HB 2422: Providing cost-saving measures in connection with providing medical care in regional jails.
HB 2422 mandates that critical access hospitals and other medical providers may not be paid more than 75% of billed charges for medical services provided to regional jail inmates
HB 2800: Relating to the Practice of medical imaging and radiation therapy.
HB 2800 makes significant modifications to the operations of the West Virginia Radiologic Technology Board of Examiners. The bill changes the makeup of the board and renames the board to the West Virginia Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy Technology Board of Examiners. It codifies the scope of practice for Radiologic Technologist and Radiation Therapists. Additionally it licenses Nuclear Medicine Technologists and Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technologists under this Board. Previously these professions were not required to be licensed in WV. The bill sets out the various educational requirements for their licenses and creates an apprentice license for persons already working in these fields thereby allowing them up to five years to complete their requirements for licensure.
Of particular interest to the physician community is the bill directs the Board of Medicine to propose rules to establish the scope of practice of a Radiologist Assistant. This is a radiologic technologist who has received further education to act as essentially a physician assistant to a radiologist. The Board is to develop the education and training requirements for a Radiologist Assistants and will also license them. The WVSMA worked with the Radiologic Technology Board to develop this legislation and to ensure scope of practice boundaries were not crossed.
HB 2940: Increasing the age of dependents for health insurance coverage.
HB 2940 requires insurers to allow parents to keep their dependent children on their health insurance policy until age 25. Senator Jenkins amended the bill to include PEIA employees.
HB 2944: Enhancing the end-of-life care given to residents of nursing homes.
HB 2944 requires that nursing home residents who are terminally ill be given information by the facility about the option of receiving hospice palliative care. It also requires the facility to document that they have given this information to the patient or their medical power of attorney. The bill originally was introduced with language requiring all medical directors of nursing homes to take 2 hours of CME in end of life care every licensure cycle. An amendment was drafted to expand that to all attending physicians. The WVSMA made it very clear that we would oppose the bill if it expanded the CME requirements for any physicians. That entire section was taken out of the bill.
HB 2986: Providing advance notice to the public regarding the pending closure of certain public or private health care facilities or hospitals.
HB 2986 requires any hospital, extended care facility operated in connection with a hospital, ambulatory health care facility, or ambulatory surgical facility (freestanding or operated in connection with a hospital) which is licensed WV to provide at least three weeks notice of intent to the public prior to the actual termination of operations.
HB 2992: Decreasing the healthcare provider tax imposed on gross receipts of providers of nursing facility services.
HB 2992 decreases the provider tax on nursing homes from 5.95 percent of gross receipts to 5.5 percent. The legislation was necessary as a result of federal legislation which set the maximum of such taxes at 5.5 percent. The bill will go into effect on November 1, 2007.
HB 3057: Relating to Programs for All-inclusive Care of the Elderly, known as "PACE"
HB 3057 codifies an innovative new healthcare program for seniors. The Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is a model program designed to serve individuals aged 55 years or older who are certified by Medicaid to need nursing home care, are able to live safely in the community at the time of enrollment, and live in a PACE service area.
HB 3072: Relating to defining "charitable exemptions" for purposes of the municipal business and occupation tax.
HB 3072 allows municipalities to establish Business and Occupation (B&O) taxes on non-profit organizations at a 1% rate. It only applies to those non-profits with income generated by the various activities under the provisions of section 511 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
HB 3093: Providing a form for a combined medical power of attorney and living will.
HB 3093 combines the two separate forms, the medical power of attorney and living will, into one document so that a person need only complete one form.
HB 3184: Relating to confidentiality, disclosure and authorization for disclosure of mental health information.
HB 3184 was passed to bring West Virginia law in conformity with recently passed federal regulations regarding medical records, which safeguard the privacy of the records while recognizing that there are instances where the public interest outweighs the need for privacy. The bill would allow family and clergy to know if a patient is in a mental facility, will allow disclosure for law-enforcement, abuse, national security and certain research purposes and will facilitate payments to hospitals by Medicare, Medicaid and other third party payors.
Senate Bills
SB 18: Requiring third party reimbursement for kidney disease screening.
SB 18 clarifies that private insurers, PEIA and Medicaid are required to pay for annual kidney disease screenings. It specifies that the testing may use any combination of blood pressure testing, urine albumin or urine protein testing and serum creatinine testing as recommended by the National Kidney Foundation and is to be determined medically necessary by a physician.
When this bill was on the floor of the House Delegates Ray Canterbury (R, Greenbrier), Jonathan Miller, (R, Berkeley) and Ron Walters (R, Kanawha) attempted to amend the bill by requiring that if kidney disease is diagnosed as a result of the screening, the insurance plan shall include coverage for treatment of the kidney disease in foreign health care facilities. The amendment went further to provide incentives, rebates and travel expenses for covered persons who elect to obtain treatment of kidney disease in foreign health care facilities at a lesser cost than available in a health care facility in this country. This amendment failed on a ruling by the Speaker that it was not germane to the bill. Last year Delegate Canterbury received national news attention when he introduced broader legislation that would have provided incentives to persons who seek cheaper medical treatment outside the United States.
SB 411: Correctional Center Nursery Act
SB 411 allows imprisoned pregnant women to keep their infants with them in a special housing unit.
SB 416: Creating misdemeanor offenses for attempting to defeat drug or alcohol screening test
SB 416 creates a misdemeanor offense of attempting to defeat an alcohol or drug treatment test with fines ranging from $1000 to $10,000 and jail time.
SB 447: Regulating Opioid Treatment Centers
SB 447 places an indefinite moratorium on the licensure of new Methodone clinics which have not received a certificate of need (CON) by the effective date of the bill. It requires the Health Care Authority to establish specific CON standards for such clinics and requires the Secretary of DHHR to propose emergency rules to regulate opioid programs in the state. The rules are to include in addition to other items the following:
An assessment shall be done on all patients prior to admission for opioid treatment including an initial drug test. The rule is to set out a specific process for responding to positive drug tests. Persons must show evidence of addiction to opioids or methadone with the exception of the follwing select groups with high risk of relapse: pregnant women with a history of opioid abuse, prisoners or parolees recently released from correctional facilities, former clinic patients who have successfully completed treatment but who believe themselves to be at risk of imminent relapse and HIV patients with a history of intravenous drug use. Specific timelines are set for treatment programs to be developed for these patients and their treatment plan is to reflect that detoxification is an option for treatment and supported by the program. Each program is required to report statistics to the DHHR at least semi-annually regarding number of patients their demographics and the length of their treatment. The rules are to also require random drug testing of patients and sets out a schedule for interventions regarding the first through fourth positive drug test in a six month period of time.
SB 595: Revising Workers' Compensation Statutes.
SB 595 revises the law relating to the transition to a private workers' compensation insurance system. It changes the requirements for approval of self-insured status and makes certain assessments against self-insured employers discretionary with the Insurance Commissioner. It additionally revises the rate-making process.
SB 758: Supplementing and amending appropriations from federal funds to Division of Human Services.
Appropriation for DHHR for federal transformation grants in the amount of $14 million for Medicaid redesign. The bill raises the appropriation level to allow the recently received federal grant dollars to be spent by the Division of Medical Services.
SB 749: Relating to Corporation Net Income Tax.
SB 749 reduces business franchise tax by 2% over five years starting in 2009.
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