The Legislature will convene on January 14 and adjourn on or before May 13.
Also in Colorado, the Attorney General’s Office and the Colorado Opioid Abatement Council (COAC) announced up to $23 million in new statewide opioid abatement funding available through grant opportunities. Round 4 Infrastructure Funding Opportunity prioritizes capital or operational investments in rural, underserved or disproportionately impacted communities, and encourages collaborative or multi-organization proposals.
Also in Colorado, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) and Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) are currently developing a Prospective Payment System (PPS) Guardrails Plan and seeking feedback from our partners. PPS is a flexible, advanced reimbursement model tying payment to daily encounters instead of to individual services. It is provider-specific and based on each provider’s unique cost structure, designed to cover a safety net provider’s actual cost of services. The Guardrails Plan will detail the structure of the PPS payment, financial and data reporting requirements and quality requirements. It will also explain the monitoring and oversight processes, and potential impacts of noncompliance. The first stakeholder session is scheduled for January 23 from 11:00 am to 12:00 noon. Please register in advance in Zoom. Contact hcpf_bhbenefits@state.co.us with any questions.
Finally in Colorado, the Board of Pharmacy voted unanimously to make permanent rules regarding pharmacists’ authority to provide immunizations. The emergency rule changes from September 5, 2025, delink pharmacists’ immunizations authority from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines, and grant authority for pharmacists to independently prescribe any vaccine under their own license/NPI (National Provider Identifier), and got rid of the need for a physician authorization protocol. These rules were sent to the Secretary of State to be published in the Colorado Register and take effect no later than January 14.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Mary Staples at 817-442-1155.