Colorado § 12-275-128 Financial responsibility - rules

Colorado Statutes

§ 12-275-128 — Financial responsibility - rules

Colorado § 12-275-128

Title 12Professions

Art.Optometrists

This text of Colorado § 12-275-128 (Financial responsibility - 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. § 12-275-128 (2026).

Text

(1)Every optometrist who provides health-care services within the state of Colorado shall establish financial responsibility as follows:

(a)By maintaining commercial professional liability insurance coverage with an insurance company authorized to do business in this state in a minimum indemnity amount of one million dollars per incident and three million dollars annual aggregate per year; or

(b)By maintaining a surety bond in a form acceptable to the commissioner of insurance in the amounts set forth in subsection (1)(a) of this section; or

(c)By depositing cash or cash equivalents as security with the commissioner of insurance in the amounts set forth in subsection (1)(a) of this section; or

(d)By providing any other security acceptable to the commissioner of insurance,

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(1) Every optometrist who
provides health-care services within the state of Colorado shall establish financial
responsibility as follows:

(a) By maintaining commercial professional liability insurance coverage with
an insurance company authorized to do business in this state in a minimum
indemnity amount of one million dollars per incident and three million dollars
annual aggregate per year; or

(b) By maintaining a surety bond in a form acceptable to the commissioner of
insurance in the amounts set forth in subsection (1)(a) of this section; or

(c) By depositing cash or cash equivalents as security with the commissioner
of insurance in the amounts set forth in subsection (1)(a) of this section; or

(d) By providing any other security acceptable to the commissioner of
insurance, which may include approved plans of self-insurance.

(2) (a) The board may, by rule, establish lesser financial responsibility
standards than those required in subsection (1) of this section for classes of license
holders who have an inactive license or who render limited or occasional optometry
services because of administrative or other nonclinical duties, partial or complete
retirement, or for other reasons that render the limits provided in subsection (1)(a)
of this section unreasonable or unattainable.

(b) Nothing in this section precludes or otherwise prohibits a licensed
optometrist from rendering appropriate patient care on an occasional basis when
the circumstances surrounding the need for care so warrant.

(3) Each optometrist, as a condition of receiving and maintaining an active
license to provide optometry services in this state, shall furnish the board evidence
of compliance with subsection (1) of this section. No license shall be issued or
renewed unless evidence of compliance has been furnished.

(4) Notwithstanding the amounts specified in subsection (1) of this section, if
the board receives two or more reports concerning any optometrist pursuant to
section 12-275-129 during any one-year period, the minimum financial responsibility
requirement shall be two times the amount specified in subsection (1) of this
section. However, upon motion filed by the optometrist and the presentation of
sufficient evidence to the board that one or more reports involved an action or claim
that did not represent any substantial failure to adhere to accepted professional
standards of care, the board may reduce the additional amount to that which would
be fair and conscionable.