (SB 5): If SB 5 succeeds, insurance carriers would be required to collect any cost-sharing, such as copayments, directly from patients in a single consolidated bill. Nothing would be collected by health care providers. Senate leadership viewed this proposal as a step toward billing transparency and simplification, leading to the choice to introduce it as one of the chamber’s first bills. Its initial committee hearing is scheduled for February 20.
  • Mental Health Wellness Examinations (HB 1086): Sponsored by Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet (D-Commerce City), one of the legislature’s leaders in behavioral health policy, HB 1086 would require insurers to cover an annual mental health wellness examination lasting up to one hour at no cost to patients. It’s an attempt to improve parity in coverage between mental and physical health care — a no-cost preventive wellness visit is already available to insured Coloradans, but a similar benefit hasn’t existed for behavioral health. The bill passed a House health committee on January 29 and is being considered in House Appropriations today.
  • Supporting Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Services (SB 7): One of several notable SUD-related proposals, SB 7 is a complex bill with 65 sections. Among its components: requiring more community assessments of existing SUD services and expanding loan forgiveness and scholarship options for providers who offer treatment. Most of the requested funding would come from the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund. It passed the Senate Health and Human Services committee on January 30 and goes next to Senate Appropriations.
  • Housing for People With Behavioral Health Disorders (HB 1035): Policymakers are increasingly pointing to housing as an important influence on health, and this link is especially clear for Coloradans with behavioral health disorders. This bill aims to build capacity for offering supportive housing services to people struggling with these conditions who are also homeless (or at risk of becoming so) and involved with the criminal or juvenile justice system. This would be accomplished through new trainings, grant programs, and data tracking. HB 1035 passed the House Transportation and Local Government on January 29 and is waiting for a date in House Appropriations — which will likely struggle with the bill’s large price tag, given a tight state budget this year.
  • Importing Prescription Drugs (SB 119): A follow up to SB 19-005, SB 119 seeks to include additional countries as options for importing less expensive prescription drugs. Early indications are that the Canadian government isn’t an enthusiastic participant in the new arrangement, likely because sending drugs to U.S. consumers could disrupt the country’s own pharmaceutical market. While four other states have also passed laws to important drugs from our neighbors to the north, nothing has crossed the border yet. SB 119 passed its first hearing yesterday on a party-line vote with Democrats in favor.
  • Immunizations (SB 163): After months of rumors about the contents of this bill, SB 163 was introduced earlier this week. It would take steps to reduce Colorado’s non-medical exemption rate for school children but attempts to do so in a way that won’t jeopardize the support of Gov. Jared Polis, who opposed a similar bill last session. The new iteration would standardize the exemption request process and require more from parents asking to opt their children out of vaccines. Its first hearing is scheduled for February 19.
  • Network Limitations (HB 1264): The bill would prohibit hospital systems from placing limitations or requirements on the facilities with which insurance carriers can contract. Hospitals say they are opposed because they don’t do the things HB 1264 is seeking to forbid — but the fact that they theoretically are allowed to may help keep insurance networks narrow and prices in check. A date has not been set for its first committee hearing.

It’s a busy year for health, and the CHI team will continue track these bills and provide analysis, briefings, and presentations to legislators and town hall meetings throughout the session.

We feel lucky to work in this space — and to learn from so many of you.

XOXO, CHI

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