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NHA state legislative update
LINCOLN—The legislature continued hearings on bills this week,
many of which the NHA and member hospitals testified or submitted a letter of
support or opposition, including:
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LB
835 - (Opposed) Sponsored by Senator Howard, this bill would change reporting
provisions of the Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act.
View.
-
LB 876 - (Opposed) Sponsored by Senator Howard, this bill would change recovery
amounts under the Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act.
View.
— Nebraska Hospital Association, February 12, 2010
Hearings scheduled for February 16-19
The following "bills of interest" to NHA
members are being heard in committees next week:
Tuesday, February 16
-
LB 1017 - Sponsored by Senator Cornett, this bill would provide requirements for insurers for prescription drug coverage.
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LB 1088 - Sponsored by Senator Cornett, this bill would adopt the Physician and Patient Prescription Protection Act.
Wednesday, February 17
-
LB 941 - Sponsored by Senator
Gay, this bill would permit optometrists to dispense cosmetic and medicated contacts as prescribed.
-
LB 996 - Sponsored by Senator
Lathrop, this bill would change provisions relating to use of the federal immigration verification system by public contractors.
-
LB 1038 - Sponsored by Senator
Fulton, this bill would change provisions relating to informed consent for genetic testing.
Thursday, February 18
-
LB 1027 - Sponsored by Senator
Coash, this bill would change Developmental Disabilities Services Act
provisions.
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LB 1093 - Sponsored by Senator
Lathrop, this bill would change Medicaid Prescription Drug Act provisions.
Click here to view the NHA 2010 Bills of Interest Summary. For additional
legislative updates, visit www.nhanet.org.
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, Advocacy, at (402) 742-8146 or
brieker@nhanet.org.
— Nebraska Hospital Association, February 12, 2010
Register now for March 9 Advocacy Day
The Nebraska Hospital Association's annual Advocacy Day event
is scheduled for Tuesday, March 9, at the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel in Lincoln.
This half-day workshop will provide health care advocates with important
information about state legislative issues. Scheduled speakers include Governor
Dave Heineman; Kerry Winterer, CEO, Nebraska Department of Health and Human
Services; Dan Griess, CEO, Box Butte General Hospital, Alliance / NHA Chairman;
Glenn Fosdick, President & CEO, The Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha / NHA PAC
Steering Committee Chair; Paul Muraca, AHA Regional Executive; Laura Redoutey,
NHA President; Bruce Rieker, NHA Vice President, Advocacy; and Kelley Porter,
NHA Director of Communications.
The 2009 Advocacy Team of the Year will also be recognized. Following the
morning's educational programming, you will have an opportunity to visit with
your senator about how legislation will affect health care in your community at
a Legislative Luncheon. Registration is $40 per person. To register online for Advocacy
Day,
click here.
Sponsorship opportunities are still available. If you are interested in
sponsoring Advocacy Day, contact Kelley Porter, Director of Communications, at
kporter@nhanet.org
or (402) 742-8151 or
click here.
Additional heart defect screening for newborns proposed
LINCOLN—All Nebraska newborns would be screened for congenital heart defects using pulse oximetry under a bill heard by the Health and Human Services Committee February
10. Tekamah Senator Kent Rogert, sponsor of
LB 1067, said congenital heart defects occur in approximately 1 in 110 births and are the leading cause of newborn and infant death.
Read more.
—
Unicameral Update, February 11, 2010
LINCOLN—Some pregnant legal residents should ignore a recent notice saying Nebraska Medicaid will not cover their prenatal care.
New letters going out soon will say that, in fact, Medicaid will cover their care, state Medicaid Director Vivianne Chaumont said Wednesday.
Not all pregnant women who got the first notice will get the second one restoring coverage. Notably, no second notices will be delivered to undocumented women, whose coverage of prenatal care will be ending.
Read more.
—
Lincoln Journal Star, February 10, 2010
WASHINGTON—Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) Thursday posted online the Senate's draft jobs-creation bill, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act.
The draft bill contains several health care proposals, described in the committee's bill
summary.
One provision, strongly supported by the American
Hospital Association, would allow physicians who practice in hospital-owned outpatient centers and clinics to qualify for federal payment incentives for health information technology under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Other health care provisions would delay through September 30 a 21
percent Medicare payment cut for physicians and extend premium assistance for COBRA benefits through May 31.
The bill also would make a technical correction to reimburse critical access hospitals at 101
percent of their reasonable costs for Method 2 outpatient services, and extend through 2010 expiring Medicare payment provisions related to rural hospitals, long-term care hospitals, the technical component of certain physician pathology services, mental health services and ambulances.
— AHA News, February 12, 2010
WASHINGTON—While California insurance company Anthem Blue Cross said that its recently announced premium increases of up to 39
percent were driven by rising health care costs, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius declared the explanation inadequate, the
New York Times reports. "It remains difficult to understand how a company that made $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone can justify massive increases that will leave consumers with nothing but bad options," she said. Anthem's rate increases have galvanized some Democrats in Washington who say they provide an example of why Congress needs to pass legislation that overhauls the health care system, the
Times reports.
Read
more.
— New York Times, February 12, 2010
Health reform in limbo, top drug lobbyist quits
WASHINGTON—Billy Tauzin, one of the highest paid lobbyists in Washington, is resigning as president of the pharmaceutical industry's trade group amid internal disputes over its pact with the White House to trade political support for favorable terms in the proposed health care overhaul, the
New York Times reports. Tauzin brokered the deal last summer with the
White House and Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to limit
the drug industry's total costs under the proposed health care overhaul to $80
billion over ten years.
Read more.
— New York Times, February 12, 2010
Comparative-effectiveness: A simple health care fix fizzles out
WASHINGTON—Even before Congress took up the now-stalled health care overhaul, it appropriated $1.1 billion to fund comparative-effectiveness studies. Both the Senate and the House included it in their versions of the bill, and President Barack Obama backed it. But an examination of one of the best-known examples of a comparative-effectiveness analysis shows how complicated the seemingly straightforward idea can get, the
Wall Street Journal reports.
Read more.
— Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2010
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
www.nhanet.org. Kelley Porter, editor, at (402) 742-8151, or email,
kporter@nhanet.org.
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