HB 1012 and SB 47 go into effect July 1

DENVER—   What business owner wouldn’t want to have more productive workers?  What employee wouldn’t want lower insurance premiums and a healthier lifestyle?  Thanks to House Bill 1012, sponsored by Littleton lawmakers Rep. Joe Rice and Sen. Linda Newell, all of that will be a whole lot easier.
Wednesday, July 1, House Bill 1012 goes into effect.  It allows insurance companies to offer discounts and incentives to small business and their employees who participate in health and wellness programs. Insurers are currently prohibited from offering incentives even to small businesses that want access to health plans with financial and health rewards.  This will also promote both personal responsibility and lower insurance premiums.
“Providing incentives for wellness is a common sense idea that benefits our health and our pocketbooks.  Employees will be healthier and employers can increase productivity, all while reducing health care costs. Now that’s a win-win,” Rep. Rice said.
 “This wellness and prevention bill will help the employer minimize absenteeism, increase productivity and reduce health care costs,” Sen. Newell said. “It will also help the employee control his or her own health care costs and have a better chance of better health. Healthy communities mean healthy workers and a healthy economy.”
“This legislation will help employers maintain a healthy workforce, and it will encourage employees to take personal responsibility for their health by participating in wellness programs,” Gov. Ritter said at the signing ceremony in April. “It also comes at a time when we need our workforce to be healthy and strong to lead Colorado forward.”
Senator Newell sponsored Senate Bill 47 which also goes into effect Wednesday.  SB 47 will establish Crime Victim Services Advisory Board in the Division of Criminal Justice.  It had unanimous, bipartisan support in both the House and Senate this year. 
“Thanks to SB 47 we will be able to improve services to victims with less bureaucracy,” said Sen. Newell.  “That is the best way to deliver help to those who need it.”
SB 47 provides a strengthened crimes victim advisory system and a greater community around those who have been a victim of crime.  It combines several existing crime-victim-related boards into a single advisory board.  The consolidation will streamline the process of applying for funding for crime victims by reducing the number of entities to which applicants must submit documentation, simplify the process overall, and gain better consistency of grant recipients.