Hundreds of Health Care Bills Anticipated during New Legislative Session

The 2015-2016 legislative session is just underway, and already hundreds of health care bills are anticipated during the new two-year session. The topics of these bills include issues such as scope of practice and physician-led team-based care; medical marijuana; insurance issues, such as credentialing; psychiatric bed shortages and tracking; and stronger enforcement of tanning laws.

“During the last legislative session, around 350 bills were introduced in either the State Senate or House of Representatives, and there’s no reason to believe that that number will decrease as we make our way through the new session,” said Karen Rizzo, MD, president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED).

A Jan. 26 round-up report from the Pennsylvania Health New Service — a collaborative project of 20 Pennsylvania-based health care associations and societies — outlines some of the top issues that could make the headlines and provides more information on each of them.

PAMED is your partner, voice, and advocate — both in Harrisburg and in Washington D.C. — monitoring hundreds of health-care related bills daily, supporting pro-physician, pro-patient legislation and regulation that improves and strengthens the physician-patient-relationship, and opposing bills that threaten patient safety or increase the burden on physicians.