2014 SESSION OF THE
MARYLAND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
| | | |
| 2014 SESSION OF THE |
| Volume 20, Number 4 | March 24, 2014 |
Here are some of the hot issues as the 2014 Legislative Session develops:
Senate Passes RISE Zone Bill
House Operating Budget Decisions
Crossover
On March 17, the Senate unanimously passed SB 600, which would allow anchor institutions like Johns Hopkins to receive a “RISE Zone” designation for economic and community development. SB 600 is designed to leverage the assets of Maryland’s anchor institutions to promote community and economic development. Under the bill, an anchor institution would ask the Department of Business and Economic Development to designate a geographic area adjacent to its campus as Regional Institution Strategic Enterprise Zone. Certain projects in the RISE Zone would receive benefits similar to the state’s existing Enterprise Zone program. The bill includes an amendment put forward by Johns Hopkins State Affairs that would permit local jurisdictions to allow tax increment financing for innovation centers and laboratories in RISE Zones. The bill is before the House Ways & Means Committee, which will hold a hearing on March 25.
House Operating Budget Decisions
On March 21 the House Appropriations Committee reported their budget decisions. The Committee concurred with many of the major decisions made by the Senate, including covering the structural deficit through modifications to the state’s supplemental payments to the pension system.
Higher Education
The Committee slightly decreased the Senate’s reductions to the University System of Maryland (allocating an additional $500,000), providing $18,000 more in Sellinger funding for a total of $44.2 million.
Health
The Committee agreed with the Senate’s decision to reduce MCO rates by 1% for six months. This reduction, in combination with the Governor’s reduction to MCO rates, takes $40.4 million out of the HealthChoice Program. The Committee also concurred with the Senate to require that any savings that accrue to the state as a result of the implementation of the new waiver be applied to offset the Medicaid deficit assessment.
The Governor’s budget created a new program, the Community Partnership Assistance Program (CPAP), which is funded through the Maryland Health Insurance Plan (MHIP) assessment. Under the Governor’s plan, the MHIP assessment would be reduced by 0.5% or $60 million for a full fiscal year. Of that reduction, $40 million would go toward CPAP. The Senate reduced the MHIP assessment and rejected the CPAP program, allowing the MHIP assessment reduction to be used to reduce hospital rates instead. The House Appropriations Committee approved an alternative approach to the MHIP assessment, reducing it to 0.3%, allowing $15 million in FY 2015 and $20 million in FY 2016 and FY 2017 to fund CPAP. If in any fiscal year there are not worthy projects that apply to CPAP or the CPAP funding is instead needed to help meet the waiver targets, the HSCRC can instead use the CPAP funds to provide hospital rate relief. Under the committee’s proposal, hospitals would see a minimum of $48 million in rate relief for FY 2015 and $64 million in FY 2016.
Crossover
March 17 was the legislature’s crossover date, the deadline by which a bill must be passed by one chamber in order to be guaranteed a hearing in the opposite chamber. Any bill passed after the crossover date will be assigned to the opposite chamber’s Rules Committee, which is an often insurmountable hurdle to passage. Most bills not passed by the crossover date are generally considered unlikely to pass this year. This week, the legislature’s policy committees held bill hearings. Legislation will begin moving in earnest as the legislature draws closer to its April 7 adjournment.
BILLS INTRODUCED
Behavioral Health HB871 Health - Compensation for Mental Health Services Providers - Workgroup Requiring the Health and Government Operations Committee to convene a workgroup to study the manner in which mental health services providers are compensated for specified services; requiring the workgroup to make specified recommendations; and requiring the workgroup to report its findings and recommendations on or before October 1, 2015. Hearing Date: Tue 3/4 1:00 PM Effective Date: October 1, 2014 HB1434 Community Services - Provider Reimbursement Repealing the Community Services Reimbursement Rate Commission; requiring the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to establish and hire an independent contractor to verify a specified cost structure related to inflationary cost adjustments for community services providers; requiring the Department to conduct a specified study and assess specified cost structures in a specified manner; requiring a specified independent contractor to collect and analyze specified data and conduct a specified assessment; etc. Hearing Date: Tue 3/11 1:00 PM Effective Date: June 1, 2014 HB1489 Department of Health and Mental Hygiene - Mental Health Facilities - Accreditation Repealing a requirement that the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene consider accreditation of specified mental health facilities by specified accrediting organizations; and authorizing the Secretary to consider accreditation of specified mental health facilities by an accrediting organization approved by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Hearing Date: Tue 3/18 1:00 PM Effective Date: October 1, 2014 HB1509 Maryland Health Benefit Exchange - State Reinsurance Program and Health Insurance Subsidy Program Substituting the Health Insurance Subsidy Program for the State Reinsurance Program in specified provisions of law relating to funding of the State Reinsurance Program; authorizing the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, with the approval of the Maryland Insurance Commissioner, to establish the Health Insurance Subsidy Program to take effect on or after January 1, 2015; etc. Hearing Date: Fri 3/14 12:30 PM Effective Date: July 1, 2014 HB1510 Behavioral Health Administration - Establishment and Duties Merging the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration and the Mental Hygiene Administration in the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to establish the Behavioral Health Administration in the Department; establishing the qualifications, responsibilities, powers, and duties of the Director of the Behavioral Health Administration; requiring substance use disorder programs and mental health programs to be licensed by the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene, with specified exceptions; etc. Hearing Date: Fri 3/14 12:30 PM Effective Date: July 1, 2014 [GO TO TOP] [GO TO BILL LIST] HB1211 State Board of Nursing - Midwives - Licensing and Regulation Establishing a licensing and regulation scheme for the practice of traditional midwifery under the State Board of Nursing; requiring licensed midwives to obtain specified documents, make specified assurances, inform mothers of specified options, and refer, transfer, and transport clients to health care facilities and health care practitioners under specified circumstances; establishing the Midwifery Advisory Committee; etc. Hearing Date: Tue 3/11 1:00 PM Effective Date: October 1, 2014 [GO TO TOP] [GO TO BILL LIST] HB1229 Maryland Health Benefit Exchange - Repeal - Transfer of Enrollees to Federal Health Insurance Marketplace Repealing the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange; repealing the purpose, powers, duties, Board of Trustees, Executive Director and staff, functions and operations, funding, and administration of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange; repealing the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Fund; repealing the Individual Exchange; repealing the SHOP Exchange; repealing the requirement that a portion of a specified tax be distributed to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Fund for a specified purpose; etc. Hearing Date: Fri 3/7 12:30 PM Effective Date: Upon Enactment HB1268 Maryland Health Benefit Exchange - Criminal History Records Checks Requiring the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange to request from the Criminal Justice Information System Central Repository a State and national criminal history records checks for specified individuals; requiring the Exchange to submit fingerprints and specified fees to apply for a specified criminal history records check; etc. Hearing Date: Thu 3/6 1:00 PM Effective Date: October 1, 2014 HB1336 Maryland Health Benefit Exchange - Enrollment of Individuals - Information Requiring the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange to ask specified individuals for specified information when facilitating enrollment of the individuals in specified health insurance plans and specified health insurance programs; etc. Hearing Date: Thu 3/6 1:00 PM Effective Date: Upon Enactment HB1509 Maryland Health Benefit Exchange - State Reinsurance Program and Health Insurance Subsidy Program Substituting the Health Insurance Subsidy Program for the State Reinsurance Program in specified provisions of law relating to funding of the State Reinsurance Program; authorizing the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, with the approval of the Maryland Insurance Commissioner, to establish the Health Insurance Subsidy Program to take effect on or after January 1, 2015; etc. Hearing Date: Fri 3/14 12:30 PM Effective Date: July 1, 2014 [GO TO TOP] [GO TO BILL LIST] HB1361 Joint Committee to Review the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange and Audit by the Office of Legislative Audits Establishing the Joint Committee to Review the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange; requiring the Committee to investigate and review specified matters; authorizing the Committee to issue subpoenas, compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents, administer oaths, and cause the deposition of specified witnesses; requiring the Office of Legislative Audits to conduct a performance audit of the Exchange; etc. Hearing Date: Fri 3/7 12:30 PM Effective Date: Upon Enactment [GO TO TOP] [GO TO BILL LIST] HB1235 Community Integrated Medical Home Program Establishing the Community Integrated Medical Home Program; establishing the mission of the Community Integrated Medical Home Program; requiring the Community Integrated Medical Home Program to take specified actions to carry out its mission; requiring the Community Integrated Medical Home Program to be administered jointly by the Maryland Health Care Commission and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; etc. Hearing Date: Tue 4/1 1:00 PM Effective Date: July 1, 2014 HB1404 Health Care Disparities, Cultural and Linguistic Competency, and Health Literacy - Continuing Education Requiring specified applicants and health care professionals to provide to specified boards evidence of completion of continuing education requirements; requiring the boards, in consultation with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, to adopt specified regulations; stating the intent of the General Assembly that the regulations require 5% to 10% of the total required continuing education credits be in the areas of health care disparities, cultural and linguistic competency, and health literacy; etc. Hearing Date: Effective Date: October 1, 2014 SB891 Maryland Health Care Commission - Authority of Acute Care Hospitals to Provide Cardiac Surgery Services - Voluntary Relinquishment - Regulations This legislation amends existing law by requiring an acute general hospital, as a condition of a certificate of conformance or a certificate of ongoing performance to provide cardiac surgery, to agree to voluntary relinquishment of such services if the hospital fails to meet the applicable standards set by the Maryland Health Care Commission. This requirement exists in current statute for hospitals performing emergency or elective PCI. Hearing Date: Thu 3/27 1:00 PM Effective Date: June 1, 2014 SB934/HB1447 State Aid Reporting Requirement - Nonprofit Entities - Minority Business Participation This bill requires nonprofits that receive $750,000 or more in state capital or operating support to submit a report to the Governor’s Office on Minority Affairs on the use of those state funds as they relate to minority business enterprise. Similar legislation passed in 2010 that requires hospitals and institutions of higher education to report on their use of state capital support of $500,000 or more. Hearing Date: Wed 3/12 1:00 PM Effective Date: June 1, 2014 [GO TO TOP] [GO TO BILL LIST] HB1497 Maryland Medical Assistance Program - Services for Children With Prader-Willi Syndrome Requiring the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to apply to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a home- and community-based services waiver in order to receive federal matching funds for specified services to specified children with Prader-Willi syndrome. Hearing Date: Tue 3/18 1:00 PM Effective Date: July 1, 2014 Legislative Session Office Legislative Hotline is a service of Johns Hopkins Government Affairs. © 2014 The Johns Hopkins Institutions. Baltimore, Maryland.
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
Health Care Occupations
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
Health Insurance/Health Care Access
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
Health Reform
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
Health, General/Public/Environmental
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
For more information, please contact: Sheila Higdon
For more information, please contact: Sheila Higdon
Medicaid
For more information, please contact: Nicole McCann
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.
47 State Circle, Suite 203
Annapolis, MD 21401
410-269-0057
fax 410-269-1574
Chelsea Beaupre [email protected] Mickey Geisler [email protected] Matt Greenwood [email protected] Sheila Higdon [email protected] Nicki McCann [email protected] Patrick Murray [email protected] Delora Sanchez [email protected]
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ACRONYMS
Office of Government and Community Affairs.