Legislative Hotline
2007 SESSION OF THE
MARYLAND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Volume 14, Number 3����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� February 1, 2007
STATE
GOVERNOR
O’MALLEY INTRODUCES LEGISLATIVE AGENDA
FEDERAL
BILLS
INTRODUCED
STAFF CONTACT INFORMATION
With a number of new legislators
in the General Assembly, the 2007 session has thus far been focused primarily
on informational briefings rather than bill hearings, although this is changing
as the number of new bills being introduced increases daily.
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Governor O’Malley Introduces
Legislative Agenda
The
Governor unveiled his 2007 legislative agenda this week with the introduction
of thirteen bills.� In the area of health
care, one proposed bill would require the existing Statewide Advisory
Commission on Immunization to make recommendations on the viability of
establishing a Universal Vaccine Purchasing System, or some similar program;
another would create a new Task Force on Health Care Access and
Reimbursement.� Expansion of the
Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover children in families
that earn up to 400% of federal poverty guidelines is among the measures
proposed in the Governor’s Maryland Health Care Access Act of 2007.
In the
area of economic development, the Governor’s proposed legislation would
create a Maryland Life Sciences Advisory Board charged with developing a
comprehensive plan to encourage life sciences companies and federal and
university-based life sciences institutions to invest in
Governor O’Malley recently
announced the nominations of two more of his Cabinet Secretaries:� Dr. James Earl Lyons Sr. for Secretary of the
Maryland Higher Education Commission, and Thomas Perez for Secretary of the
Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.�
In the Maryland Department of the
Environment, Acting Secretary Shari Wilson has appointed Robert M. Summers
Deputy Secretary.� Currently Director of
the Water Management Administration, Summers holds a
B.A. in natural sciences and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering, both from
Since the
109th Congress was unable to enact all of the FY 2007 appropriations
bills, many parts of the federal government have been operating under a
continuing resolution (CR) that expires on February 15, 2007.� While the President’s budget will be
introduced on February 5, the Congressional leadership has announced that
instead of attempting to enact the remaining FY 2007 appropriations bills, a
full-year CR will be adopted allowing Congress to focus on the FY 2008
budget.� Congressional leaders plan to
pass the full-year CR on Wednesday, January 31.
While the
full-year CR was expected to be enacted at the lower of the FY 2006 levels
passed by the House or Senate, Congressional leaders have indicated the CR will
include some adjustments to target programs.�
As of Friday, January 26, Congressional leaders appear to be supporting
a $200 million increase in the NIH budget, a $100 increase in the maximum Pell
Grant award, and a modest increase in funding for the Office of Science within
the Department of Energy to support the Competitiveness Initiative.� However, while some members have expressed
support for increased NSF funding, it is unclear at this time if this increase
will be included in the final bill.
On
Tuesday, January 23, President Bush delivered his annual State of the Union
address before a joint-session of congress, concentrating his remarks on a few
policy areas such as health care, immigration and energy, issues he hopes to
advance with the new Democratic majority.
The
President began his remarks by calling on Congress to balance the budget and
enact earmark reform with a goal of cutting the number and cost of earmarks at
least in half by the end of this session.�
In the area of energy policy, the President called for increased
reduction of gasoline usage and an increase in the supply of alternate
fuels.� His Farm Bill proposal will
include more than $1.6 billion of additional new funding over ten years for
energy innovation, including bio-energy research.
In the
area of health care affordability, President Bush proposed two new
initiatives.� One aims to end the
divergent tax treatments given to those with employer-based health insurance
and those with private health insurance.�
Currently, those who buy coverage through their employer pay no taxes on
their health benefits, while others have to use taxed income to buy health
insurance.� The proposal would provide a
new tax deduction for people purchasing their own insurance and taxing workers
whose coverage exceeds government limits.�
According to White House estimates, 20 percent of those who are
currently covered through their employer will see tax increases.� But this number could go up because health
care costs are rising much more quickly than the Consumer Price Index to which
the deduction cap will be tied.
The
President’s second proposal is to redirect federal money now going to
hospitals to states that provide their citizens access to basic, private
insurance at an affordable price.� These
“Affordable Choices” grants would redirect $30 billion of federal
Medicare and Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) and capital funds
to help cover the uninsured.� State
participation would be voluntary, and states would design their own programs,
subject to approval by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.� The American Hospital Association (AHA) and
the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has already made clear its
opposition to this proposal.
Bush’s
international agenda focused heavily on the war in
The
President also called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but
the discussion concerned the problem of illegal immigration exclusively, and
not the issue of employment-based visas for highly educated and skilled
international workers.� During the 49-minute
speech, the President used only three times the words “science,”
“research,” or “competition,” compared to thirty times
during the 2006 address.
President Bush will
deliver a full report on the state of the economy when his administration
releases its FY 2008 budget on Monday, February 5.� The fiscal implications of Bush’s
legislative agenda will become clearer at that time
BILLS INTRODUCED
Budget - Capital
HB0109� Creation of a State Debt - Bon Secours Hospital
This bill authorizes a State grant of $1,000,000 for Bon
Secours Hospital for the planning, construction and capital equipping of the
intensive care unit.
Effective
Date:� June 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
SB0076� Creation of a State Debt - St. Agnes HealthCare
This bill authorizes a State grant to St. Agnes in the
amount of $560,000 for the planning, construction and capital equipping of a
birthing center and neonatal intensive are unit.
Effective
Date:� June 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
SB0038� Environment - Dredged Material Management - Duties of
Executive Committee
This bill would require the Executive Committee
overseeing the development of the State’s plan for dredged material
management to review with stakeholders; the State’s dredging needs and
placement requirements and also making certain recommendations to the Governor.
Effective
Date:� October 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Matt
Greenwood
HB0019� Task Force to Implement Holocaust, Genocide, Human
Rights, and Tolerance Education - Membership
This bill would alter the membership of the Task Force
to Implement Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights, and Tolerance Education.� Rather than having two current delegates and
two current senators as part of its membership, the task force would have one
current member and one former member of each chamber as members.
Effective
Date:� June 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Matt
Greenwood
General Health Care
HB0055� Health Services Cost Review Commission - User Fees
Increasing the maximum amount of user fees the Health
Services Cost Review Commission may collect from $4,000,000 to $5,000,000.� The Commission collects user fees from
hospitals and related institutions whose rates have been approved by the
Commission.� The user fees then provide
funding for the operation of the Commission.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Tom Lewis
HB0056� Maryland Health Care Commission - User Fee Assessments
This bill would permanent the DHMH Secretary’s
authorization to assess an administrative charge to the Commission to cover the
cost of services provided by the Department (the Commission is an independent
board for which some administrative support functions are provided by the Department).� The bill also increases the maximum amount of
user fees the Maryland Health Care Commission may collect from $10,000,000 to
$12,000,000.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more information,
please contact:� Tom Lewis
HB0214� Health Care Decisions Act - "Patient's Plan of
Care" Form - Renaming
This bill amends current law by renaming the
"Patient's Plan of Care" form contained within an individual's
advance directives, to "Instructions on Current Life-Sustaining Treatment
Options".
Effective
Date:� October 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
Health Care Facilities
HB0119� Health - Laboratory Examination Reports - Invasive
Diseases
This bill adds Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis,
Bartonellosis, and Southern-Tick Associated Rash Illness to the list of
invasive diseases which are required to be reported by a medical laboratory
director to the local health department.
Effective
Date:� October 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
Health Care Practitioners
HB0100� Health Occupations - Cultural Competency Workgroup
This bill requires the
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to convene a workgroup consisting of
representatives from each health occupations board and the Office of Minority
Health and Health Disparities to develop recommendations for requiring individuals
licensed by the board to receive instruction in cultural competency as part of
an individual's licensure or renewal of license.� The recommendations will include:
1) the number of hours of instruction
in cultural competency that should be required according to the licensee
subject to the requirement
2) a time frame for implementing the
requirement according to the licensee subject to the requirement
3) whether certain boards or licensees
should not be required to receive instruction in cultural comptency, including
a justification for the exemption
4) regarding the required courses in
cultural competency including the types of cultural competency courses to be
approved
In its
deliberations, the workgroup shall review Cultural Competency Curriculum
Modules developed by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of
Minority Health and recommend whether those modules should be required for
certain health care providers.
The
workgroup will report its findings to the House Health & Government
Operations Committee and the Senate Education, Health and Envorionmental
Affairs Committee by January 1, 2008.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
HB0236� Health Occupations - Registered Nurses - Dispensing
Methadone
This bill authorizes RNs working in a methadone clinic
licensed by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to dispense Methadone
in accordance with regulations developed jointly by DHMH and the Board of
Pharmacy.
Effective
Date:� October 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
Health Insurance
HB0041� Income Tax - Subtraction Modification for Health
Insurance and Medical Expenses
This bill would allow
for an income tax subtraction modification for 100% of the costs of health
insurance and other medical expenses incurred by an individual on behalf of another
adult individual (for up to $5,000 annually), provided that the other
individual: not a dependent, at least 18 years of age, and resides in the same
household as the individual claiming the subtraction modification.
This bill
would apply to all taxable years beginning after December 31, 2006.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Tom Lewis
Long Term Care/Nursing Homes
SB0101� Nursing Facilities - Quality Assessment - Medicaid
Reimbursement
This bill authorizes the Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene to impose a 2% assessment on freestanding nursing homes with 45
beds or more.� All amounts collected by
the state will be used to fund reimbursements to nursing facilities under the
Medicaid program.� These funds will be
additional reimbursement to those facilities and may not supplant funds already
appropriated for this purpose.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
Medicaid
HB0202� Maryland Medical Assistance Program - Eligibility Expansion
This bill expands eligibility for the Maryland Medical
Assistance Program to parents whose annual household income is at or below 116%
of the federal poverty level (FPL).� In
addition, the bill expands eligibility to any adult at or below 116% of the FPL
who do not meet eligibility requirements for federal Medicaid.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Tom Lewis
Medical Liability
HB0048� Circuit Courts - Medical Injury - Medical Malpractice
Administrative Review Board
Within 15 days after
all parties have filed a supplemental certificate of a qualified expert with
the court under this law, a health care malpractice action filed in a court
must be submitted to a medical malpractice review board for its review and
decision. A circuit court or the U.S. District Court must refer the action to a
circuit’s administrative judge, who in turn must appoint a circuit court
judge or a retired judge to chair the board. The administrative judge, in
appointing the chair, must consider specified information about that
individual. The administrative judge must establish specifications for ongoing
training, and each appointee must have a consistent record of participating in
specified continuing education programs.
The administrative
judge must send notice to the plaintiff and the defendants of the procedures
for the review panel and the name of the board’s chair. All time limits
applicable to a health care malpractice claim are suspended from the date the
complaint is referred to the administrative judge until 30 days following the
day the parties and the court receive the board’s decision.
Within 20
days after the referral to the administrative judge, the board chair must
choose five individuals from the health care providers list maintained by the
Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office and send the list to the
parties. The bill specifies criteria that the board chair must follow when
selecting the health care providers. Each party may strike one name from the list.
If there are multiple plaintiffs or defendants, the plaintiffs or defendants
must use each side’s strike jointly. The board chair must appoint the
membership of the board after receiving the strikes from the plaintiff and the
defendant.
Within 15
days after the board’s appointment, the chair must notify the parties and
convene the board in an initial conference. At that conference, the chair must
establish a schedule for filing records and discovery, which must be filed at
least 30 days before the hearing date. A hearing must be held no later than 60
days from the date of the initial conference.
The bill
establishes procedures for conducting board meetings and hearings and prohibits
the chair from voting in its deliberations. The board must determine whether
the evidence is sufficient to raise a legitimate question, to a reasonable
medical or professional probability, that: (1) the defendant’s actions or
omissions were a departure from the appropriate standard of care; and (2) the
defendant’s actions or omissions proximately caused the plaintiff’s
alleged injury. The board must issue its decision within 30 days after the
hearing.
Within 30
days after the decision is issued, it must be served to Maryland Health Care
Commission and the Maryland Patient Safety Center to use for patient safety
enhancements. The Maryland Health Care Commission must make the decision
accessible to the public consistent with applicable State and federal law.
Except for
the chair, each member of the board is entitled to be reimbursed up to $350 for
work performed as a member of the board and reasonable travel expenses. The
chair must keep a record of the members’ time and expenses and must
submit the record to the parties for payment with the board’s decision.
Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, the costs of the hearing and reasonable
expenses of review must be divided equally between the parties.
A party may
reject the board’s decision for any reason. The rejecting party must file
a notice of rejection with the chair and the appropriate court, and must serve
the notice on the other party within 30 days after receiving the decision. Upon
receiving the notice of rejection, the court must reinstate the complaint to
the active trial list and lift the suspension of the time limits. If both
parties accept the decision, both parties must move to dismiss the complaint
filed in court within 30 days after receiving the decision.
The
board’s decision is admissible as evidence in a subsequent trial and its
unanimous decision on a question must be accorded a presumption of correctness
in a trial of the case. In a subsequent trial, either party may call a member
of the board as a witness, and a court must retain a neutral expert witness to
testify on issues of liability of damages.
A party
that loses before the board and in a subsequent trial is responsible for costs
in accordance with the Maryland Rules and paying the reasonable
attorney’s fees of the prevailing party. A party that prevails before a
board but loses in a subsequent trial is responsible for costs in accordance
with the Maryland Rules.
A board
member is immune from suit for any act or decision made during the
member’s tenure and during the scope of the designated authority.
Effective
Date:� June 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Nicole
Xander
Miscellaneous
HB0018� Election Law - Voting Systems - Voter-Verified Paper
Records
This bill would
require voting systems to create a paper record of an individual’s vote and
allow that paper record to be inspected by the individual prior to the official
casting of the vote.� Detailed
description is given as to what would represent an acceptable paper record.� The voter would then be provided an
opportunity to correct any errors in the vote.�
The paper record would be preserved and considered the “official
true and correct record” in the event of an audit.�
Requirements
are outlined to aid disabled voters.�
Posting of election results outside the polling place and online is made
mandatory, as is secure public review of the paper vote records.
Each local
election board would be compelled to conduct a “random audit hand
count” in no less than 5% of all of their polling places to compare the
voting system results to the paper records and outlining the conditions under
which this audit will take place.�
Corrective procedures are outlined should any inconsistencies be
discovered between the voting system results and the paper records.�
A public
demonstration of the voting systems would be required before each election.
Specific
record-keeping instructions are given regarding the votes and the voting
systems.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Matt
Greenwood
SB0048� State Personnel - Certificate of Illness or Disability
- Medical Technicians an Signatures
This bill authorizes a medical technician who
performed a test under the direction of a physician authorized to practice
medicine or surgery to sign an original certificate of illness or disability
for a State Personnel Management System (SPMS) employee. The medical technician
must attach to the certificate a copy of the medical doctor’s order or
prescription for the test performed. Either a medical provider’s
signature or a facsimile of the signature provided by an employee, with the
medical provider’s approval, is acceptable as a signature on a
certificate of illness or disability.
Effective
Date:� October 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
Public Health
SB0009� Education - Student Surveys - Youth Risk Behavior
Surveillance System Survey
The bill requires the Maryland State Department of
Education (MSDE) to collaborate with the Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene (DHMH) to incorporate the provisions of the Maryland Adolescent Survey
and the Youth Tobacco Survey into the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention
Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System survey.
Effective
Date:� October 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
SB0105� Statewide Advisory Commission on Immunization -
Universal Vaccine Purchasing System
This bill amends current statutue, adding a charge to the
Statewide Advisory Commission on Immunizations that they also study and make
recommendations on the development of a universal vaccine purchasing system, or
a similar progam to increase access to necessary vaccines in Maryland.
Effective
Date:� July 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Sheila
Higdon
Research/Human Subject
SB0059� The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007
This bill requires the Stem Cell Research Commission
to place a priority on funding embryonic stem cell research when awarding grants
from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund. The commission will regulate and
establish guidelines for the project.
Effective
Date:� October 1, 2007
For more
information, please contact:� Tom Lewis
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STAFF CONTACT INFORMATION
Please contact Government Relations if you have concerns or would like
additional information. Your input assists us greatly in evaluating and
formulating the position of Johns Hopkins on all legislation.
Legislative Session Office
410-269-0057
fax 410-269-1574
Federal
Beth Felder������������������ [email protected]
Jim Kaufman���������������� [email protected]
State
Jessica Best���������������� [email protected]
Heather Barthel������������ [email protected]
Mickey Geisler� �����������
[email protected]
Matthew
Greenwood���� [email protected]
Sheila Higdon��� ����������
[email protected]
Tom Lewis������� ���������� [email protected]
Bret Schreiber�� ����������
[email protected]
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