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NHA offers testimony at bill hearings
Click on each bill number to read the testimony.
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Support LB 757 — Adopt the Volunteer Emergency Responders
Incentive Act, testimony provided by Bruce Beins, board chairman of Harlan
County Health System, Alma
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Support LB 787 — Increase penalties
for assault on emergency services providers and health care providers
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Support LB 807 — Require Medicaid coverage of tobacco-cessation
products and services, testimony provided by Justin Hartman, business
development coordinator for Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center, Lincoln
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Oppose LB 809 — Change provisions
relating to metabolic screening
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Support LB 818 — Change eligibility provisions for medical assistance
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Support LB 854 — Discount Medical
Plan Organization Act
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Support LB 882 — Change provisions relating
to prescription medication for indigent persons
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Support LB 891 — Provide income tax
credits for certain health-related expenditures
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Support LB 901 — Provide immunity for emergency management
workers as prescribed, testimony provided by Bruce Beins, board chairman of
Harlan County Health System, Alma
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Support LB 974 — Provide tax
credits for certain employers providing health insurance or care expenses
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Support LB 1012 — Provide tax
credits for premiums paid for qualified long-term care insurance policies
Hearing schedule for Feb. 4 – 8
(State Chamber) With more than 470 bills introduced in the new
session, state lawmakers have begun the process of deciding which ones should be
advanced to the floor for consideration by the full Legislature. Morning floor
debate and afternoon committee hearings will continue to fill the Legislature’s
schedule for the next four weeks, as bill hearings continue through March 4.
All-day floor debate will start on Wednesday, March 5.
The following "bills of interest" to NHA members are being
heard in committees this week. Behind each bill number is the committee that
will hear testimony. If you would like to share your perspective on a particular
bill or are interested in testifying at the hearing, please contact Bruce
Rieker, vice president of advocacy, at 402/742-8146 or
brieker@nhanet.org, or Carly Runestad,
director of health policy at 402/742-8153 or
crunestad@nhanet.org.
Monday, February 4
LB 926 (Business) – Prohibit mandatory overtime for certain state
employees
LB 936 (Business) – Provide for a fair share representation contribution
by non-labor organization members for representation provided by the labor
organization
LB 960 (Appropriations) – Appropriate funds for employee pay and
benefits
Tuesday, February 5
LB 1060
(Appropriations) – Appropriate funds to the University of
Nebraska for planning and design of a Lincoln Division College of Nursing
facility
LB 1075
(Appropriations) – Appropriate funds to
the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska to provide support for the
Nebraska Regional Poison Center
Area Health Education Center Funding Hearing (Appropriations) – Hearing to
request funding for Nebraska's AHEC programs.
Wednesday, February 6
LB 836 (HHS) –
Prohibit smoking in a vehicle when minors are present
LB 928 (HHS) – Repeal the Hepatitis C Education and Prevention Act
LB 1006 (HHS) – Provide for a registry and salary study of in-home
personal services workers
LB 1109 (Appropriations) – Change provisions relating to allocation of
the cigarette tax
Thursday, February 7
LB 877 (HHS) – Change public assistance provisions relating to
postsecondary education and related work activities
LB 954 (HHS) – Change provisions relating to human
immunodeficiency virus testing
LB 1048 (HHS) – Provide for issuance of birth certificates for
stillbirths
LB 1126 (Revenue) – Exempt documents prepared by court reporters and
copies of medical records from sales and use taxes
Friday, February 8 – Recess day
To see this week's complete schedule of committee hearings
click here. To search for a specific bill,
click here
to access the Unicameral's bill finder.
Register now for March 5 Advocacy Day
The Nebraska Hospital Association's annual Advocacy Day is scheduled for Wednesday, March 5, at the Cornhusker
Marriott Hotel in Lincoln. This half-day workshop will provide hospital CEOs,
advocacy team members, trustees, key hospital staff and other health care
advocates with important information about state legislative issues. Scheduled speakers include Speaker of the Legislature Sen. Mike Flood (Norfolk);
Sen. Deb Fischer (Valentine); Scot Adams, Nebraska Health and Human Services director of division of Behavioral
Health; NHA President, Laura J. Redoutey, FACHE; Bruce Rieker, NHA vice
president of advocacy; and Carly Runestad, NHA director of health policy. The
2007 Advocacy Team of the Year
will also be recognized.
Following the morning's educational programming, you will have an
opportunity to educate your senator about how legislation will affect health
care in your community at a Legislative Luncheon. Registration is $30 per
person. To register online for Advocacy Day,
click here.
Sponsorships available — In 2007,
the Advocacy Day luncheon was attended by more than 150 from across the state, including 28 senators. If you
are interested in sponsoring Advocacy Day,
contact Bruce Rieker, vice president of advocacy at
brieker@nhanet.org or 402/742-8146.
Bill would provide safe haven for children of any age
State senators advanced a much simplified safe haven bill
Thursday that would allow any person to leave a child with a hospital employee
without prosecution. An amendment to the original bill (LB157), offered by Omaha
Sen. Pete Pirsch, would require the hospital to promptly contact appropriate
authorities to take custody of the child.
The more complicated version, introduced by Sen. Arnie Stuthman
of Platte Center, stalled two weeks ago because senators were concerned how a
person would determine if an infant was younger than 72 hours old or 30 days
old, as had been required.
Other senators had been concerned about how the father’s rights
would be protected — or even a mother who changed her mind — if parental rights
were automatically terminated within a short period of time, either 48 hours or
30 days. Pirsch said the simplified bill was a collaborative effort among many
senators who wanted to see the bill pass this year.
The compromise amendment would put the decision on terminating
parental rights in the hands of juvenile courts, where it belongs, Pirsch said.
Read the full article.
— JoAnne Young, Lincoln Journal Star, January 31, 2008.
Bill takes aim at life insurance gimmick
The Nebraska Department of Insurance wants to stop the latest
ghoulish investment gimmick, a new twist on life insurance that targets seniors,
banking on the likelihood that they will soon be dead. A legislative bill
supported by the department targets what is called stranger-originated life
insurance, or STOLI.
Here’s how STOLI works. A financial company solicits and pays a
stranger, usually an elderly stranger, to buy a life insurance policy. The
soliciting company generally pays the stranger $1,000 or more, and it pays the
premium on that policy — and eventually gets the death benefit. The companies
generally target people 75 to 85, and the products are sometimes marketed as
zero-premium life insurance policies, according to state Insurance Director Ann
Frohman.
Read the full article.
— Nancy Hicks, Lincoln Journal Star, February 3, 2008.
Workers' comp could cover mental effects of witnessing violence
Police officers, paramedics and other emergency workers who
witness violent criminal acts could seek workers’ compensation for the mental
effects, under a proposed law. It also would apply to workers who witness
violence while doing their jobs.
Currently, workers can seek compensation only for physical
injuries. The bill (LB 1082) was proposed by Senator Abbie Cornett of Lincoln, a
former police officer. The bill would cover violent acts deemed extraordinary or
unusual. It could apply to tragedies such as the December Von Maur shooting,
when a 19-year-old gunman killed eight people and himself.
— Associated Press, January 24, 2008.
Nurse practitioners make their case
Nurse practitioner Ruby Houck opened her medical clinic in
Bertrand in 2000 knowing she would have to — according to law — find a doctor to
be her collaborating physician. “I asked every physician that lived in my
county — eight different people — but no one would agree to sign on,” she told
the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday. “The doctors
did not see a need for another health care facility in the county.” Houck and
several other nurse practitioners told the committee about the problems they
have had in finding collaborating doctors, or having doctors charge them
thousands of dollars to sign a collaboration agreement. They asked the committee
to move to the Legislature LB 753, a bill that would allow nurse practitioners
to practice without an agreement with a physician after five years, if the
person’s record was free of disciplinary action.
Omaha Sen. John Synowiecki, who introduced the bill, says the
state should allow nurse practitioners to work without a collaborative
agreement. Sen. Phil Erdman of Bayard raised questions about the fees charged by
some doctors to sign an agreement. “It sounds like from some of the testimony
today that the agreements they have are an opportunity for extortion,” Erdman
said.
Read the full article.
— JoAnne Young, Lincoln Journal Star, January 31, 2008.
Bill seeks to get lead out of toys
State Sen. Don Preister says he would play Grinch next Christmas
if that's what it takes to keep lead-filled toys out of the hands of Nebraska
children. The Omaha senator is proposing to ban the sale of toys and child care
articles that contain more than a miniscule amount of lead. "If the choice is
bare (toy store) shelves or kids exposed to lead, then bare shelves would be a
better option," Preister said Thursday. LB 835 responds to the growing number of
reports about toys, especially imported toys, contaminated with lead, Preister
said.
The bill would prohibit the manufacture or sale of any toy or
child care article containing more than 0.06 percent lead. Child care articles
include such things as teething rings, bibs, bottles, cups and pacifiers. The
ban would take effect Nov. 1, in time for the Christmas shopping season. Jim
Otto, president of the Nebraska Retail Federation, said his group supports the
legislation, even if it might create a little extra work for members. Nebraska
would not be the first state to impose such a ban. California and Illinois
prohibit lead in children's products. Michigan lawmakers passed a ban last year
that provided the model for Preister's legislation. The committee took no
immediate action on LB 835.
— Martha Stoddard, Omaha World Herald, February 1, 2008.
For more information about health-related legislative bills or resolutions, contact: Bruce Rieker, vice president, advocacy at (402) 742-8146 or brieker@nhanet.org.
NHA Rotunda Review is published by the Nebraska Hospital Association, 3255 Salt
Creek Circle, Lincoln, NE 68504. Phone (402) 742-8140, Fax (402) 742-8191. Visit our Web site at
http://www.nhanet.org. Christy Rasmussen, editor, at
402/742-8151, or email, crasmussen@nhanet.org.
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