republic-os/legislation/us/states/co/2026a/hb-1238.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Designating Emergency Medical Services Essential Services"
description: "The act declares emergency medical services as an essential service in the state and an integral part of the state's health-care infrastructure. The act also declares that emergency medical service providers, whether responding on duty or as a volunteer and regardless of location, provide essential services when providing emergency ambulance services and nonemergency ambulance services. The act also updates certain definitions related to emergency medical services, including the addition of a definition of 'out-of-hospital services', which term is defined to mean the furnishing of necessary health-care goods and services outside of a hospital setting but does not include prehospital setting transports. The act clarifies that an off-duty emergency medical service provider is not obligated to respond to the scene of a medical emergency or provide emergency medical services.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/co"
legislature: "Colorado General Assembly"
session: "2026A"
identifier: "HB 1238"
citation: "Colorado HB 1238 (2026A)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Health Care & Health Insurance"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["B. Bradley", "C. Barron", "C. Clifford", "C. Richardson", "D. Johnson", "D. Roberts", "E. Velasco", "J. McCluskie", "J. Rich", "K. Nguyen", "L. Feret", "L. Frizell", "L. Garcia Sander", "L. Suckla", "M. Baisley", "M. Bradfield", "M. Lukens", "M. Martinez", "M. Soper", "R. Pelton", "R. Taggart", "S. Lieder", "T. Mauro", "T. Winter", "W. Lindstedt"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 15
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2026-02-18"
last_action: "2026-05-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ea3743b7-1fee-445c-88fc-830a52bb7483"
source_url: "https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/HB26-1238"
source_hash: "5a3c292d656539981892017ab2ea1f5124c76a3bd85f13e6bd680f3a7de8ae5c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-co"]
---

# Colorado HB 1238 (2026A) — Designating Emergency Medical Services Essential Services

The act declares emergency medical services as an essential service in the state and an integral part of the state's health-care infrastructure. The act also declares that emergency medical service providers, whether responding on duty or as a volunteer and regardless of location, provide essential services when providing emergency ambulance services and nonemergency ambulance services. The act also updates certain definitions related to emergency medical services, including the addition of a definition of 'out-of-hospital services', which term is defined to mean the furnishing of necessary health-care goods and services outside of a hospital setting but does not include prehospital setting transports. The act clarifies that an off-duty emergency medical service provider is not obligated to respond to the scene of a medical emergency or provide emergency medical services.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/112177/download)
2. **Engrossed** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/113171/download)
3. **Final Act** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/115198/download)
4. **Reengrossed** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/113201/download)
5. **Rerevised** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/114219/download)
6. **Revised** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/114153/download)
7. **Signed Act** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leg.colorado.gov/bill_files/115962/download)

## Votes

- Refer House Bill 26-1238 to the Committee of the Whole and with a recommendation that it be placed on the consent calendar. — **pass** (pass) · upper
- Refer House Bill 26-1238, as amended, to the Committee of the Whole. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Adopt amendment L.005 (Attachment A). — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Adopt amendment L.006 (Attachment B). — **pass** (pass) · lower
- BILL — **pass** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- B. Bradley — primary (person)
- C. Barron — primary (person)
- C. Clifford — primary (person)
- C. Richardson — primary (person)
- D. Johnson — primary (person)
- D. Roberts — primary (person)
- E. Velasco — primary (person)
- J. McCluskie — primary (person)
- J. Rich — primary (person)
- K. Nguyen — primary (person)
- L. Feret — primary (person)
- L. Frizell — primary (person)
- L. Garcia Sander — primary (person)
- L. Suckla — primary (person)
- M. Baisley — primary (person)
- M. Bradfield — primary (person)
- M. Lukens — primary (person)
- M. Martinez — primary (person)
- M. Soper — primary (person)
- R. Pelton — primary (person)
- R. Taggart — primary (person)
- S. Lieder — primary (person)
- T. Mauro — primary (person)
- T. Winter — primary (person)
- W. Lindstedt — primary (person)
- A. Boesenecker — cosponsor (person)
- A. Flanell — cosponsor (person)
- A. Paschal — cosponsor (person)
- B. Marshall — cosponsor (person)
- B. Titone — cosponsor (person)
- C. Kipp — cosponsor (person)
- E. Hamrick — cosponsor (person)
- G. Rydin — cosponsor (person)
- I. Jodeh — cosponsor (person)
- J. Amabile — cosponsor (person)
- J. Bacon — cosponsor (person)
- J. Caldwell — cosponsor (person)
- J. Carson — cosponsor (person)
- J. Coleman — cosponsor (person)
- J. Jackson — cosponsor (person)
- J. Mabrey — cosponsor (person)
- J. Marchman — cosponsor (person)
- K. Brown — cosponsor (person)
- K. McCormick — cosponsor (person)
- K. Stewart — cosponsor (person)
- L. Daugherty — cosponsor (person)
- L. García — cosponsor (person)
- L. Liston — cosponsor (person)
- L. Smith — cosponsor (person)
- M. Duran — cosponsor (person)
- M. Froelich — cosponsor (person)
- M. Lindsay — cosponsor (person)
- M. Rutinel — cosponsor (person)
- R. Gonzalez — cosponsor (person)
- R. Keltie — cosponsor (person)
- R. Weinberg — cosponsor (person)
- T. Exum — cosponsor (person)
- T. Story — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2026-05-05** Governor Signed `executive-signature`
- **2026-04-06** Senate Second Reading Laid Over to 04/02/2026 - No Amendments
- **2026-03-11** House Third Reading Passed with Amendments - Floor `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-04-28** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2026-04-28** Signed by the President of the Senate `passage`
- **2026-04-28** Signed by the Speaker of the House `passage`
- **2026-04-07** Senate Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-04-06** Senate Second Reading Passed - No Amendments `reading-2`
- **2026-04-01** Senate Committee on Health & Human Services Refer Unamended - Consent Calendar to Senate Committee of the Whole `committee-passage`
- **2026-03-17** Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Health & Human Services `introduction`
- **2026-03-12** House Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2026-03-11** House Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee, Floor
- **2026-03-06** House Second Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2026-03-03** House Committee on Health & Human Services Refer Amended to House Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2026-02-18** Introduced In House - Assigned to Health & Human Services `introduction`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ea3743b7-1fee-445c-88fc-830a52bb7483`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Colorado legislature records).