Stabilization Payments for Safety Net Providers

The bill creates the provider stabilization fund within the Colorado healthcare affordability and sustainability enterprise (enterprise) department of health care policy and financing (department) to distribute provider stabilization payments to safety net providers who provide services to low-income, uninsured individuals on a sliding-fee schedule or at no cost. Provider stabilization payments will be distributed to eligible safety net providers based on the proportion of low-income, uninsured individuals that an individual provider serves in comparison to the total number of low-income, uninsured individuals served by all eligible safety net providers.

The bill directs the state treasurer to credit make an interest-free loan of interest earnings on the principal in the unclaimed property trust fund (UPTF) and, if the interest earnings are insufficient, from the principal of the UPTF to the provider stabilization fund as follows:

• $25 million for the 2025-26 state fiscal year;
• $20 million for the 2026-27 state fiscal year; and
• $15 million for the 2027-28, and subsequent 2028-29, and 2029-30 state fiscal years.

The bill specifies that the loan from the UPTF to the provider stabilization fund is an interfund loan that is not classified as revenue, is booked as an interfund receivable or payable, is not state fiscal year spending or state revenues, and does not count against the state fiscal year spending limit or the excess state revenues cap. The department is directed to repay the loan by January 1, 2045, but in any year in which state revenues do not exceed the limit on state fiscal year spending, the department must present to the joint budget committee a proposal to repay all or a portion of the loan at an earlier time.

The provider stabilization fund also consists of any money the general assembly appropriates, transfers, or credits to the fund and any gifts, grants, or donations the enterprise department may receive for the fund. The bill directs the enterprise department to leverage money in the provider stabilization fund to obtain federal matching money.

The bill establishes a provider stabilization fund enterprise support advisory board (advisory board) to assist the enterprise department in implementing and administering the provider stabilization fund. The enterprise's governing department, with assistance from the advisory board, is required to submit an annual report on the provider stabilization fund to specified committees, the governor, and the medical services board in the department. of health care policy and financing. The advisory board is scheduled for repeal on September 1, 2031, and is subject to a sunset review by the department of regulatory agencies before the repeal. The bill appropriates $25,000,000 from the provider stabilization fund to the department to implement the bill, allocated as follows:

• $138,505 for personal services to administer the bill, including 2.0 FTE;
• $15,900 for operating expenses; and
• $24,845,595 for provider stabilization payments to eligible safety net providers.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)