KMS Newsletters

Legislature Passes Budget, Tax Relief; Regular Session Adjourns

Since the wrap-up of committee work two weeks ago, the legislature has resolved most of its top priorities. House and Senate negotiators passed a budget that includes an across the board increase of 9% in the Medicaid physician fee schedule. This increase is on top of the 3% increase approved by the legislature last year. KMS has urged lawmakers to start on a path of comprehensively revising the fee schedule, which until the past two years had not been updated for well over a decade. The legislature’s support for the increases has been encouraging but must continue in future years to maintain an adequate network of Medicaid providers.

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Legislative Update

Legislative committees have just two weeks left to consider bills before the House and Senate will begin working towards first adjournment by the month’s end.  The remaining notable healthcare bills that KMS is monitoring are listed below.

SB 352, the so-called “patients’ bill of rights” established extensive visitation policies and rights for patients receiving hospital care. The bill also tied a cause of action to each enumerated right and established a $25,000 penalty for a facility’s failure to comply. The bill advanced narrowly from the Senate and was heard in the House Health and Human Services committee. The House committee deleted the contents of the SB 352 and replaced them with HB 2548, which also relates to visitation policies, but does not include a new cause of action or financial penalties.

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Legislature Hits Halfway mark

The legislature wrapped up the first half of the regular session this past week. Many committees met last Monday and Tuesday to finish work on non-exempt bills. Then, ahead of the Turnaround deadline on Friday, the House and Senate spent Wednesday and Thursday on their respective floors churning through the many bills that have made it through the committee process. The House considered over 70 bills on the floor and the Senate ran nearly 40 bills in their chamber.

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Legislative Update

This past week was the last full week for hearings on non-exempt bills ahead of the “Turnaround” deadline. Next Monday and Tuesday will be the last opportunity for non-exempt bills to have a hearing and be advanced from their committee for consideration by the full House or Senate. After the turnaround deadline, only bills that have been acted upon, or introduced by an exempt committee (such as the budget committees), or exempted from the deadline (“blessed”) by the House Speaker or Senate President will be considered alive for action for the remainder of the legislative session. This deadline is an important part of the legislative process because it further focuses the work of the legislature for the remaining weeks of the session. As might be expected, in the days leading up to Turnaround, groups scramble to advance their issues and keep alive an opportunity for final passage in the second half of the session.

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DASHING TOWARDS TURNAROUND DEADLINE
Rachelle Colombo, Executive Director

Seven working days remain before the important turnaround deadline on February 23^rd. Turnaround day is the deadline by which all non-exempt bills must be passed by their house of origin. This means non-exempt committees may only meet and consider bills until February 20^th, making this upcoming week one of the busiest of the year for committee activity and to signal which bills have the most momentum at this point in the session.

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