Discounted Care for Indigent Patients

Current law requires a health-care facility to screen each uninsured patient for eligibility for public health insurance programs, discounted care through the Colorado indigent care program (CICP), and discounted care otherwise not reimbursed through the CICP. A patient qualifies for discounted care if the individual's household income is not more than 250% of the federal poverty level and the individual received a health-care service at a health-care facility (facility). The bill limits the health-care services to those received in an inpatient or outpatient hospital setting and adds the requirement that a patient attest to residing in Colorado.

The licensed health-care professional who provides services to a patient is responsible for billing the patient for those services, unless the services are billed on a comprehensive bill issued by a health-care facility.

Current law prohibits a health-care facility and licensed health-care professional (professional) from collecting amounts charged that are more than 4% of the patient's monthly household income on a bill from a facility and that are more than 2% of the patient's monthly household income on a bill from each professional. The bill adds the requirement that a facility or professional cannot collect amounts charged that are more than 6% of the patient's household income on a comprehensive bill containing both facility and professional charges.

The bill authorizes a health-care facility to deny discounted care to a patient if, during the initial screening, the patient is determined to be presumptively eligible for medicaid.

The bill excludes primary care provided in a clinic that is located in a designated rural or frontier county and offers a sliding-fee scale from receiving discounted care.

Current law requires each facility to report to the department of health care policy and financing (department) data that the department determines is necessary to evaluate compliance across race, ethnicity, age, and primary-language-spoken patient groups with the screening, discounted care, payment plan, and collections practices. The bill requires professionals, in addition to facilities, to submit the data.

The bill authorizes a licensed or certified hospital to determine presumptive eligibility for medicaid.

(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.)