Header
EMS Consulting

News

Legislative Update

Aug 1, 2009 StartFragment

END OF SESSION LEGISLATIVEREPORT

TEXAS AMBULANCEASSOCIATION

by

GK Sprinkle, PublicPolicy Consultant

 

I.              Final Results of Legislative Session on TAA Initiatives and Blood Draw

 

·     Budget. Ambulance providers were the only acutecare Medicaid providers to get an increase – 2%. HHSC has proposed that groundambulance providers will get a different rate for different levels of service.We are still working out the details of how the 2% rate increase will bedistributed between ground and air ambulance.

 

·     Legislation, our Medicaid bill, SB 1245, whichwould have established the Medicare rate for ground ambulances did not pass. Itwas not possible to come up with language that wouldn’t have a huge budgetimpact, thus it did not get a hearing.

 

·     EMS as Essential Services Bill; SB 2071 and HB4532. The Senate bill got out of committee on a unanimous vote and was sent tothe local calendar. It did not come out from that committee. The House bill gotout of County Affairs on a unanimous vote and was sent to the local calendar.The counties were able to tag it, and it was never set. It passed out ofcommittee so late in the process, however, that there was no possibility ofgetting it set on the general House calendar and actually passing it if theyhad sent the bill to the correct committee.

 

·     Auto Liability Bill. HB 2889 by Martinez had ahearing, but we were unable to get the votes to get it out of committee.

 

·     Auto and Health Insurance bill. HB 2576 and SB1595. This bill would have set up language used by the Florida people forassignment of health insurance and also have assigned auto insurance forambulance providers. This bill ran into trouble from the health insurers on thehealth side and then from the trial lawyers on the auto assignment side.

 

·     Blood draw and related bills. HB 509 by Riddlepassed out of committee with most of our concerns addressed and was sent to thelocal calendar. Riddle’s office committed to including a liability release forthe providers as well, but the bill was never set. Although TAA did not activelywork against this bill, there were enough legislators with concerns over itthat the bill could not get set on the local calendar. Riddle tried to attachthe language to a Senate bill dealing with watercraft and alcohol, but theSenate objected and it was removed. HB 747 by Gattis which didn’t involve EMTsand ambulances but which did allow for blood draws in more cases also passedout of committee. It was amended onto the watercraft bill and stayed there.

 

II.            Bills passed Three bills passed that have apositive impact on EMS and ambulance providers

 

·     Occupations code bill HB 2845; Nelson’s no sexoffenders in EMS bill SB 492; and Smith’s remove Romeo and Juliet from sex offenders list, HB 3148.

The occupations code bill had a rocky start with the House Urban Affairscommittee under the impression that the bill would be controversial with policeand fire unions. Once that problem was cleared up, the bill was heard, passedout unanimously, sent to local and consent, and then sent to the Senate.

In the Senate, Nelson amended the bill with her no sex offenders in EMS bill,SB 492. We were able to persuade Nelson that there should be an exemption forthe Romeo and Juliet situation. The Senate decided that HB 3148 whichspecifically removes the young love crime from the sex offender registrationlist would take care of the problem. As it turned out we were lucky they didnot put it into our bill because the governor vetoed the young love bill.

·     HB 846, Martinez relating to information onrenewal applications for EMS. This bill says that DSHS may not requireapplicants for certificate renewals to file any criminal history informationthat DSHS already has from prior applications. They are required to file anynew criminal history information that occurred after the last application date.

 

·     SB 2424, Deuell, to fix problems withnon-emergency PAN issues. In a non-emergency, the doctor/nursing home/etc. canobtain a PAN either the same business day or the next business day. PAN numbersfrom the department will only be available Monday through Friday. So PANnumbers don’t have to be immediately obtained on weekends or holidays. It isunclear that there is any change in appealing a denial of reimbursement.

 

III.          Final Results from Legislative Session on EMSbills that failed

 

·     HB1478, Bohac reporting credit information onhealth care bills. This bill would have forbidden ambulance providers fromreporting people who did not pay their bills to credit reporting agencies. Theauthor withdrew it from consideration.

 

·     HB 2772, Eisler Montgomery county regulationambulance providers. This bill would have allowed Montgomery county to have acounty wide regulation and fee for ambulance providers. It was caught up in thebill slowdown in the House.

 

·     HB 4251, Farrar, eliminating assignment andliens by health care providers in auto insurance. This bill would haveprohibited ambulance providers from getting assignments from automobileinsurance companies. It was supported by the Trial lawyers. It failed to getout of committee.

 

·     SB 288, Nelson which would require ambulanceproviders to look up a Medicaid recipient’s prescriptions on the internetbefore treating them. It was changed to remove this requirement for ambulances,but then the bill was caught up in the bill slowdown in the House.

 

·     SB 747, Corona, requiring a notice of a hospitallien. The bill was amended to allow ambulance providers to operate as usual,but to have a notice of the lien on the form they usually use for patientauthorizations. The bill was voted out of House committee, but caught up in thebill slowdown in the House.

 

·     SB 2476, Deuell, setting up the North TexasTrauma and Burn authority. This would establish yet another bureaucratic layerof money delivery in North Texas. The bill passed the Senate and was heard inthe House committee. It did not get a vote in committee.

 

EndFragment