Legislative Update Week of November 7, 2011

With this the final week leading up to the legislature taking a two week break for the upcoming holiday, a flurry of activity was scheduled for each chamber. This as the House loses one of its own, now leaving two vacant seats in the House. Rumors of movement with the Auto No-Fault legislation moving this week seemed to have died down later on in the week leaving the House members to continue to work on the issue.

Not many items moved this week within the chambers that would directly affect the physician community but there were two:

Senate:

The Senate moved House Bill 5014 which is a Appropriations supplemental bill that would provide funding for electronic medical records, this bill was substituted in the Senate to add more appropriations other other departments and was sent back to the House to concur in the amendments. The Senate also moved Senate Bill 693 which creates the framework for the Michigan Health Marketplace (health insurance exchange). With the affordable care act, this had to be created for the State to continue to control its health insurance market and if they do not have something in place by the deadline (end of 2013) the federal government will take over the selling of health insurance. The reason of why the legislature is choosing to act now is that there are federal grants that are attached to programs that are created and approved early which could ease the financial burden on the State.

House:

The House continues do to its work with the Auto No-Fault reform. Expected activity this week did not come to a head so work continues on their reforms.

Election Day Review:

Tuesday people all around Michigan went to the polls, voting on local issues and local leaders. There was one election that would leave some effect on the state located on the east side. The final day of the recall efforts against Rep. Paul Scott finally saw its end.

The efforts out oust Scott were started by the Michigan Education Association for tenure as House Education committee chairman working on a passage that revised the tenure system for teachers in Michigan. The changes were not welcomed by the MEA and sparked the efforts to recall the chairman. Those efforts came to fruition last night when the votes ended up in the MEA's favor and successfully recalled Rep. Scott. Once the votes are certified by the Secretary of State the seat will be officially vacated until a primary and general election are announced by the Governor to finish the term.

The House and Senate are now in Recess, returning after the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for a report the week they are back.

Post Election Rundown: November 9, 2011

Yesterday people all around Michigan went to the polls, voting on local issues and local leaders. There was one election that would leave some effect on the state located on the east side. The final day of the recall efforts against Rep. Paul Scott finally saw their end.

The efforts out oust Scott were started by the Michigan Education Association for tenure as House Education committee chairman working on a passage that revised the tenure system for teachers in Michigan. The changes were not welcomed by the MEA and sparked the efforts to recall the chairman. Those efforts came to fruition last night when the votes ended up in the MEA's favor and successfully recalled Rep. Scott. Once the votes are certified by the Secretary of State the seat will be officially vacated until a primary and general election are announced by the Governor to finish the term.

Legislative Update: Week of Oct. 31

Happy belated Halloween to everyone. Things in Lansing continue to move at a smooth and slow pace concerning health legislation. Auto No-Fault reform continues to be at the forefront along with the repeal of the crash helmet requirements for motorcyclists. Here's a rundown of the activity this week in the legislature:

House:

House Health Policy committee continued to take testimony on the creating of a health insurance exchange in Michigan, testimony has been ongoing for almost a month now. The committee also considered House Bill 5131 that would provide some efficiencies for prescription transfers from hospitals to assisted living and nursing facilities.

The House Appropriations subcommittee for Community Health met to continue hearing testimony on programs related to long term care, Michigan MI Choice program and dual eligibles in efforts of understanding the process and looking for possible savings down the road in Medicaid.

The full House considered three items on the radar of the society, HB 5002 that amends the workers compensation provisions, SB 291 that appeals the motorcycle crash helmet requirements and SB 235 that changed provisions associated with criminal sexual conduct and physicians and their patients. All of the bills will be sent to the Senate for their consideration.

Senate:

Senate Health Policy met to consider two bills where they continued their testimony on SB 698 that would create the framework for Michigan's Health Insurance Exchange or known as MI Health Marketplace. They also considered HB 4893 that would provide a volunteer license for optometrists and would provide certain liability protections for volunteers. Physicians currently have this privilege, this would just extend it to optometrists.

The full Senate considered HB's 4411 and 4412 that within the same scope of SB 235 changed provisions associated with CSC, physicians, and patients. Also they considered SB 466 that would create a senior tracking system similar to an amber alert system for children. The Senate also considered and passed out SB 137 that would require school districts to create guidelines for bullying in the school system.

Bill information can be found at http://www.msms.org/advocacy