Communication from CDHS re: final rule for emergency medical services facilities

To: Hospital Partners

From: CDHS- OBH (via CDPHE)

The Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) under the Department of Human Services in partnership with the Colorado Hospital Association has promulgated rules to address how emergency medical services facilities must report data related to emergency mental health holds as required by Senate Bill 17-207. The State Board of Human Services adopted these rules on November 2, 2018 and the rules will go into effect January 1, 2019. However, since the reporting requirement went into effect May 1, 2018, prior to the regulations being adopted, OBH would like to provide some interim guidance and resources on how to comply with this statutory reporting requirement for the first report. 

Passed on May 18, 2017, Senate Bill 17-207 requires that emergency medical services facilities, as defined in 27-65-102(5.5), C.R.S., annually report data to OBH on individuals treated in their facilities under the emergency procedure provisions of 27-65-105, C.R.S. The data report must include information on individuals who emergency medical services facilities treated pursuant to 27-65-105, C.R.S., also called 72-hour holds, M-1 holds, or 27/65 holds.

27-65-102 (5.5) "Emergency medical services facility" means a facility licensed pursuant to part 1 of article 3 of title 25 or certified pursuant to section 25-1.5-103, or any other licensed and certified facility that provides emergency medical services. An emergency medical services facility is not required to be, but may elect to become, a facility designated or approved by the executive director for a seventy-two-hour treatment and evaluation pursuant to section 27-65-105.

Emergency medical services facilities must report only aggregated and non-identifying information to OBH on or before July 1, 2019, and each July 1 thereafter. To ensure that providers have time to validate their data, the rules require that the annual report due each July 1 cover the previous calendar year (January 1 - December 31). The new reporting requirement went into effect May 1, 2018. OBH therefore expects the report due July 1, 2019 will be a partial report, to cover May 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018. In the future, the report should cover the entire calendar year. 

Per statute, the July 1, 2019 report must contain:
- The name and counties of the facilities;
- The total number of persons treated pursuant to 27-65-105, C.R.S., including a summary of demographic information;
- A summary regarding the different reasons for which persons were treated pursuant to 27-65-105, C.R.S.; and,
- A summary of the disposition of persons transferred to a designated facility.

As a courtesy, I have attached a spreadsheet of what OBH anticipates your data report will contain when you send it to OBH on or before July 1, 2019. You are not required to use this format, but it will allow your institution to meet criteria for the statutory requirement and provide a minimum data set. 

For future reports, the regulations that go into effect on January 1, 2019 can be found on the Secretary of State official website in 2-CCR 502-1, 21.282 Emergency Medical Services Facility Data Reporting Requirements. I have also attached them here, for your review and preparation for the July 1, 2020 report. 

OBH welcomes any questions or concerns about these new data reporting requirements. Please feel free to contact OBH Data and Evaluation Researcher, Katie TenHulzen at 303-866-7489 or katie.tenhulzen@state.co.us to discuss. 

Sincerely,

Robert Werthwein, PhD
Director
Office of Behavioral Health

The following attachments further explain this work and data collection processes.

27-65 Data Reporting Adopted Rules (EMSF Only)

EMSF Courtesy Memo

27-65 ED Reporting Template