Your home for health care advocacy updates straight from Colorado's Capitol Hill.

Jan. 2, 2024

An update on efforts to preserve medical liability caps

As you know, medical liability caps play a crucial role in maintaining a balance that ensures fair compensation for patients while protecting health care providers from excessive financial burdens. We’ve been made aware of an effort to eliminate Colorado’s long-held caps on non-economic damages (defined as subjective, non-quantifiable losses such as reduced quality of life, pain, and emotional trauma), including those that apply in medical liability cases, by placing one or more measures on the statewide ballot in November 2024. Along with COPIC, the Colorado Hospital Association and many others, the Colorado Medical Society is closely monitoring the situation as it progresses. Please stay tuned to our PolicyPulse and ASAP e-newsletters for future updates and look for Code Blue calls to action if and when your voice is needed on this issue.

2024 legislative priority: Prior authorization reform

CMS leading the fight on prior authorization reform

In 2024, one of the Colorado Medical Society's major legislative priorities is prior authorization reform. We are working with trusted partners in the House of Medicine and our legislative champions -- Rep. Shannon Bird (D), Rep. Lisa Frizell (R), Sen. Dylan Roberts (D) and Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer (R) -- to pass a bill that removes unnecessary barriers to necessary care. Learn more about the bill (not yet introduced and numbered) through our fact sheet here.

Remove barriers to timely care between Colorado doctors, patients

Check out an op-ed by CMS President Omar Mubarak, MD, MBA, that was published in Colorado Politics on Dec. 27. Dr. Mubarak lays out facts:

Nine out of 10 patients surveyed nationally believe medical decisions should be made between a patient and their provider — not by an insurance carrier.
Unfortunately, however, 94% of physicians report delays in patient care due to prior authorization challenges, and 80% have stated it can even result in patients abandoning treatment.
Even more disturbing, 25% of doctors reported a delay in care due to a prior authorization issue leading to patient hospitalization, 19% reported a life-threatening event, and 9% reported an event leading to disability, permanent damage or death.

Health can't wait, Colorado: As we lead this fight, it is going to take a lot of work. Stay tuned to action alerts and share your stories and those from your patients about when prior authorization has prevented a critical, life-saving procedure or prescription for medication.

Physicians are in your corner, Colorado!

As a new year begins, we’re calling attention to a new campaign that has been launched to highlight the good things happening in Colorado health care. You may recognize the featured physicians: CMS past president Michael Pramenko, MD, of Grand Junction; member of the Colorado delegation to the AMA Carolynn Francavilla Brown, MD, of Lakewood; and Boulder County Medical Society Board of Directors member Daniel Moon, MD, of Boulder.

Who do you know under the gold dome?

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Any individual 18 and older can contribute. Contribution limits apply. $50/year to the SDC; $725/election cycle to COMPAC. If you think you may have met the contribution limit already, contact [email protected].

In addition to our advocacy to reduce administrative burden, the Colorado Medical Society and Colorado Physician Health Program are proud to provide three free, one-hour, confidential, pre-clinical peer wellbeing consultation sessions for any Colorado physician or medical student. Call 720-810-9131 to set up your first consultation today for any reason; most common calls are for burnout, stress or a situational concern. Learn more about the program at cms.org/Doc2Doc.

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