Legislative

Updates

Are you concerned about where emergency medicine is going and who is working for your personal concerns? Emergency physicians face a wide variety of challenges in an era of rapid change. We must be united to protect our specialty and to protect our patients. The Colorado Chapter of Emergency Physicians is your voice for those concerns!

Advocacy

One of the most important values of Colorado ACEP membership is having your rights and interests represented at the state capitol. As a strong, unified professional organization we have taken many steps to empower physicians and to protect our patients. We have enjoyed several important successes as a result, including but not limited to:

  • Reimbursement
  • Medical Liability Reform
  • Emergency Medical and Prehospital Services
  • Statewide Trauma

CoACEP Small Donor Committee

One of the important values of Colorado ACEP membership is having your rights and interests represented at the State Capitol. As a strong, unified professional organization, it is imperative that we be proactive at the Capitol to protect our practices and to ensure we are able to provide the best quality care possible of our patients.  To that end, Colorado ACEP would like to invite you to contribute up to $50 annually to the Colorado ACEP Small Donor Committee.  This money will go a long way to help us continue to fight for you and to expand our influence at the legislature.  Contribute here!

Important Legislative Links

UPDATED June 13, 2023

The 30-day time period Governor Polis had to sign, veto or allow a bill to become law without his signature expired last week. The final disposition of the 2023 legislative proposals has just been released. The Governor sign 98% of the bills sent to him totaling 473. He vetoed a record number for him – 10 bills, four of which were bi-partisan. He allowed one additional bill to become law without his signature. (None of our bills of interest were impacted by the vetoes.)  The link to all of the bills CO ACEP was working appears here.

 

May 11, 2023

It is important to begin by thanking the dedicated members of the CO ACEP legislative committee and those members who came to the Capitol to testify.  When a Colorado EM physician comes to the Capitol, legislators pay attention.  That said, midnight on Monday, May 8th could not have come soon enough.  The Colorado Constitution grants the Colorado General Assembly 120 days each year to complete the State’s work.  May 8thmarked the 120th day.

Considering the political polarization of this General Assembly, CO ACEP was able to carefully navigate the 680+ bills introduced into this legislative session.  Once again, health care policy was a primary theme, along with TABOR, taxes, housing, guns, abortion, and state versus local control of land use to name a few.  Your CO ACEP identified 73 bills impactful to the practice and profession of emergency medicine and it’s patients.

This session we:

  • Drove amendments ensuring appropriate collaboration between physicians and physician assistants (SB23-083)
  • Responded to the opioid crisis with appropriate treatment for patients with chronic pain (SB23-144)
  • Protected physicians from unnecessary processing fees when being reimbursed for billed claims (HB23-1116)
  • Beat back efforts from trial lawyers that would have increased rates, number of settlements and exposed physicians to personal liability (HB23-1192)
  • Ensured EM physicians were not in put a position to violate EMTALA by being forced to discuss costs of care prior to the provision of emergency care (SB23-093)
  • Successfully advocated to allow EM physicians to petition for an extreme risk protection order (SB23-170)

Our focus has already shifted to preparation for the 2024 legislative session.  As we look forward it is important to remember that the same 100 legislators and first floor participants (aka the Governor and his staff) will be coming back next year, therefore we can expect much of the same. The CO ACEP Board of Directors is actively involved in a coalition to preserve Colorado’s non-economic damages caps which are currently under threat as well as pursuing legislation to remove roadblocks impeding Colorado EM physicians from providing the highest quality care to their patients.

The strength of CO ACEP’s advocacy lies within our members.  If you are interested in shaping the future advocacy of CO ACEP, we encourage you to become involved.  Additionally, I encourage you to contribute $50 to the CO ACEP small donor committee. With the contribution of your time and $50, CO ACEP can continue to preserve and promote emergency medicine in Colorado.

 


Dan Jablan
Colorado ACEP Lobbyist