With the Pennsylvania House and Senate both closing up shop for the year, it’s a good point to take stock of how health care fared in general during the last legislative session.
This state legislative session was high on drama – of the political kind – and relatively low on enactment of brand new health care measures supported by physicians.
But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an effective legislative session for PAMED and for Pennsylvania physicians.
It’s important to factor in the damage control we accomplished. Numerous mediocre bills were successfully amended or thwarted by PAMED and its allies, and a number of truly troublesome bills were stopped. In almost any given legislative session, these groups of bills far outweigh any other kind.
For a list of the key bills and their end of session status, check out our legislative “Quick Glance”.
Senate Bill 1280, which would have delayed phase-out of the Mcare Fund for six years and frozen medical liability insurance at current levels, is an example of troublesome bill that PAMED was instrumental in amending and finally eliminating.
PAMED opposed SB 1280 in its original form because it would have made the Mcare Fund permanent. Before passing it, the Senate amended the bill from making the Fund permanent to instituting a six-year freeze on Mcare. In addition, at our request the Senate amended it to explicitly require that year-end Fund surpluses be used to calculate the Mcare assessment for the following year, preventing the state from plundering the Mcare Fund for general fund purposes.
Gov. Ed Rendell vetoed SB 1280 in October, albeit mentioning reasons for the veto that aligned primarily with his agenda rather than physicians’ interests.
Measures that PAMED intends to revive next session include:
- Limit cell phone use while driving
- Regulate tanning facilities and set age requirements for who may use them
- Set minimum standards so that physicians are assured fair contracting with insurers
Among the many bills PAMED helped scuttle because they would have been bad for patients and physicians:
- Self referral (House Bill 2522)—would have prohibited physicians from referring patients for certain services such as diagnostic imaging to an entity with which they or their immediate family members have a financial relationship.
- Emergency responders (House Bill 2246)—House amendments would have allowed trial lawyers to argue damages for pain and suffering
- Tort bills—(House Bills 1444, 1095, 2202, 2123) HB 1444—Would have allowed trial lawyers to quantify damages for pain and suffering, expand the types of damages that can be recovered and who can recover them, and void alternative dispute resolutions executed prior to treatment
- Audiologist scope of practice (House Bill 1653)—Would have allowed audiologists to diagnose and treat hearing problems without having the patient examined by a physician
- Acupuncture treatment (House Bill 1764)—Would have allowed acupuncture treatment indefinitely without a physician referral.
- Insurance fraud (House Bills 1750 and 2154 and Senate Bill 1181)—Would have had unintended consequences for physicians by unfairly identifying them as potentially engaging in fraud