The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has adopted new rules regarding changes in ownership of healthcare facilities and surprise billing requirements, Chicago-based law firm Husch Blackwell reported in an Aug. 18 legal update.
Here are five things to know about the new rules:
1. All healthcare facilities must notify the state and submit a change of ownership application 60 days prior to the transaction.
2. The change in application process will particularly affect facilities that were previously subject to a 30-day timeframe for change of ownership applications, including:
- Assisted living residences
- Home care agencies
- Facilities for people with developmental disabilities
- Outpatient mental healthcare facilities
- Extended care facilities, or hospices with 16 or fewer inpatient beds
3. Colorado law previously required that in certain circumstances, healthcare facilities had to provide patients with a state-specific disclosure explaining when surprise billing is prohibited. However, this law was determined to be adding administrative burden for providers also charged with providing a federally compliant disclosure. As such, facilities will no longer need a state-specific disclosure under the new law, and can use forms that comply with the federal No Surprises Act, so long as those forms include a state-specific sentence detailing the state law.
4. Colorado has also aligned its state law with the federal requirements for when these disclosures are required.
5. Colorado surprise billing rules apply only to hospitals, critical access hospitals, HOPDs, ASCs and other facilities licensed to provide emergency services. However, the federal No Surprises Act does not include this limitation.
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