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JBC directs staff to draft change to move nursing provider fee into HAS enterprise to free TABOR space
Summary
The Joint Budget Committee voted March 7 to ask staff to draft legislation to include the nursing provider fee within the existing hospital provider fee enterprise, a move intended to preserve TABOR capacity and allow the state to draw additional federal matching dollars for nursing facility supplemental payments.
The Joint Budget Committee on March 7 approved staff authority to draft statutory changes that would move Colorado’s nursing facility provider fee into the existing Health Care Affordability and Sustainability (HAS) enterprise mechanism that already governs the hospital provider fee.
Staff explained the move would not create a new enterprise; rather, it would make the nursing provider fee subject to enterprise accounting, which removes that fee revenue from the TABOR limit calculation and therefore reduces the state’s subsequent TABOR‑related General Fund obligations. The department and staff told members the change would not require new federal approval because the state already has statutory authority to assess nursing facility provider fees and to make supplemental payments; this action would only change state‑level treatment of the revenue.
JBC staff noted that the state is currently collecting less than the statutory maximum for nursing provider fees, and that bringing the fee under the enterprise could allow the state to increase fee collections and thereby draw additional federal matching funds (staff projected potential additional federal funds in the tens of millions, depending on the policy chosen). Several members expressed concern about enterprise growth and legislative oversight; staff said any future spending from the nursing provider fee would remain subject to appropriation by the General Assembly.
After discussion, the committee voted 6‑0 to give staff authority to work with Legislative Legal Services to draft implementing legislation to include nursing provider fees in the HAS enterprise. Members said the draft will come back to the committee and that appropriation of any future dollars would require explicit JBC and legislative action.
