SB 25-290

Senate Bill 25-290, titled "Stabilization Payments for Safety Net Providers," creates a fund that provides financial support to healthcare providers who serve low-income and uninsured Coloradans. The state will lend money from its unclaimed property trust fund to this new provider stabilization fund over several years, starting with $25 million in 2025-26 and decreasing annually until 2029-30. This loan must be repaid by the department by January 1, 2045, but can be paid back earlier if state revenues allow. The bill aims to help safety net providers continue offering essential services without financial strain. It has been signed into law and is now in effect.

Official Summary

The act creates the provider stabilization fund for use by Colorado department of health care policy and financing (department) to distribute provider stabilization payments to safety net providers who provide services to low-income, uninsured individuals on a sliding-fee schedule or at no cost. Provider stabilization payments will be distributed to eligible safety net providers based on the proportion of low-income, uninsured individuals that an individual provider serves in comparison to the total number of low-income, uninsured individuals served by all eligible safety net providers. The state treasurer is directed to make an interest-free loan of interest earnings on the principal in the unclaimed property trust fund (UPTF) and, if the interest earnings are insufficient, from the principal of the UPTF as well, to the provider stabilization fund as follows: $25 million for the 2025-26 state fiscal year; $20 million for the 2026-27 state fiscal year; and $15 million for each of the 2027-28, 2028-29, and 2029-30 state fiscal years. The act specifies that the loan from the UPTF to the provider stabilization fund is an interfund loan that is not classified as revenue, is booked as an interfund receivable or payable, is not state fiscal year spending or state revenues, and does not count against the state fiscal year spending limit or the excess state revenues cap. The department is directed to repay the loan by January 1, 2045, but in any year in which state revenues do not exceed the limit on state fiscal year spending, the department must present to the joint budget committee a proposal to repay all or a portion of the loan at an earlier time, and to the extent possible, the general assembly must prioritize repaying the loan starting in the 2030-31 state fiscal year or sooner if funds are available. The provider stabilization fund also consists of any money the general assembly appropriates, transfers, or credits to the fund and any gifts, grants, or donations the department may receive for the fund. The act directs the department to leverage money in the provider stabilization fund to obtain federal matching money. The act establishes a provider stabilization fund advisory board (advisory board) to assist the department in implementing and administering the provider stabilization fund. The department, with assistance from the advisory board, is required to submit an annual report on the provider stabilization fund to specified committees, the governor, and the medical services board in the department. The advisory board is scheduled for repeal on September 1, 2031, and is subject to a sunset review by the department of regulatory agencies before the repeal. The act appropriates $25,000,000 from the provider stabilization fund to the department to implement the act, allocated as follows: $138,505 for personal services to administer the act, including 2.0 FTE; $15,900 for operating expenses; and $24,845,595 for provider stabilization payments to eligible safety net providers.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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