Increasing Access To Reproductive Health Care

Sections 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the bill change the defined term "HIV infection prevention drug", as it appears and is used in several areas of law, to "HIV prevention drug".Section 2 also:

• Adds the women's preventive services guidelines of the

health resources and services administration in the United States department of health and human services to the mandatory preventive health-care services coverage for health benefit plans;

• Specifies that the mandatory preventive health-care services benefit for counseling for, prevention of, and screening for sexually transmitted infection includes HIV prevention drugs and the services necessary for initiation and continued use of an HIV prevention drug, as described in the bill, based on the most recent guidelines and clinical guidance;
• Requires large employer plans, on and after January 1, 2025, to provide coverage for the total cost of abortion care without policy deductibles, copayments, or coinsurance. Individual and small group plans must provide this coverage if the federal department of health and human services confirms the state's determination that the coverage is not subject to state defrayal pursuant to federal law. To the extent required by binding federal jurisprudence, employers are exempted from providing coverage if providing coverage conflicts with the employer's sincerely held religious beliefs.

Section 3 also prohibits a health insurance carrier from requiring a covered person to undergo step therapy or to receive prior authorization before a health-care provider may prescribe or dispense a medication for the treatment of HIV.Section 4 prohibits a carrier from imposing deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, annual or lifetime maximum benefits, or other cost sharing on coverage for:

• The treatment of a sexually transmitted infection; or
• Sterilization services, which coverage must be provided regardless of the covered person's gender.

With the minor's consent, section 6 allows a health-care provider acting within the scope of the health-care provider's license, certificate, or registration to furnish contraceptive procedures, supplies, or information to the minor without notification to or the consent of the minor's parent or parents, legal guardian, or any other person having custody of or decision-making responsibility for the minor.Sections 7 and 8 expand the reproductive health-care program administered by the department of health care policy and financing (department) to include additional family planning services and family-planning-related services and allow individuals under 19 years of age to apply for and enroll themselves in the program.Section 9 requires the department to reimburse licensed health-care providers for family planning services and family-planning-related services provided to a minor and creates a cash fund from which the general assembly may appropriate money to the department for this purpose. Section 10 exempts the cash fund from the limit on uncommitted cash fund reserves.Section 11 requires nonemergency medical transportation services under the state medical assistance program to include expenses for transportation to medical services that are prohibited from coverage pursuant to section 50 of article V of the Colorado constitution.Section 12 of the bill prohibits the use under the state medical assistance program of utilization management, including prior authorization and step therapy, for prescription drugs prescribed for the treatment or prevention of HIV.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)