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The House Committee on Health and Insurance today unanimously passed Representatives Yadira Caraveo and Brianna Titone’s bill to require specified health care providers to disclose when they are convicted or professionally disciplined for a sex offense after the effective date of this bill.
“Patients deserve the right to be informed of their health care providers’ backgrounds– especially in allegations as serious as sexual misconduct,” said Rep. Caraveo, D-Thorton. “As a pediatrician, I know first hand how important it is to build strong patient-doctor relationships based on trust. These disclosures will ensure that patients have all of the information they need to make their own decisions.”
“Patients need to have as much information as possible when deciding who they are trusting to take care of them,” said Rep. Titone, D-Arvada. “We as patients need to know if a health care provider who we trust to take care of us and our wellbeing, has taken advantage of that trust.”
SB20-102 would require that, for sexual misconduct occurring after the effective date of this bill, certain health care providers would have to disclose to patients, in writing, sexual misconduct resulting in a conviction for a sex offense or a plea agreement. Providers would also have to disclose findings by a regulator that the provider engaged in sexual misconduct that was determined to be grounds for final agency action. Patients would then have to sign an agreement to receive care from the health care provider.
If convicted of a sex offense or entering a plea agreement to a sex offense, health care providers must disclose the date of the conviction or acceptance of the plea agreement, the penalties that were imposed and the jurisdiction of the conviction or plea agreement.
Similarly, if a health care provider was subject to a final agency action for sexual misconduct, the provider must disclose the offense that took place, the type of professional disciplinary action that resulted from the offense, the date that the disciplinary action was issued and the contact information of the regulator who imposed the disciplinary actions.
The bill was unanimously passed by the Senate by a vote of 33-0 and by the House Committee on Health and Insurance 9-0.