Legislative Update

David Thompson, Pennsylvania Medical Society

David Thompson

@PAMEDsociety

hile we enter the second phase of the current legislative session, one thing for certain is change. The Pennsylvania General Assembly begin the 2019-2020 legislative session with 44 new faces in the House of Representatives and 7 new Senators. Since the session has been underway, we saw scandal cost another Senator his seat and welcomed an 8th new Senator in a short time period. Over in the House, we saw the addition of a 45th new member this session with Rep. Fred Keller made the jump to Congress and was replaced by State Representative David Rowe. Both chambers are close to operating at full capacity for the first time in a while once the House conducts upcoming special elections to fill seats that where vacated in Fall 2019 elections by former Reps. Justin Walsh, Ted Nesbit and Gene DiGirolomo. W

There will be some new faces in the Capitol hallways when the 2021- 2022 regular legislative session commences but not at the same level we experienced at the beginning of this session. As of this writing, eighteen members of both chambers have announced they would not be seeking reelection at the end of their current terms. Most notably and a rarity in politics, each chamber will say farewell to their top leadership, Senator Joe Scarnati, President Pro Tempore, and Representative Mike Turzai, Speaker of the House. Additionally, it is important to note and remember that state politics can be dramatically impacted by what is happening at the national level in Presidential election year. Election day performance by President Trump or his yet to be determined challenger in the Commonwealth can have a significant impact on those down ballot, meaning that the party of whichever presidential candidate wins Pennsylvania may seek to benefit greatly.

Looking at legislative activity of the state House and Senate, it will be interesting to see what issues they decide to prioritize as there is not a significant amount of session days remaining to advance legislation. Both chambers return to Harrisburg in mid-March and will be around sporadically leading into the Spring primaries. The entire state House is up for reelection and half of the state Senate is up for reelection. This is important to note as that is where a lot of focus will be in the coming months. Once the calendar hits June, the General Assembly will shift its focus to passing a state budget in a timely manner. They will then recess for the summer and come back for a very short fall session where it will be hard to think much else will be on anyone’s minds other than the upcoming general election. This is key to remember as bills that are not flagged to be fast tracked or those that are not already at a latter stage in the legislative process might simply lack the time needed to get to the Governor’s desk and be signed into law.

PAMED will continue to sink our time and resources into our member determined priority issues and policies. It is our hope that, together with our provider stakeholder partners, we will be able to advance important legislation such as prior authorization reform, telemedicine, credentialing, and telemedicine. We continue to work toward protecting patients by working on key surprise billing legislation and prescription drug price transparency and affordability issues.