The Colorado legislative session ended on Monday at midnight this week. It was a long 120 days this year but many great victories resulted from the advocacy of the CDA and its members. Your CDA Government Relations Council of volunteer dentists and our lobbying team poured hundreds of hours into research, strategy and lobbying this year. Please read below to learn how the CDA advocates for YOU and your patients.
Spotlight Legislation: Dental Insurance Transparency Bill (SB23-179)
PASSED!
The CDA’s priority bill this session, SB23-179, has passed with a broad majority of support.
This bill will create transparency through mandatory consistent data reporting by all dental insurance plans. Data will be reported on a single state website that makes it easy for patients, dentists and others to review and compare dental plan performance concerning how patient premium dollars are spent. Under the bill, the state’s Division of Insurance can implement enforcement and accountability backstops for dental plans that are obvious outliers in terms of low premium spend on patient care.
Your patients pay a lot in dental insurance premiums, and they deserve for those funds to go to their dental treatment and care.
Other Legislative Victories
The CDA monitored over 50 bills this session. A full report will be available soon. Of interest, we wanted to spotlight two other bills that passed this year.
Virtual Credit Cards: HB23-1116 PASSED, which is an insurance reform bill that requires payments from insurance companies to providers in a manner that DOES NOT incur fees to redeem payment (such as a virtual credit card).
Geriatric Care: SB23-031 PASSED, which will provide increased access to care for older Coloradans by funding and implementing geriatric education tracks for healthcare professionals including dentists.
Medicaid and Budget Wins!
Major victories occurred this year in the Colorado legislature that have direct benefits for our patients.
- The annual maximum limit for the adult Medicaid dental benefit was ELIMINATED, allowing full patient treatment plans to be delivered without delays! This will go into effect on July 1, 2023.
- Co-pays for Medicaid services were removed.
- $14M of funding was designated for dental (and other) services delivered by Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs).
- Medicaid provider rates will be increased by 3% starting July 1, 2023.
- A condensed Medicaid dental rate review by the state of the 24 most used codes was granted upon CDA request and will occur later this year. A complete rate review will occur in 2024.