Weekly Legislative Update: February 11, 2022


The Second Session of the 58th Oklahoma State Legislature began this week. Committee work will be conducted through March 3. This session brings nearly 2,400 new bills and resolutions to be considered of which 448 deal with medicine and/or health care. Of those, 171 were “shell bills” which do not yet contain substantive language. The remaining 277 measures have been evaluated by the OSMA Legislative Council to determine initial positions. The following is not an exhaustive list but represents many of the measures in which OSMA is actively involved.

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Please consider serving as DOCTOR OF THE DAY which provides an opportunity for you to be recognized on the House and Senate Floor and provide professional services if needed.

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES IMPORTANT TO OSMA

There were more than 60 bills filed dealing with vaccinations ranging from abolishing a businesses ability to require masking and vaccinations for their employees to reducing the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s budget for promoting vaccinations. OSMA OPPOSES all of them.

In addition, there are an equal number of marijuana measures dealing with licensing and growing facilities. At this point, OSMA will remain neutral on those measures.

SCOPE OF PRACTICE

HB 3246 (Randleman) – Permits chiropractic specialists to administer certain articles of natural origin, by a needle or otherwise, to their clients. (House Business & Commerce) OSMA OPPOSES

HB 3380 (Stinson) – Removes provisions limiting the time period persons licensed under the Physical Therapy Practice Act may provide treatment to a patient without a referral by a medical professional. (House Public Health) OSMA OPPOSES

HB 3683 (Roberts, Sean) – Permits certified nurse practitioners to exercise their licenses without supervision after two years of physician supervision. (House Rules) OSMA OPPOSES

SB 497 (Rosino) – Prohibits the use of certain medical practitioner distinctions by individuals that do not meet certain definitions. (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1220 (Stanley) – Permits certified and designated nurses and nurse midwives to prescribe and administer certain drugs and controlled dangerous substances. (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA OPPOSES

LEGAL REFORM

HB 3815 (Stinson) & SB 1596 (Howard) – Creates the Oklahoma Health Care Agent Act which establishes standards and procedures for adults and emancipated minors to designate medical power of attorney to an agent should they become medically incapable. The measure restores stricken language from last year which mistakenly repealed provisions dealing with a power of attorney for health care. (House Judiciary & Senate Judiciary respectively) OSMA SUPPORTS

GENERAL GOVERNMENT

HB 3060 (Bush) – Imposes fines upon health care providers and facilities not in compliance with the Transparency in Health Care Prices Act. (House Public Health) OSMA SUPPORTS

HB 4203 (Echols) – Provides procedures for the Medical Licensure and Supervision Board to investigate complaints whereby all hearings are subject to Open Meetings (House Rules) OSMA OPPOSES

SB 1158 (Garvin) – Expands the membership of the Health Care Authority Board to include two additional members, one appointed by the House and one by the Senate, both of whom must be medical professionals meeting certain standards (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1205 (Garvin) – Adjusts membership requirements for the Health Care Authority Advisory Committee on Medical Care for Public Assistance Recipients to require at least one member be a state licensed pharmacist and two represent small and large hospitals. (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1289 (Daniels) – Removes standards requiring appointments to the Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision be made from a list provided by the State Medical Association (Passed Senate Health & Human Services; to Senate Floor) OSMA OPPOSES

INSURANCE

SB 1409 (Taylor, Z.) – Provides that a health benefit plan that uses a preauthorization process may exempt a physician or provider from obtaining such under certain circumstances with the possibility of denying or reducing payments for inappropriate use (Senate Retirement & Insurance) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1459 (Haste) – Requires health benefit plans must cover positron emission tomography imaging to screen for or diagnose cancer in patients (Senate Retirement & Insurance) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1599 (Haste) – Requires health benefit plans to provide coverage for the retrieval of eggs or sperm from a person receiving a medically necessary treatment which is known to induce iatrogenic infertility (Senate Retirement & Insurance) OSMA SUPPORTS

MEDICAID

SB 1314 (Garvin) – Requires that the Health Care Authority reimburse providers under the Medicaid program for screening of children and adults for adverse childhood experiences if funding is available (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1337 (McCortney) – Removes certain obsolete powers, duties and definitions from provisions related to the Health Care authority contracting with outside businesses to establish a state-run health benefits program. This measure serves as an anti-Medicaid managed care (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA SUPPORTS

PUBLIC HEALTH

HB 2967 (Provenzano) – Creates the Safe at School Act which repeals provisions relating to the requiring of certain vaccines and wearing of masks at public schools and technology centers unless the Governor has declared a state of emergency (House Common Education) OSMA SUPPORTS

HB 3047 (Rosecrants) – Creates the Active Oklahoma Kids Act which establishes standards for required unstructured play time during recess in public schools (House Common Education) OSMA SUPPORTS

HB 3094 (Hilbert) – Requires that any seller of electronic cigarettes obtain a license from the ABLE Commission (House Rules) OSMA SUPPORTS

HB 3159 (West, Kevin) – Permits children with contagious diseases to attend public, private, or parochial school (House Rules) OSMA OPPOSED

HB 3239 (Gann) – Permits licensed physicians to prescribe hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to patients for treatment and prevention of COVID-19 (House Health Services & Long-Term Care) OSMA OPPOSES

HB 3313 (Roe) – Requires hospitals to allow visitors to COVID-19 patients (House Public Health) OSMA OPPOSES

SB 1386 (Garvin) – Requires public high schools to make family and consumer science courses and physical education courses meeting certain standards available to all students (Senate Education) OSMA SUPPORTS

MENTAL HEALTH

HB 2973 (Olsen) – “Conversion Therapy” Creates the Parental and Family Rights in Counseling Protection Act, which prohibits political subdivisions of this state from disallowing religious and mental health advisors to engage in sexual orientation change efforts for all ages (Passed House State Powers Committee; To House Floor) OSMA OPPOSES

HB 3251 (Randleman) – Requires disclosure of certain mental health services received by incoming students by parents to resident school districts (House Common Education) OSMA OPPOSES

HB 3406 (Bush) – Adjusts provisions related to statute of limitations on child sexual abuse to include neglect, exploitation and incest and makes such adjustments to the statute of limitations on neglect, exploitation and incest retroactive (House Judiciary) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1307 (Coleman) – Requires schools that issue student identification cards to include numbers for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the Crisis Text Line and permits higher education institutions print similar information on student IDs (Senate Education) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1353 (Haste) – Requires health benefit plan providers to disclose to their subscribers certain obligations for the provider to follow mental health parity laws (Senate Retirement & Insurance) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1442 (Jett) – Provides definitions for social emotional learning, prohibits schools from collecting certain data on students, with financial penalties assessed for noncompliance (Senate Education) OSMA OPPOSES

WOMEN & CHILDREN HEALTH

HB 3504 (Provenzano) – Requires all health benefit plans provide coverage for certain breast cancer diagnostic examinations (House A&B Subcommittee on General Government) OSMA SUPPORTS

HB 3700 (Russ) – Prohibits the performance of an abortion on a woman with a fetus who has a detectible heartbeat except in cases of absolute medical emergency, enforcement of the prohibition to be exclusively through civil action (House Public Health) OSMA OPPOSES*

SB 1100 (Bergstrom) – Limits the designation of a newborn's gender on birth certificates to only male or female and specifically prohibits nonbinary designations (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA OPPOSES

SB 1225 (Bullard) – Removes restrictions on parental access to child health records, prohibits health providers from giving vaccinations to minors without parental consent and removes the rights of minors to self-consent to contraceptive or family planning services (Senate Judiciary) OSMA OPPOSES

SB 1499 (Garvin) – Provides a sales tax exemption for purchases of feminine hygiene products (Senate Finance) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1503 (Daniels) – Creates the Oklahoma Heartbeat Act which disallows abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected and allows certain individuals to bring civil action against certain persons they know to have performed or undergone an abortion (Senate health & Human Services) OSMA OPPOSES*

SB 1561 (Merrick) – Classifies abortion as homicide under Oklahoma law (Senate Health & Human Services) OSMA OPPOSES*

*OSMA understands the moral implications of the abortion issue; however, as long as the practice remains legal at the federal level, OSMA opposes the criminalization of this medical procedure.

MEDICINE DAY IS MARCH 1
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: 3p @ the Capitol Room 419-C
RECEPTION: HARN HOMESTEAD 5p-6:30p
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