Weekly Legislative Update: March 11, 2022

House and Senate Floor work was the focus this week. Measures now have until March 24 to pass their respective House or Senate chamber to continue consideration. Of course, we remain aware of prospective amendatory language which can be offered or considered throughout session.

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LEGISLATIVE ISSUES IMPORTANT TO OSMA

SCOPE OF PRACTICE

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

HB 3916 (Roberts, Dustin) – States that Allopathic and Osteopathic Medical Licensure Boards shall not limit the number of practice agreements an MD or DO can have with physician assistants. (Passed House Rules with Title Stricken*) OSMA OPPOSES

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

VACCINATIONS

HB 3878 (Lepak) – Requires employers to offer exemptions from any mandatory vaccination requirements (Passed House Public Health; to House Floor) OSMA OPPOSES

SB 765 (Bullard/West, Kevin) – Prohibits businesses from requiring their employees to receive any vaccines (Passed Senate Business, Commerce and Tourism; to Senate Floor) OSMA OPPOSES

SB 1128 (Stevens) – Creates the Employee Liberty and Freedom Act which prohibits companies from mandating employees submit to any vaccination or other medication for any virus or disease (Passed Senate Business, Commerce & Tourism; to Senate Floor) OSMA OPPOSES

LEGAL REFORM

HB 3815 (Stinson/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 The measure restores stricken language from last year which mistakenly repealed provisions dealing with a power of attorney for health care. (Passed House Judiciary; to House Floor) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1596 (Howard/Stinson) – 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. (Passed Senate Judiciary; to Senate Floor) OSMA SUPPORTS

GENERAL GOVERNMENT

HB 3319 (Miller/Haste) – Permits the boards of nursing, osteopathic examiners, and medical licensure and supervision, to grant a health care provider a temporary license when an emergency has been declared by certain entities and provides guidelines for the license (Passed House Floor; to Senate) OSMA SUPPORTS

HB 3415 (Pae/Howard) – Adjusts provisions related to electronic components of meetings subject to the Open Meeting Act including voting, attendance and posting standards. (Passed House General Government Modernization & Efficiency; To House Floor) OSMA SUPPORTS

HB 4450 (Wallace/Thompson) – Renames the Physician Manpower Training Commission to the Health Care Workforce Training Commission and creates a fund consisting of certain federal money to be managed by the Commission for workforce development (Passed Joint Committee on A&B; to House Floor) OSMA NEUTRAL

SB 1289 (Daniels/Pfeiffer) – 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

HB 3504 (Provenzano) – Requires all health benefit plans provide coverage for certain breast cancer diagnostic examinations (Passed House Floor; to Senate) OSMA SUPPORTS

MEDICAID

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 (Passed Senate Health & Human Services; to Senate Floor) OSMA SUPPORTS

PUBLIC HEALTH

HB 3159 (West, Kevin/Merrick) – Permits children with contagious diseases to attend public, private, or parochial school (Passed House Public Health; to House Floor) OSMA OPPOSED – Rep. West is currently working with OSMA on language allowing schools to retain policy which may prohibit children with contagious diseases from attending school

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

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 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 (Passed House Judiciary; to House Floor) 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 (Passed Senate Education; to Senate Floor) OSMA SUPPORTS

SB 1413 (Montgomery/Sneed) – Directs the Insurance Dept. to conduct a market conduct examination to analyze certain limitations on mental health parity by health providers. (Passed Senate Retirement & Insurance; to Senate Floor) OSMA SUPPORTS

WOMEN & CHILDREN HEALTH

HB 3504 (Provenzano) – Requires all health benefit plans provide coverage for certain breast cancer diagnostic examinations (Passed House Floor; to Senate) OSMA SUPPORTS

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

SB 1499 (Garvin) – Provides a sales tax refund on purchases of feminine hygiene products to be paid from a new Feminine Hygiene Program Revolving Fund (Passed Senate Appropriations; to Senate Floor) 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 (Passed Senate Floor; to House) OSMA OPPOSES**

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

*Title Stricken means the language in the measure continues to be a work in progress.