Legislative Update 3/14: Crossover Week Legislative Halftime

March 14, 2022

2 min

552

Devon Green, VP of Government Relations

Crossover Week: Legislative Halftime

Last week was crossover week, where policy bills must get voted out of their committee of jurisdiction or perish. And, because this is the second year of the biennium, it means any bill that didn’t make it is dead and would have to be completely reintroduced next year. But, just to keep things exciting, nothing is ever truly dead before gaveling out the session—there is always the chance for language to sneak into other bills. Below are the policy bills that made it through crossover that we’re keeping an eye on. This week, all the action will be in the money committees and passing the budget out of House Appropriations. We will keep you updated!

Workforce

H.703

$2.4 million in grants to hospital-employed nurses to serve as preceptors, $3 million to health care organizations to establish nursing pipelines, authorizes the GMCB to exclude hospital investment in nursing workforce, health care workforce coordinator, DOL health care workforce data hub

Health care reform

S.285

$1.4 million to the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) to develop a process for establishing value-based payments and identifying opportunities to use regulatory processes to improve hospital financial health, $2.5 million to GMCB to facilitate a plan for health care system, including community providers, $1.1 million to GMCB and AHS to design the next All Payer Model agreement

Mental health

S.197

$3 million in school emergency relief funds to expand mental health services to youth

Mental health

S.195

Certificate of peer support specialists and funding for peer-operated support centers

Regulatory

S.204

Licensure of freestanding birth centers, birth centers included in certificates of need (CONs), and GMCB to evaluate need of birth centers in state

Regulatory

H.287

Sets minimum standards and simplifies hospital financial assistance policies