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Legislature Calls an End to 60 Day Session
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Saturday at midnight the WV Legislature adjourned their session. They will continue meeting this week on a down scaled effort to only focus on the final passage of the State budget bill.
A detailed report of the actions and inactions of the Legislature is being drafted, but we wanted to give an overview of some top issues that medicine faced this session.
The following article details the final result of the optometry surgery bill fight. On a positive note though there were other bills aiming to grant scope of practice expansions to the nurses, pharmacists and the radiologist assistants none of the these bills gained much support and none passed.
Always the WVSMA is looking out for bills that might take a bite out of our hard fought medical liability reforms and the phase-out of the provider tax. No real attempts were made on these two fronts. Though the pharmacists did try to get a bill passed which would clarify that they are considered a healthcare provider under the medical professional liability act (and thus protected by the caps and other measures) that legislation did not make it onto the agenda of the House Judiciary Committee for fear that there would be attempts to amend the statute.
For a quick look at the bills which passed, you can visit the legislative website at www.legis.state.wv.us Keep a look out for a detailed report from the WVSMA over the coming days. |
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Optometrists Lose Laser Surgery and "Physician" Designation
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The Legislature adjourned at midnight on Saturday and about an hour before passed SB 230 the optometry scope expansion bill. (The final bill is not yet available on the legislative website but in the next couple days the engrossed version should be posted. You can visit www.legis.state.wv.us)
A big THANK YOU to all who engaged on this effort. I know that over 350 emails were sent to members of the legislature through the use of our advocacy system and many many phone calls were made and letters sent. The engagement of physicians, both ophthalmologists and all other specialties was critical to this effort and really made a positive impact.
The two biggest concerns we had with the bill were absent from the final draft - laser surgery and the use of the term "optometric physician". On the laser issue medicine succeeded in getting language in the bill that specifically states an optometric "licensee may not use a therapeutic laser". On the optometric physician issue their statute is still silent - the bill did not address the issue. So these were two huge wins!
Ok that's not to say that they didn't get a lot - which they did. The final bill is bad but is truly as good as we could get it this year. The following is a summary of the bill:
- Allows use of epi-pens, additional injections must be defined by Board of Optometry and approved through the Legislative Rule-making process. There is a prohibition from injecting into the globe of the eye;
- Allows prescribing and dispensing of contact lenses that contain and deliver pharmaceutical agents that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a drug. (this was actually pushed by Johnson & Johnson, these contacts are not on the market yet);
- Allows the Board of Optometry to add new drugs and new drug indications to their drug formulary without going through the Legislative Rule-making process;
- Allows optometrists to order laboratory tests rational to the examination, diagnosis, and treatment of a disease or condition of the eye;
- Allows optometrists to perform the following surgical procedures and allows the board to determine through Legislative rule additional procedures:
-Remove a foreign body from the ocular surface and adnexa utilizing a non-intrusive method;
-Remove a foreign body, external eye, conjunctival, superficial, using topical anesthesia;
-Remove embedded foreign bodies or concretions from conjunctiva, using topical anesthesia, not involving sclera;
-Remove corneal foreign body not through to the second layer of the cornea using topical anesthesia;
-Epilation of lashes by forceps;
-Closure of punctum by plug;
-Dilation of the lacrimal puncta with or without irrigation;
- Allows Optometry board through the Legislative Rule-making process to issue the requirements for an expanded scope of practice for those procedures "taught" at 50% of all accredited optometry schools.
The legislative rule-making process requires a board to file their rule with the Secretary of State and allow a 30 day public comment period. (which happens mid-summer) Then the board must respond to each comment/recommendation made and refile the rule (either modified or not) with the SOS. Then the rule goes through a first layer of legislative scrutiny through the Legislative Rule-making Review Committee. That committee may modify the rule, then the rule is finally introduced into the legislative system as a bill (in January) that must go through the entire legislative process like any other bill and may be amended in any committee.
Thanks again to everyone who helped! |
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Federal Health System Reform & SGR Update
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Health System Reform
This afternoon, Monday, March 15, the US House Budget Committee will begin consideration of a reconciliation bill that will carry refinements to H.R. 3590, the Senate-passed health system reform legislation. The Budget Committee is scheduled to begin meeting at 3:00 pm and plans to stay in session until midnight.
A 2,300 page bill has been posted on the Budget Committee web site. Importantly, this bill is NOT the vehicle that House leaders intend to bring to the floor. The language contained in this “shell” vehicle will ultimately be stripped out and replaced with new legislative language that is not yet available for review. The true reconciliation bill language is not expected to be released before Tuesday.
Following the Budget Committee’s action, the House Rules Committee will meet later this week and insert the final language into the bill before it is brought to the House floor for a vote. The floor vote is not expected to take place until the end of the week, perhaps on Friday or Saturday.
SGR
The U.S. Senate voted to delay again this year's 21 percent Medicare physician payment cut, now to October 1. For those keeping score at home, this is the ninth time since 2001 that Congress has chosen to put off the difficult work of legislating and not pass a permanent repeal to the Medicare physician payment formula. This legislation (H.R. 4213) will now be sent to the U.S. House for consideration.
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March 15, 2010
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