Legislative Update
Devon Green, VP of Government Relations
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.
Similarly, hospitals have been working with the state and other emergency management resources to prepare for the influx of extra people in Vermont. Emergency departments and EMS personnel have done tabletop exercises on alternate routes if roads are impassable. They have practiced using ham radios to ensure that communications run smoothly during emergencies if our cell service is overloaded. You can read more about it in the Axios article below, featuring Jonathan Billings from Northwestern Medical Center.
Hospitals prepare for the foreseeable and unforeseeable every day. We hope you get an incredible astrological sight today and a whole lot of nothing else, but we’ll be here if you need us.
Telemedicine: A huge thank you to Chair Cummings and the Senate Finance Committee for passing H.861, a bill that creates reimbursement parity for audio-only telemedicine and makes permanent reimbursement parity for audio-visual visits. Health care providers will now receive equal payment for equal services with no forecasted impact to health insurance premiums, providing more choice for patient access.
Administrative Simplification and Prior Authorization: The Senate Health and Welfare Committee took extensive testimony on H.766, a bill that aligns claims edits with Medicare and prior authorizations with Medicaid. The committee heard from insurers and providers, including Kelly Champney Lange from UVMHN, independent practices and federally qualified health centers. The committee will continue discussing the bill this week.
Workforce: The Senate Finance Committee also advanced the occupational therapy and social work compact bills last week. Next stop for the bills is Senate Appropriations due to $700,000 in the House budget to fund the program and offset lost licensure revenue at the Office of Professional Regulation.
Cancer Screening Coverage: The Senate Health and Welfare Committee passed H.621, which covers diagnostic breast imaging with no cost-sharing and H.741, which covers colorectal cancer screenings for average-risk individuals according to recommendations established by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Regulation and Reimbursement of Doulas: The House Health Care Committee heard testimony from Martha Churchill from the UVM Medical Center on doula services as they considered S.109, which has the Office of Professional Regulation making recommendations about doula regulation and the Department of Vermont Health Access proposing a reimbursement methodology for Medicaid coverage of doula services.