Legislative Alert: April, 2001
by Louise Browning, CAE
Executive Director and Lobbyist
HB1254/SB1236 Nondiscrimination in Managed Care
HB1254 by Ronnie Cole, McKee, Phelan, & Ralph Cole passed the House on the Consent Calendar on Monday, March 26, with a vote of 96-0. Being placed on the Consent Calendar means the bill is noncontroversial, had no amendments, and passed out of the subcommittee and the full committee without opposition, but it is not a given. Please thank Rep. Pete Phillips for placing it on the Consent Calendar, and also thank Rep. Ben West for making the motion. Please remember to thank the sponsors of this bill especially, and all other House members. Rep. Carol Chumney and Rep. Brenda Turner signed onto the bill when it came to the floor. Legislators like to hear from you that you are aware of their vote and are up to date on the issues.
SB1236 by Cooper & Graves passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday, March 27, with no opposition. The vote was 8-0-1. Senator Rochelle was absent. It was scheduled for the Senate floor Monday, April 2, at 5:00, and passed 33-0. All Senators were present and voting. The bill now goes to the Speakers to sign, and then to the Governor for his signature. Thank you to all who helped pass this bill. It truly makes a difference when Legislators hear from the folks at home!
HB1794 by Black/SB1823 by Cooper relative to Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
We are now concentrating on the bill that gives title protection and elevates the professional status of APRNs. It is time now to contact your Legislators about this bill. Individual physicians, particularly the family physicians and anesthesiologists, have already begun to lobby heavily against the bill. Review the intent of this bill is in the February 28 Legislative Alert on the TNA website. You may also want to go to the Legislative website at www.legislature.state.tn.us and print a copy of the bill, then look at those sections in the Nurse Practice Act (on the TNA website) that will be amended, so you will clearly understand exactly what the bill does. Click here for talking points.
The bill is scheduled to be heard in the House Health Access Subcommittee on April 11. We hope to roll it for one more week until April 18. Members of the subcommittee are Representatives John Arriola (chair), Diane Black (sponsor), Gene Caldwell (MD), Lois DeBerry, Sherry Jones, Mary Pruitt, and Brenda Turner. Contact these members now! Talking Points will be placed on the website soon, and can be faxed to you upon request.
HB1795 by Odom/SB1762 by Kurita on Workforce Planning & Development
Our bill to authorize the Board of Nursing to fund a nonprofit workforce planning and development agency will be heard in the Health Access Subcommittee of the House Health and Human Resources Committee on Wednesday, April 11, at 9:00 am in Room 31. It was actually scheduled for April 4, but due to a conflict with our program agenda at the Health Policy Summit we have asked the sponsor to roll it for one week. The Senate bill has not yet been scheduled, as the Senate General Welfare Committee has been holding budget hearings for several weeks.
RN Pronouncement of Death
HB257 by Garrett authorizing RNs to pronounce death in nursing homes was rolled for another week in the House Health and Human Resources Committee on Tuesday, April 3. It will be heard April 10. SB521 by Henry, the companion bill, was scheduled forthe Senate General Welfare Committee on Wednesday, April 4, at 9:30 am and was rolled until April 11.
SB778 by Henry/HB503 by Garrett would authorize RNs to pronounce death in both nursing homes and hospitals, but the House bill has been taken off notice. There has been some resistance from a few members of the House who think physicians are shirking their responsibilities by not being available to pronounce death in hospitals. TNA is supportive of this version of the bill, as we have been told it is difficult to find an MD in the middle of the night and Emergency Department physicians find it difficult to leave the ER and take time to go to another area of the hospital to pronounce death. SB778 has not been scheduled in the Senate General Welfare Committee.
Licensure of Dialysis Clinics
HB1385 by Armstrong & McDaniel/SB1662 by Ford & Atchley would require renal dialysis clinics to be licensed and regulated by the state as are other health care facilities. Currently, these clinics are regulated by the federal government whose rules are dated, and nonspecific. Nineteen states have adopted state licensure as a way to improve dialysis care, and the reports are positive. The Department of Health believes licensure is needed in order to increase surveys to the same frequencies as other licensed healthcare facilities, to mandate a procedure that defines how patients can voice their complaints when mistreatment occurs, to require owners to develop uniform training and competency standards for patient care techs, and to lower the standard mortality rate. The current mortality rate for Tennessee is 11% for 1996-98 and the average for the U.S. is 1%. This bill has been rolled several times in the Health Subcommittee of House Health and Human Resources.
Tobacco Funds
SB601 by Cooper/HB640 by Kisber will continue the existence of the ad hoc Health Committee and the ad hoc Agriculture Committee created last year by the Legislature to make recommendations to the General Assembly on the use of the settlement dollars, and would expand the number of legislators on each committee from 10 to 12. The Legislature set up two reserve accounts in the state general fund in 2000–a health reserve account and an agriculture reserve account. When received by the state, the tobacco settlement funds are being deposited in these two reserve accounts, half in each account.
SB214 by Dixon/HB1153 by Armstrong creates a Tennessee Tobacco Settlement Health Fund Board to administer one half of the funds in the tobacco health reserve account, the remaining one-half to be expended in accordance with appropriations made by the general assembly. Board members will be the state treasurer, the commissioner of finance and administration, the commissioner of health, the commissioner of education, together with a total of six persons who shall be appointed by the speaker of the Senate and six persons appointed by the speaker of the House. Three of these appointments from each of the Speakers shall be from the medical community and organizations such as the Lung Association. The remaining three shall be appointed with equal representation from each grand division of the state. The question we need to ask is, “Does “the medical community” include all health care providers” in this bill? Often, that is the intent, but we need to be sure or try to amend the bill. Those in Roscoe Dixon’s district need to ask.
SB1161 by Herron/HB587 by Chumney creates a new Millennium Trust Fund Authority to manage the tobacco settlement funds received by the state. The bill would create two accounts in the Millennium Trust into which the settlement dollars would be placed–a Non-Expendable Account and an Expendable Account–with half of the total dollars being placed in each account initially. Only the interest on the funds placed in the Non-Expendable Account could be spent. It would allow the General Assembly to appropriate available funds each year for three purposes: 1) child care programs; 2) health care programs, including programs to reduce youth smoking; and 3) scholarships for children of tobacco farmers and victims of tobacco-related illnesses.
SB1503 by Rochelle/HB1252 by Head establishes the Tennessee Millennium Trust and would require all the tobacco settlement dollars to be deposited in this trust fund. Only the interest would be spent. Half of the available interest each year would be used to make grants to health care providers to offset losses incurred in providing services to indigent persons or for other health care purposes. Half of the available interest each year would be used for agricultural purposes, including: 1) community incubator programs for tobacco-dependent communities; 2) studies on matters that affect tobacco growers; and 3) indemnification of tobacco farmers. This bill would create two committees of legislators to make recommendations annually to the General Assembly regarding use of the funds.
Other tobacco bills: SB1822 by Crowe/HB1536 by Buttry; SB214 by Dixon/HB1153 by Armstrong et al; SB839 by Williams/HB688 by Givens; SB840 by Williams/HB689 by Givens; SB1390 by Haun/ HB727 by Givens; SB1231 by Cooper/HB1279 by Kisber; and SB1469 by Cooper/HB1305 by Kisber. Search the web for “tobacco,” and you can read all of them.
