Legislative Update Week of February 11th

With the budget being presented by the Governor we're now off to the races on what can be described as an up and down next couple months for the next couple months. Blue Cross Blue Shield is still in the works in the House with the Senate waiting for the House's next move with the health insurance issues. Let's review the week:

House:

The House Appropriations Subcommittee for Community Health started its work on the FY 2014 budget by welcoming the Director of the Michigan Department of Community Health to the committee for an overview of the State Budget. Out of this presentation the Director laid out the priorities of the administration as it pertained to Michigan's health care Major topics were the Medcaid expansion, mental health, and infant mortality to mention a few. Now the committee will have presentation from Medicaid, Behavioral Health, and Office of Services for the Aging in the coming weeks.

The House Insurance committee took testimony on Senate Bills 61 and 62 which provides for the mutualization of BC/BS. The House, similar to last time, started discussions about the abortion language that was in the previous legislation and one of the major reasons of why the Governor vetoed the legislation last time. It is uncertain at this point whether abortion language will be in the bills moving forward.

Senate:

The Senate Committee on Reform, Restructuring and Reinventing took testimony on Senate Bill 2 which would define the scope of practice for advanced practice nurses which included nurse practitioners, nurse midwifes, and certified nurse specialists. This is an issue that the society is leary about but have been working tirelessly with the sponsor to answer his question on the the concerns that the medical community has with the legislation. It is uncertain at this point when the legislation will move but rumblings have said that it could be as early as next month.

Stay with MSMS to get the latest up to date information on all that is happening in Lansing and beyond at http://www.msms.org/advocacy. You support of MDPAC helps those in Lansing work better with physicians go to http://www.mdpac.org to find out how you can help.