Policy and Advocacy Team Wraps Up
2014 Legislation
The Greater Louisville Medical Society Policy and Advocacy Team met
April 22 in The Old Medical School Building to discuss the conclusion
of this year’s recent 60-day state legislative session in Frankfort.
Cory Meadows, KMA Advocacy Director, spoke to the group about
developments in legislation this year, many of which depended on
the bi-annual budget which was passed late in the session. According to Meadows, the Kentucky Congress read some 1,500 bills and
resolutions from January to April 2014 and 8.5 percent were actually
sent to Governor Beshear’s desk for approval.
Several bills benefiting Kentucky physicians did pass both houses
of Congress, while several others stalled but still have fight left in
them for future sessions. Those which passed include:
•
Senate Bill 7 – An act which establishes a Collaborative Prescribing Agreement Joint Advisory Committee; set membership of
the committee at three advanced practice registered nurses
(APRNs) who prescribe nonscheduled legend drugs and three
physicians who currently or previously signed a collaborative
agreement with an APRN for prescribing nonscheduled legend
drugs (CAPA-NS) and authorized the committee to recommend
items to the nursing and medical boards, including a common
CAPA-NS form.
•
Senate Bill 41 – An act requiring a physician assistant’s supervising physician to review and countersign at least 10 percent of
the medical notes written by a physician assistant every 30 days
and allow a physician assistant to execute an order without the
countersignature of the supervising physician.
•
Senate Bill 118 – An act regulating coverage under health benefit
plans for refills of prescription eye drops.
•
House Bill 157 – An act requiring the State Board of Medical
Licensure to include in its continuing medical education requirements training on the recognition and prevention of pediatric
abusive head trauma for pediatricians, radiologists, family practitioners, and emergency medicine and urgent care physicians.
“Some of them weren’t perfect bills, but they paid and will pay
huge dividends,” said Meadows, who went on to discuss a few of
the unsuccessful bills related to physicians and health care. Those
include the Good Samaritan response bill for emergency care, the
bill on medical review panels, smoke free Kentucky, MOST, false
claims legislation, a bill regarding HPV vaccination, tanning for minors, Medicaid/Managed Care and, finally, a “duty to warn” violent
patients bill that “simply ran out of time” as the session ended.
“I consider this session very successful,” said Meadows. “I don’t
always judge by what passes and what didn’t pass. I really measure
it more about what kind of engagement did we have. What kind of
momentum did we build?”
GLMS News May 2014
(top left) P&A Team Members listen to Cory Meadows (top right) speak about
the 2014 legislative session. (bottom left) Bill Van Pelt, Representative from