Legislative Update: Week of May 7th

With the week before being a busy week for medicine, personal property tax was the big item working its way through the legislature this week. Let's review activity from this week:

House:

The House Health Policy committee did not meet this week after its presentation last week from the chair of the Certificate of Need commission. The House as a whole did work on some elections issues this week with the Senate. The bigger news from the House was what was introduced this week. House Bill 5605 which would repeal the requirement of hospitals to vaccinate their employees for influenza. MSMS stands adamantly opposed to this legislation and will continue to monitor and advocate against the measure.

Senate:

The Senate did act on two bills that deal with Michigan's Medical Marihuana program. Senate Bill 321 would exempt automobile no-fault insurance carriers from covering marihuana as treatment. Senate Bill 505 would amend the requirements for caregivers, placing any felony conviction as a reason for disqualification as a caregiver. These bills will now head to the House for further action. The Senate Health Policy committee did not meet this week.

Budget:

All pending budgets have been sent to their respective conference committees to hammer out the differences in the House and Senate versions of the budgets, here are the conferees for the budgets:

House Bill 5365 (General Ominbus): House: Moss, Haveman, LeBlanc; Senate: Kahn, MD, Moolenaar, Anderson.

Senate Bill 950 (DCH Budget): House: Lori, MacGregor, Tlaib; Senate: Moolenaar, Kahn, MD, Gergory.

The legislature now waits for the revenue estimating conference that will be happening next week.

Tort Reform:

Last week the Senate introduced Senate Bill 1115, 1116, 1117, and 1118 that would change the Michigan's tort climate putting Patient Care first. This set of bills looks to address the following:

• Close a confusing loophole that allows unnecessary suits to be filed, a solution Michigan Justices have been asking for;
• Require legal disclosure from trail lawyers, preventing them from using a loophole into default judgments against physicians by failing to notify when they are subject to a lawsuit;
• Protect patients by bringing more health care professionals under medical malpractice guidelines;
• Put patients first, not their lawyers by preventing trials lawyers from artificially inflating awards; and more.

The House will be introducing the same bills this coming week. MSMS stands ready to support these vital changes for Michigan's physicians but more importantly Michigan's patients.

For the most up to date information, the ability to connect with your legislator, and more head to the web at http://www.msms.org/advocacy.

MSMS needs your help!!! Elections are just a few short months away and we need to continue to support those who support Michigan Physicians! Go to http://www.mdpac.org and consider supporting MDPAC, your support keeps Michigan a physician friendly state.