Our Work
This week’s big news: The proposal to change the Hospital Provider Fee to an enterprise fund has passed the House. But its future depends on which Senate committee gets to hear it first. That will be determined by Senate President Bill Cadman (R), who has opposed converting the fee.
Thirteen weekdays (and three more CHI blogs) remain in this legislative session. Nearly 650 bills have been introduced, and at last count, fewer than 100 have crossed the finish line and received a signature from Governor Hickenlooper.
We love the legislature, and we’re passionate about tracking health bills — but even we can admit that our weekly legislative blogs have become a bit verbose. Extended. Detailed.
They’re long.
We spent the past two weeks tracking the budget, House Bill 1405, which passed the Senate on Thursday on a 30-5 vote. But a lot more has been going on at the Capitol.
Thursday 1:30 p.m.: Public health advocates are breathing easier this afternoon, now that the Senate has wrapped up its debate on amendments to the Long Bill.
This post concludes our rolling budget blog. We will post budget updates next week in our regular legislative blog. Thanks for following along.
This just in. The newest state revenue forecasts released Friday morning contain some sobering economic projections, news that may impact the contentious debate this session over the Hospital Provider Fee.
BLOG UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-2 vote on March 1, sided with Liberty Mutual, the insurance company that objects to the Vermont law requiring all health insurers to report claims data.
One of the few areas where Republicans and Democrats can agree during this contentious year is that greater transparency in our health care system is a good thing. But that didn’t help a House Democrat this week who wanted to bring greater transparency to drug prices.
We knew when western Colorado health insurance prices skyrocketed this year that the region’s legislators would have something to say about it. This week, they spoke loud and clear.