(1) In addition to all other powers and duties conferred and imposed upon the board by law, the board shall have the authority to certify nurse aides to practice in the state of Colorado, and the board shall implement the provisions of this article.

(2) The department of public health and environment, which is otherwise responsible for the regulation of certain medical facilities, shall, as necessary, assist the board in implementing the provisions of this article.

(3) The board shall promulgate rules and regulations to carry out the purposes of this article and to ensure compliance with federal law and regulation relating to nurse aides.

(4) The board shall maintain a registry of all certified nurse aides as well as a record of all final disciplinary action taken against persons under the provisions of this article. Such registry shall conform to all requirements of federal law and regulation.

(5) (a) The board shall not issue a certificate to a former holder of a certificate whose certificate was revoked unless the applicant meets the requirements of this article, has successfully repeated an approved education program as required by the board, and has repeated and passed a competency evaluation.

(b) No nurse aide certificate holder who has had a certificate revoked may apply for recertificationbefore a one-year waiting period after such revocation.

(6) Funding for the nurse aide certification program, as operated by the department of regulatory agencies, shall be provided by the federal medicaid and medicare programs. Medicaid funding shall be secured by the department of health care policy and financing and medicare funding shall be secured by the department of public health and environment. All such funding shall be forwarded to the department of regulatory agencies for its use in operating the nurse aide certification program. The departments of health care policy and financing and public health and environment shall take all reasonable and necessary steps to secure such funding from the federal medicaid and medicare programs.