(1) (a) The state department shall purchase group health insurance for a medical assistance recipient who is eligible to enroll for such coverage if enrollment of such recipient in the group plan would be cost-effective. In addition, the state department may purchase individual health insurance for a medical assistance recipient who is eligible to enroll in a health insurance plan if enrollment of such recipient would be cost-effective to this state. A determination of cost-effectiveness shall be in accordance with federal guidelines established by the secretary of the United States department of health and human services.
(b) Notwithstanding any provision of paragraph (a) of this subsection (1) to the contrary, the state department, in purchasing health insurance for medical assistance recipients who are eligible to enroll for private coverage, shall not purchase such health insurance for more than two thousand individuals.
Enrollment in a group health insurance plan shall be required of recipients for whomenrollment has been determined to be cost-effective as a condition of obtaining or retaining medical assistance. A parent shall be required to enroll a dependent child recipient, but medical assistance for such child shall not be discontinued if a parent fails to enroll the child.
The state department shall pay any premium, deductible, coinsurance, or other costsharing obligation required under the group plan for services covered under the state medical assistance plan. In addition, the state department shall pay any premium, deductible, coinsurance, or other cost-sharing obligation required under an individual plan purchased by the state department for a medical assistance recipient pursuant to subsection (1) of this section. Payment of said services shall be treated as payment for medical assistance. Coverage provided by the purchased health insurance plan shall be considered as third-party liability for the purposes of section 25.5-4-209.
Services not available to a recipient under the purchased plan shall be provided to therecipient if such services would otherwise be provided as medical assistance services pursuant to this article or article 5 or 6 of this title. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require that services provided under a group health insurance plan for medical assistance recipients shall be made available to recipients not enrolled in the plan. Enrollment in a group health insurance plan pursuant to this section shall not affect the eligibility of a recipient who otherwise qualifies for medical assistance pursuant to this article or article 5 or 6 of this title.
Source: L. 2006: Entire article added with relocations, p. 1828, § 7, effective July 1. L. 2010: (1) amended, (SB 10-167), ch. 296, p. 1378, § 6, effective May 26.
Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 26-4-518.5 as it existed prior to 2006.
Cross references: For the legislative declaration in SB 10-167, see section 1 of chapter 296, Session Laws of Colorado 2010.