Colorado Legislative Updates (12/05/2022)

Medicaid Increase Asks for FY 2022-23:

The HHAC lobby team has worked with members of our Legislative Committee from both home health and HCBS to decide what our asks to the Joint Budget Committee will be this year for Medicaid rate increases.

On the HCBS side, the decision was made to ask for an 8.9% increase for Denver to match the anticipated rise in local minimum wage come January 1, 2023 and a statewide increase of 8.6% to match inflation over the last year.

On the Home Health side, we are asking for a $20 increase for private duty nursing for both LPNs and RNs. In addition, they would like to see an increase in physical therapy and occupation therapy rates to match speech therapy rates. 

Direct Supervision for Speech Therapy Assistants:

A few home health agencies brought forth an issue regarding speech therapy visits that is making it hard to place families. Currently, speech therapy assistants may only perform home health visits under direct supervision, which means that a speech therapy must be present as well. This is not the case for physical therapy and occupational therapy assistants.

We have begun meeting with DORA, CDPHE and HCPF regarding this issue. There may be a regulatory fix available. However, if this is not the case it is likely we would need to run a bill to ease this restriction on speech therapy assistants.

HB22-1246 Rulemaking:

The State Board of Pharmacy held a rulemaking to implement our proactive bill from last session, H22-1246 which will give hospice inpatient units the opportunity to register as specialized prescription drug outlets (SPDO) so they may utilize automated pharmacy dispensing machines.

The approved rule simply adds hospice to a list of other long-term care facilities that currently may register as SPDOs. It is expected that hospices can apply and pay a fee for this designation beginning January 1, 2023.