Colorado § 10-16-107.3 Health insurance policies - plain language required - rules

Colorado Statutes

§ 10-16-107.3 — Health insurance policies - plain language required - rules

Colorado § 10-16-107.3

Title 10Insurance

Art.Health-care Coverage

This text of Colorado § 10-16-107.3 (Health insurance policies - plain language required - rules) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Colo. Rev. Stat. § 10-16-107.3 (2026).

Text

(1)

(a)A carrier issuing or renewing a health benefit plan, limited benefit health insurance, dental plan, or long-term care plan subject to this article shall not issue or renew the plan unless the text of the plan does not exceed the tenth-grade level as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid grade level formula or does not score less than fifty as measured by the Flesch reading ease formula.

(b)In conjunction with the report submitted to the commissioner pursuant to section 10-16-107.2, the carrier shall report the readability scores prior to the issuance or renewal of a policy or the use of the plan.

(2)The health benefit plan, limited benefit health insurance, dental plan, or long-term care plan shall contain an index or table of contents if the plan is more than three pages in

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(1)
(a) A carrier issuing or renewing a health benefit plan, limited benefit health
insurance, dental plan, or long-term care plan subject to this article shall not issue
or renew the plan unless the text of the plan does not exceed the tenth-grade level
as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid grade level formula or does not score less than
fifty as measured by the Flesch reading ease formula.

(b) In conjunction with the report submitted to the commissioner pursuant to
section 10-16-107.2, the carrier shall report the readability scores prior to the
issuance or renewal of a policy or the use of the plan.

(2) The health benefit plan, limited benefit health insurance, dental plan, or
long-term care plan shall contain an index or table of contents if the plan is more
than three pages in length or if the text of the plan exceeds three thousand words.
The index, table of contents, and text of the plan shall be printed in not less than
ten-point type.

(3) For purposes of subsections (1) and (2) of this section, the following shall
apply:

(a) (I) A contraction, hyphenated word, or numbers and letters, when
separated by spaces, shall count as one word;

(II) A unit of words ending with a period, semicolon, or colon, but excluding
headings and captions, shall be counted as a sentence; and

(III) A syllable means a unit of spoken language consisting of one or more
letters of a word as divided by an accepted dictionary. If the dictionary shows two
or more equally acceptable pronunciations of a word, the pronunciations containing
fewer syllables may be used.

(b) Text includes all printed matter except the following:

(I) The name and address of the carrier; the name, number, or title of the
policy; the table of contents or index; captions and subcaptions; and specification
pages, schedules, or tables; and

(II) Any policy language that is drafted to conform to the requirements of any
federal law or regulation; any policy language required by any collectively
bargained agreement; any medical terminology; any words that are defined in the
policy; and any policy language required by law or regulation if the carrier identifies
the language or terminology excepted and certifies in writing that the language or
terminology is entitled to be excepted.

(4) The commissioner shall promulgate rules regarding the electronic
dissemination of newly issued or renewed policy forms or endorsements.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, for group health benefit
plans, the evidence of coverage or certificate of coverage that is provided to the
covered person shall be the only text for the purposes of the Flesch-Kincaid grade
level formula and the Flesch reading ease formula.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2010: Entire section added, (HB 10-1166), ch. 143, p. 487, � 2, effective January 1, 2012. L. 2013: IP(3) amended, (HB 13-1300), ch. 316, p. 1666, � 15, effective August 7.