Bill to regulate freestanding emergency rooms fails in Colorado Legislature

DENVER — Freestanding emergency rooms have proliferated in Colorado — nine exist in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado alone — and efforts at the state Capitol to regulate them have failed repeatedly over the years.

2017 appears to be no different. The Denver Business Journal reports that state Senate Republicans defeated Senate Bill 64, sponsored by Sen. John Kefalas, D-Fort Collins. The bill would have prohibited opening of any additional freestanding emergency rooms until July 2019 and would have required such facilities to post their fees on their websites. Additional licensing procedures would have been implemented, and operators of such facilities would have been required to demonstrate a need in the area before they could be opened.

Patient advocates and some in the in the insurance industry have criticized the facilities because they can be confused with less-expensive urgent-care centers. Patients are sometimes surprised by exorbitant bills received after treatment from freestanding centers.

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