Colorado mandates new rules for eating disorder clinics in response to patient complaints

Colorado’s eating disorder treatment industry will soon face tighter regulations of providers’ practices under a new state law spurred in part by former patients and providers’ accounts of punitive environments and treatment practices.

The law, passed by lawmakers this spring as Senate Bill 117, charges the state Behavioral Health Administration with issuing new rules for eating disorder treatment clinics. Those must include requirements for private and clothed medical exams, outside the view of other patients; specific accommodations for transgender and nonbinary patients; guidance for the use of restraints and other restrictions on patients; and an emphasis on obtaining consent before using feeding tubes.

Gov. Jared Polis signed the law Thursday. The rules, which the BHA must implement by Jan. 1, 2026, are in direct response to patients’ complaints about punitive practices at the Eating Recovery Center, or ERC, a national eating disorder treatment provider headquartered in Denver. Some have described those practices as traumatizing and counterproductive.