Department of Public Health and Environment Nursing Home Penalty Fund

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Changes to Nursing Home Penalty Fund Grants

This law changes how the state gives out money from a nursing home penalty fund by following federal priorities and removing old limits on who can apply.

What This Bill Does

• Requires CDPHE to give grants based on priorities and allowable uses set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services instead of current state criteria.
• Updates grant recommendations so they match federal processes, cycles, priorities, and allowed uses.
• Moves the due date for the annual spending report from October 1 to January 1.
• Expands the definition of helping residents to include staff training in addition to education.
• Removes the rule that only government-owned facilities can apply for these grants.

Who It Names or Affects

• The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)
• The Nursing Home Innovations Grant Board
• Nursing care facilities, including those not owned by the government

Terms To Know

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

A federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that identifies priorities and allowable uses for these grants.

Nursing Home Penalty Cash Fund

The fund from which CDPHE distributes grants to nursing facilities.

Limits and Unknowns

• The official text does not state the specific date this law takes effect.
• The summary does not list the exact federal priorities that will now guide grant decisions.

Official Summary Text

Current law requires the department of public health and environment (CDPHE) to consider certain criteria as a basis for distributing grants from the nursing home penalty cash fund (fund). The act strikes these criteria and instead requires CDPHE to distribute such grants in accordance with priorities and allowable uses identified by the centers for medicare and medicaid services within the federal department of health and human services (centers).
Current law requires the nursing home innovations grant board (board) to make recommendations for the approval of grants from the fund. The act requires such recommendations to be consistent with the processes for grant cycles of, and priorities and allowable uses identified by, the centers.
Current law requires CDPHE and the department of health care policy and financing, with the board's assistance, to jointly submit an annual report to the governor and certain legislative committees of reference regarding the expenditure of money in the fund. The act changes the due date of the report from October 1 to January 1.
In current law, the term 'benefit residents of nursing facilities' is defined to mean that a grant has a direct impact on the residents of nursing facilities or has an indirect impact on the residents through education of nursing facility staff. The act amends this definition to include training, as well as education, of nursing facility staff.
Current law states that a governmental entity may not apply for or receive a grant from the fund unless the entity is a facility that is owned or operated by a governmental agency and licensed as a nursing care facility. The act removes this restriction.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)