And so goes another week of “As the General Assembly Turns”, fraught with melodrama and fast-moving plot lines. We’ve come to the final calendar of at least 5 House and Senate committees, meaning it’s now, never or 2022 for some of the bills still toiling away at the back of the agenda. In semi-legislative news, Governor Bill Lee recently revived his 2020 plan for a $250 million Mental Health Trust Fund meant to address the mental health needs of students in Tennessee schools. As students return to school from potentially long-term distance learning, it’s going to be so important that our schools have the capacity to evaluate and address the mental health needs of their students. Good on Governor Lee for continuing to make student mental health a priority in Tennessee.
TDC Priority Bill Update
- ID Death Penalty Bill – this bill modernizes the state’s definition of ID and provides a pathway for individuals sentenced to death to be evaluated for ID with this modern definition.
- As you close readers of the policy update are probably aware, this top priority bill has been rolling down the committee agenda for some time now. Politicking, amendments and busy schedules have delayed discussion on the bill to this point.
- BUT NOT ANYMORE – our fearless leader, the inimitable Carol Westlake, took her talents to the House Civil Justice Subcommittee floor and deftly escorted the bill to a 7-2 passage onto the House Criminal Justice full committee, possibly to be heard next week.
- Some long-windedness and controversial bill subjects disrupted Carol’s clean sweep in the Senate Judiciary last Wednesday. The committee ran out of time and pushed the remainder of the agenda to next Wednesday.
- Let’s not let our guard down, however – we need to keep the pressure on our elected officials to continue this bill moving in the right direction.
- GRASSROOTS: whether it’s your first or tenth email, use this link to let members on the Senate Judiciary and House Criminal Justice committees know that they need to pass HB1062/SB1349 next week.
- The bill should be heard in both the Senate Judiciary and House Criminal Justice committees on Wednesday the 14th.
- Universal Changing Tables – this bill requires that public-access buildings built or renovated after summer 2022 include a motorized, adult-sized changing table be accessible in at least one single-occupancy bathroom.
- I’ve been eager to see this bill start to move and this last week, it did. Unfortunately, it moved right into a roadblock.
- The bill was recommended for Summer Study, which means that this bill is not technically dead, but it won’t be voted on during this session and will be reviewed and refined over the summer for a potential spot on the 2022 agenda.
- It was the fiscal note that stopped this bill in its tracks. It is admittedly unwieldy, approximately $1 billion (if the committee members are to be believed), and was always going to throw a wrench in this one.
- That said, it ain’t over yet. Hopefully some of the (expensive) kinks get worked out this summer and, while that may not produce a perfect bill, a good start is better than nothing.
- Balance Billing – this bill creates independent dispute resolution procedures for determining the appropriate payment for balance and surprise out-of-network medical billing.
- This bill, like the last, is headed for summer school.
- The committee wants to wait to hear how federal guidance, namely, state preemption, is detailed this summer before moving forward with the bill.
- Again, not great, but not the worst thing ever. It’s possible that the bill becomes moot as the Biden Administration lays out federal balance billing rules.
- This bill, like the last, is headed for summer school.
- Transplant Discrimination Prohibition – this bill prohibits healthcare providers and insurance companies from denying qualified recipients access to organ transplants or anatomical gifts based solely on the recipient’s disability.
- This bill passed unanimously via the Senate floor consent calendar on Wednesday morning, and passed on a voice vote through the House Health subcommittee on Wednesday afternoon.
- It’s set for the full House Health Committee next Wednesday, the 14th.
Other stuff next week:
- HB0130/SB0114 - $15 DSP Wages (Sen. Gardenhire and Rep. Hazlewood)
- House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee – 4/14 @ 11am
- HB0636/SB0603 – Health Benefit Plan Network Access and Adequacy Act (Sen. Watson and Rep. Smith)
- House Insurance Subcommittee – 4/13 @ 1:30pm
Federal Updates
- I’m gonna be honest here, I don’t have many substantial updates from the Federal legislative landscape this week. Not much has moved on the bills I’m watching, likely because Congress is once again focused on a massive spending bill (American Jobs Plan Act - which we talked about last week)
- There has been a lot of movement on state Medicaid 1115 waivers with the new administration reviewing approved and pending plans and amendment requests.
- Here is a (not-so-tidy) tracker of the all of the proposed changes from Kaiser.
- A (very short and incomplete) summary of some of the chatter:
- Virginia, Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, Missouri and Indiana are all requesting extended post-partum coverage for new mothers
- Texas Republicans are seemingly warming to the use of their 1115 waiver to control potential Medicaid expansion
- Tennessee has made some huge changes to their Medicaid waivers (beware, this article is super-wonky) in the last year, and those changes are very close to taking effect.
- I’ll discuss them in more detail next week and provide some avenues for our GRASSROOTS to get engaged in ensuring that the waivers are what’s best for Tennesseans.
Media Highlights
- The Tennessean – one of Governor Bill Lee’s big priorities since entering office is criminal justice reform. This year, one bill creates alternative to incarceration and the other provides support for people upon community reentry.
- FYI, this aligns well with our top legislative priority, the ID Death Penalty bill.
- Knoxville News Sentinel (Opinion) – State Senator Marsha Blackburn writes that, as co-chair on the Rural Health Caucus, she is rolling out a rural health agenda meant to stem the tide of rural hospital closures and limit rural health care deserts.
- The agenda includes initiatives to incentivize doctors to live and work in rural areas and to return fair Medicaid funding to rural communities.
- Hendersonville Standard – dear reader, I have a confession: I am a beer snob. I love a good, fancy beer on a hot Tennessee evening. Senator John Lundberg is sponsoring a bill that would allow small craft brewers in Tennessee to self-distribute their fancy beer across the state without a special permit.
- This will strongly support small brewery businesses in our state that is 37th in the country in breweries per capita, getting more fancy beers into all of our bellies.
As we bring another magical weekly policy update to close this week, I want to thank you for reading and thank you for doing the hard work of living the mission every day. Our coalition is strong specifically because of our TDC family, and that is not forgotten (even as the General Assembly turns).
- Jeff