Legislative Update: Week of March 5th

Happy Friday to everyone. Recapping the week in Lansing, it has been pretty quiet concerning health issues on the floors of the House and Senate. This week’s controversial issue goes to the limited graduate students to unionize bill. A bill that failed to get immediate effect in the House was then substituted in the Senate with another bill that did get immediate effect and was sent to the House for just a simple concurrence vote. Graduate students now have some limitations on forming unions on college campuses. Committees thought were another story; let’s take a look at the action this week:

House:

The House Health Policy committee took testimony on Senate Bill 732 that creates a Piece of Mind registry that is online, automated, and confidential, providing those wanting to know the last wishes of a dying person. The committee is expected to vote on this legislation at the next meeting. The committee also took votes to pass out legislation that would require insurers to reimburse for telemedicine and for the state to create and implement a state wide diabetes plan.

The House Judiciary committee continued taking testimony on the changes to Michigan's medical marihuana program. Colin Ford from MSMS testified to the committee its support of House Bill 4851 as substituted which defines what a "bona-fide patient/physician relationship" is for the purposes of this act alone. The current statute does not allow the Board of Medicine to go far enough in providing policing of its profession. It only allows the Board to act on issues that arise from the initial evaluation of the patient, with the changes; it would now include follow up care which falls within the normal scope of practice. The committee will continue next week to take public testimony on the issue.

Senate:

The Senate Health Policy committee took more public testimony and then voted out on Thursday Senate Bills 414, 415 and 981 that require insurers to cover Autism and creates a fund to cover the costs insurers incur from covering Autism. The Senate Judiciary committee considered and voted out Senate Bill 933 which disallows the coverage of medical marihuana by workers compensation. All of these bills move to the Senate floor for action.

Appropriations:

Both House and Senate subcommittees met this week to continue their hearings on the Department of Community Health Budget for the coming fiscal year. This week they heard testimony from the medical administration, public health, and mental and substance abuse divisions of the department. Testimony will continue through the next few weeks.

Check out our website at http://www.msms.org/advocacy to get the latest updates on national news, social media, and legislative activity.