April 4, 2021

Most of the past week was filled with committee hearings in the legislature as will be the coming week since the deadline for having bills through their second committee hearing is Thursday.

Highlights from last week:

• Speaker McCall’s and Sen. McCortney’s HB2089, which would provide a tax credit to rural doctors, passed the Finance Committee and now must be heard in Senate Appropriations.
• A coalition of health care organizations continued to work to prevent HB2504 from being heard. The measure would give more control of the Tulsa County and Oklahoma City County health departments to the commissioner of health. The measure has not been put on committee agenda yet.
• The Oklahoma Supreme Court has not decided yet whether it will take jurisdiction on the injunction to stop the implementation of managed care. Meanwhile, one of the companies selected in Oklahoma is now being sued in Ohio for breach of contract.

Looking ahead:

• HB2335 is scheduled to be heard in Senate Health and Human Services Monday afternoon. Thank you to all of you who responded to the alert asking members of the committee to vote against the bill. Proponents of the bill have stated on their social media that the bill would prevent the requirement of vaccine passports but the measure doesn’t state that. There are also several exemptions listed in the proposed committee substitute including vaccinations required for school entrance and day care attendance, but the coalition is still concerned about the bill. If you haven’t done so already, please consider sending an email or call to members of the Health and Human Services Committee.
• SB674, payment parity for telehealth, should be heard Wednesday in House Insurance.

As always, let us know if you have any questions and thank you for your response to alerts.