Recent Colorado Legislative Efforts Pertaining to Nursing and Surgery
HB 21-1005 Concerning the establishment of the health care services reserve corps task force: …cross training medical professionals to serve the state in an emergency or disaster, and receive student loan relief.
HB 21-1021 Concerning supporting the peer support professional workforce with appropriations: …permits a recovery support service organization to charge and submit for reimbursement from the medical assistance program certain services provided by peer support professionals.
HB-21-1184 Concerning Physician Assistants, establishing requirements for health benefit plans to change the relationship from Supervision to Collaborative: …where a PA is recognized, and functions as a primary care provider, and may bill as such.
HB- 21-1219 Concerning a special license plate to recognize nurses in Colorado: …beginning as early as Jan 15, 2022, to qualify: applicants can pay fees and taxes to the nursing foundation to not to exceed $100 for a Colorado Nurses License Plate.
SB- 21-092 Concerning the continuation of the regulation of persons who assist surgeons: …continuing the registration program for surgical technologists and surgical assistants for another 7 years, until 2028. …requiring anyone who has had their registration revoked to wait 2 years before reapplication.
SB- 21-156 Concerning the creation of a pilot grant program for the use of nurses in 911 dispatch to help divert incoming 911 calls that do not require emergency medical service to other types of medical care. …a pilot grant program to be implemented on or before Jan 1, 2022. …specifically in 4 counties; 1 county of 60,000 residents or more, and 3 counties of 60,000 or less, the division of homeland security and emergency management in the dept of public safety. …nurses in these counties will be trained to provide nurse intake of 911 calls with the purpose of diversion from Emergency services as appropriate. On June 1, 2023, said program will report to the committees of the Senate and the House on the program.
This session ends June 12, 2021. The Governor has 30 days, until July 12, 2021, to sign in to law any legislation from this session. See calendar.
Colorado Nurses Advocate for Surgical Smoke Evacuation Law
Some of our very own perioperative nurses took it into their hands to advocate for a surgical smoke evacuation law. Their hard work paid off. On March 28, 2019, Governor Jared Polis signed into law a surgical smoke bill that will protect Colorado perioperative nurses and surgical team members from the harmful effects of plume. Following in Rhode Island’s footsteps, Colorado became the second state in the nation to require facilities to adopt and implement a policy that prevents human exposure to surgical smoke via the use of a surgical smoke evacuation system. The new law covers all planned surgical procedures likely to generate surgical smoke. Read more…
