Colorado New Legislation

HB25-1222: Preserving Access to Rural Pharmacies

Programs Affected: 

• Pharmacy

On May 27, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed HB25-1222: Preserving Access to Rural Pharmacies into law. This bill specifies that a prescription drug outlet that is a rural independent pharmacy does not need to be under the direct charge of a pharmacist if the initial interpretation and final evaluation of the prescription is done by a Colorado licensed pharmacist in person or remotely. The bill also requires pharmacy benefit managers to reimburse independent rural pharmacies no less than the national average drug acquisition cost and a dispensing fee and establishes additional notification requirements for pharmacy benefit managers when subjecting a rural independent pharmacy to a recoupment of funds or a penalty of more than one thousand dollars as the result of an audit.

HB25-1270: Patient’s Right to Try Individual Treatments

Programs Affected: 

• All Healthcare Professions

On May 19, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed HB25-1270: Patient’s Right to Try Individual Treatments into law. This bill asserts that a licensing board shall not revoke, fail to renew, suspend, or take any action against a health-care provider’s license solely on the provider’s recommendation to a patient regarding access to or treatment with an individualized investigational drug, biological product, or device, as long as the recommendation is consistent with medical standards of care. Additionally, action against a health-care provider’s Medicare certification based solely on their recommendation that a patient has access to the items listed above, is prohibited. 

HB 25-1284: Regulating Apprentices in Licensed Trades

Programs Affected: 

• Electrical
• Plumbing

On June 3, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed HB25-1284, Regulating Apprentices in Licensed Trades into law. This bill prohibits electrical and plumbing contractors from registering an apprentice with the board if the apprentice is participating in an apprenticeship program registered with the CDLE  unless the apprentice is enrolled in an apprenticeship program that is training the apprentice for an occupation officially recognized by the United States Department of Labor as an electrical or plumbing occupation. If the Board determines that an apprentice is not in compliance with the provisions of this bill, the Board will notify the electrical or plumbing contractor that registered the apprentice with the Board. If the Board cannot verify that an apprentice is eligible to be registered as an electrical or plumbing apprentice within sixty days after notice of noncompliance, the Board will remove the apprentice’s registration with the Board.

HB25-1285: Veterinary Workforce Requirements

Programs Affected: 

• Veterinary

On May 30, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed HB25-1285: Veterinary Workforce Requirements into law. This bill makes amendments to requirements for the veterinary professional associate as established in Proposition 129. Effective on January 1, 2026, any individual who intends to practice as a VPA must be registered by the board. The bill also  clarifies that a licensed veterinarian may delegate the practice of veterinary medicine to a veterinary professional associate if the licensed veterinarian has signed an agreement with the veterinary professional associate; if the supervising licensed veterinary is located at the same veterinary premises as the veterinary professional associate; and given that the licensed veterinarian is supervising the veterinary professional associate under either immediate supervision or direct supervision when the VPA is practicing veterinary medicine. A VPA may practice veterinary medicine under indirect supervision if the VPA meets the requisite clinical benchmarks. Additionally, the bill gives the board authority to adopt rules to approve a nationally recognized veterinary professional associate credentialing organization, while also requiring continuing education for veterinary professional associates. A supervisory agreement for a licensed veterinarian to supervise a VPA should not be a condition of a veterinarian's continued employment under any corporation, employer, director, or officer. However, each VPA shall enter into an agreement with every licensed veterinarian that will supervise the VPA in the VPA’s performance of veterinary medicine. A VPA must clearly identify themselves to the client, both visually and verbally, as a VPA. More information is available here.

HB25-1306: Alphabetizing Plumbing Profession Definitions

Programs Affected: 

• Plumbing

On May 16, 2025, Governor Polis signed HB25-1306: Alphabetizing Plumbing Profession Definitions into law. This bill reorganizes the plumbing profession definitions into alphabetical order in the plumbing practice act. 

HB 25-1309: Protect Access to Gender Affirming Care

Programs Affected: 

• Medical
• Nursing
• Pharmacy

On May 23, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed HB25-1309: Protect Access to Gender Affirming Care into law. The bill exempts prescriptions for testosterone from the tracking requirements of the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) and blocks archived records from view. Furthermore, this bill mandates that health insurance carriers provide coverage for medically necessary gender-affirming care defined in §10-16-104(3), C.R.S. as determined by the physical or behavioral healthcare provider who prescribes the gender-affirming care.  The bill also adds that the Health Insurance Affordability board may seek gifts, grants, and donations to cover the costs of ensuring compliance in the individual market with the federal Hyde amendment (or similar amendment), and to cover the costs of ensuring that Coloradans have access to legally protected health care activities. 

HB25-1326: Updating Safety Net Provider Terminology

Programs Affected: 

• All Mental Health Professions

On May 30, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed HB25-1326, Updating Safety Net Provider Terminology, into law. This bill removes the references to the definitions of “community mental health center” and “community mental health clinic” in statute that were previously repealed in HB22-1278.

SB25-146: Fingerprint Based Background Checks

Programs Affected: 

• Audiology
• Dental
• Funeral and Mortuary Science Services
• Medical
• Occupational Therapy
• Speech-Language Pathology

On June 2, 2026, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB25-146: Fingerprint Based Background Checks into law. This bill allows a regulator to require an application for licensure, certification, or registration to submit a fingerprint based criminal history record check for the following professions: 

• Audiologists
• Certified midwives
• Cremationists
• Dental hygienists
• Dentists
• Embalmers
• Funeral Directors
• Licensed Professional Counselors
• Mortuary Science Practitioners
• Natural Reductionists
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Physician Assistants
• Social Workers
• Speech-Language Pathologists.

Applicants are required to pay any costs associated with the history record check. The applicant shall have their fingerprints taken by a local law enforcement agency, or a third party approved by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. If the results of the criminal history record check reveal a record of arrest without a disposition, the Department shall require the applicant to submit a name-based judicial record check.

Note that requirements for these professions were already in place. This bill aligns language with federal law. 
 

SB25-152: Health-Care Practitioner Identification Requirements

Programs Affected: 

• All Healthcare Professions

On May 5, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB25-152: Health-Care Practitioner Identification Requirements into law. Beginning June 1, 2026, this bill requires advertisements for healthcare-related services that identify a healthcare practitioner by name must also identify the type of state-issued license, certificate, or registration held by the practitioner. Additionally, under this bill, a healthcare practitioner providing services in a general hospital licensed or certified by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is required to display a name tag or other worn display that includes the type of state-issued license, certificate, or registration held by the practitioner. The name tag must be visible and apparent during patient encounters. Furthermore, a healthcare practitioner must verbally communicate to a patient the type of state-issued license, certificate, or registration they hold when establishing a practitioner-patient relationship.

SB25-165: Licensure of Electricians

Programs Affected: 

• Electrical

On June 3, 2025, Governor Polis signed SB25-165: Licensure of Electricians into law. This bill makes several changes to the electrical practice act, as it pertains to licensure requirements for journeyman electricians, residential wireman, and photovoltaic installers.

Specifically, the bill states that an applicant for a journeyman electrician’s license shall provide evidence that they have completed eight thousand hours over a period of at least four years’ apprenticeship in the electrical trade, or eight thousand hours over a period of four years’ practical experience in wiring for, installing, and repairing electrical apparatus and equipment for electric light, heat, and power; two thousand hours over a period of at least two years of the applicant’s experience required has been in commercial, industrial, or substantially similar work; and during the last eight years of the applicant’s training, apprenticeship, or practical experiencing in wiring, completion of at least two hundred eighty-eight hours of training in safety, the national electrical code and its applications, and any other training required by the board. Under this new law, the Board may grant an application credit toward the training requirements for training that occurred before the last eight years of the applicant’s training, apprenticeship, or practical experience under certain conditions.

Similarly, an applicant for a residential wireman’s license shall provide written evidence that the applicant has at least two years of accredited training or four thousand hours over a period of at least two years of practical experience in wiring one-, two-, three-, and four-family dwellings.

Practical experience for applicants can be earned by: 

• Two thousand hours as a NABCEP PV installation professional working for or working as a photovoltaic installer; 
• Up to two thousand hours of practical experience working under the supervision of a NABCEP PV installation professional; 
• Up to four thousand hours as a CABCEP PV installation professional.

A contractor that is operating as of September 1, 2025, and that performs work as a photovoltaic installer with at least one NABCEP-certified employee shall register as a photovoltaic installer with the Board on or before December 31, 2026, except that a contractor may register with the Board during a sixty-day grace period. According to this bill, only an electrical contractor or photovoltaic installer may perform or offer to perform photovoltaic electrical work for installations of less than three hundred kilowatts. 
 

SB25-174: Sunset Outfitters and Guides

Programs Affected: 

• Outfitters

On May 30, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB25-174: Sunset Outfitters and Guides into law. This bill continues the Outfitters and Guides program until September 1, 2034. The bill also makes various changes to the Outfitters and Guides practice act, including: updating grounds for discipline to include an officer, director, member, partner, owner, applicant or registrant, regardless of the owner’s ownership share percentage; adds provisions prohibiting an individual from working as a guide or receiving or renewing a registration as an outfitter if the individual has a license or registration suspended or revoked by the division of parks and wildlife or by an agency of any member state of the “Wildlife Violator Compact” for any violation concerning wildlife; and adds an exemption for motor carriers.  

SB25-289: Creation of a Drug Donation Program

Programs Affected: 

• Pharmacy

On May 28, 2025, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB25-289: Creation of a Drug Donation Program into law. This bill creates the Colorado Drug Donation Program, to facilitate the safe donation and dispensing of unused medicine to Coloradans in need of medicine. The bill establishes parameters for participation in the drug donation program, including:

Requirements for a donation recipient are:

• Record the person’s name, address, phone number, and license number (if applicable); 
• Confirm that the donor meets the requirements of a donor established in the bill; 
• Confirm that the person agrees to make donation of medicine in accordance with the provisions of the bill and any rules adopted relating to the donation of medicine, and; 
• Confirm that the person agrees to remove or redact any patient names and prescription numbers on donated medicine, or to otherwise maintain patient confidentiality. 

Donation recipients are also required to maintain a written or electronic record of donated medicine and ensure that donated medicine is identified physically or electronically as separate from regular stock. Further, donation recipients are able to transfer donated medicine to another donation recipient or an entity participating in a drug donation program operated by another state, as well as repackage donated medicine in accordance with the parameters of the bill. If a donation recipient is a prescription drug outlet or other outlet, a donation recipient may replace the medicine of the same drug name and strength previously dispensed or administered to eligible patients in accordance with federal law.

Donation recipients should only administer or redispense medicine that: 

• Is in unopened, tamper-evident packaging or has been repackaged under this program; 
• Meets requirements based on an inspection by a licensed pharmacist; 
• Is repackaged by a licensed pharmacist into a new container, or, if kept in the donated container, is in a container that has all previous patient information redacted; 
• Is properly labeled in accordance with the rules adopted by the board; 
• Has an expiration date that will not expire before the medicine is used by the eligible patient based on the prescriber’s directions for use, and;
• Has been continually maintained by the donor pursuant to the manufacturers’ storage requirements, so long as the cold chain can be verified.

Medicines donated to the program must not be resold.