Advocacy

Friday night into Saturday morning culminated in two minor miracles: an aurora borealis and the adjournment of the legislative session.

This is it. The whole session has been a steady click, click, click of a rising car on a track. Now we’re over the apex and hurtling towards the end of the session. And, sure, sometimes that feels less like the wind in your face and more like sitting around waiting for your issue to happen, but what makes it a rush is that things can change in an instant.

After years of studies and small pilots on prior authorization, the Senate passed H.766, a bill that provides incremental but very real reform. A last-minute amendment changed H.766 from aligning prior authorizations with Medicaid to eliminating prior authorizations for primary care providers.

Just as robins and crocuses signal spring, the signs of the legislative session winding down are upon us. Each day holds multiple highs and lows as various proposals come up and just as easily float away until next year or get stuck into other bills. Follow everything that’s happening below!

Last week, I attended a press conference of health care providers and patient advocates supporting prior authorizations and step therapy reform in H.766 (spotlighted in this week’s Update). After Bob Kinzel’s first question, I briefly wondered if anyone would feel hesitant about going to the podium.

Happy Eclipse Day! With all the school closures and traffic warnings, I’ve heard folks joke that this feels a lot like Y2k—a whole lot of concern over nothing. The thing about Y2k is that the “nothing” was the ultimate success story. There was a lot of preparation that went into ensuring that everything transitioned seamlessly.

I need to correct the record! Thank you to Rep. Scheu who wrote in to let me know that I got it wrong last week—House Appropriations always formally votes on the budget on the Monday after the money crossover deadline.

Ah, spring at the State House. I started my draft last week with something about our roads being muddy but the session shaping up with the money committee crossover deadline on Friday.

We have officially achieved policy crossover. All of the policy bills that did not make it out of committee last week will not be moving forward.

It’s Town Meeting Week, when the legislators are released from the State House and allowed back in the wild to take a breather and catch up with their constituents.

A huge thank you to the House Health Care and House Human Services Committees and their chairs, Rep. Lori Houghton and Rep. Theresa Wood, for holding a joint hearing last week on the systemwide impact of patients who cannot get to the appropriate level of care due to a fragile post-acute and long term care system.

Once again, I am interrupting your regularly scheduled programming to write a love letter to Montpelier. Last week, the Valentine’s Day Phantom plastered the town with hearts. Just like the first snow of the year, it never loses its magic. Montpelier is everything from children getting a five-cent roll after school at Manghis Bread to running into a legislator while grabbing pizza, and I am so thankful to live and work here.

For those that skim, I’m keeping the intro brief in the hope that you dedicate more brain space to the budget piece, below:

While the policy committees keep up their quick pace, the appropriations committees received further detail on the budget last week.

Dear reader, apologies in advance, but this session is going to be short on intros and long on substance. Hope you’re ready to dive in for week 4’s recap:

Although it was only the third week of the session, last week was a whirlwind. Let’s jump right in!

After making a big deal about S.151 being THE health care reform bill last week, S.211 and S.183 came out with major changes to government structures around health care. Such is the session—turns on a dime and keeps you on your toes.

Welcome back! In every session, usually around the third week in April, there's a simultaneous head explosion as we all mentally calculate the number of hours in the day and the things that need to get done and realize that it's physically impossible.

Just when it seems impossible, the legislative session is wrapping up according to schedule.

S.36, the workplace violence bill, has passed both the House and the Senate and is going to the governor’s desk. Thank you to all the health care providers who contacted legislators—they heard you.