SB 24-068

Senate Bill 24-068, also known as the Medical Aid-in-Dying bill in Colorado, updates existing laws to allow advanced practice registered nurses to evaluate and prescribe medication for medical aid-in-dying, similar to what doctors can do. It also reduces the waiting period between requests from 15 days to 7 days and allows healthcare providers to waive this wait if a patient is expected to die within 48 hours. The bill ensures that federal funding requirements won’t override these provisions and protects patients by prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage or pressuring individuals to use medical aid-in-dying. This bill was signed into law on June 5, 2024, and will take effect on August 7, 2024.

Official Summary

Current law authorizes an individual with a terminal illness to request, and the individual's attending physician to prescribe to the individual, medication to hasten the individual's death (medical aid-in-dying). The act modifies the medical aid-in-dying laws by: Providing an advanced practice registered nurse with the same authority to evaluate an individual and prescribe medication as a physician; Adding language specifying that if any end-of-life options conflict with requirements to receive federal money, the conflicting part is inoperative and the remainder of the law will continue to operate; and Reducing the waiting period between oral requests from 15 days to 7 days and allowing attending providers to waive the mandatory waiting period if the patient is unlikely to survive more than 48 hours and meets all other qualifications. The act also prohibits certain insurers from: Denying or altering health-care or life insurance benefits otherwise available to a covered individual with a terminal illness based on the availability of medical aid-in-dying; or Attempting to coerce an individual with a terminal illness to make a request for medical aid-in-dying medication. APPROVED by Governor June 5, 2024 EFFECTIVE August 7, 2024(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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