Payer accountability, maintenance of certification and scope of practice will be among the top legislative issues that the Tennessee Medical Association takes on during the 2017 Session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
The TMA Board of Trustees approved a full slate of legislative priorities this month during its quarterly meeting in Nashville.
The Healthcare Provider Stability Act, also known as payer accountability, will be one of TMA’s top priorities in the coming session. Also a priority in 2016, the bill came within five votes of approval in the State House of Representatives. It was the final bill considered on the final day of session.
The goal of the legislation is to limit how often insurance companies can make changes to fee schedules and payment policies/methodologies and requiring more transparency when those changes are made.
Another priority for TMA will be addressing the ever-increasing cost associated with maintenance of certification for physicians.
MOC was a major topic of discussion at the American Medical Association annual meeting. The Tennessee delegation introduced a resolution addressing the issue.
Two states approved MOC legislation this year. In Kentucky, the law prevents MOC as a condition of licensure and, in Oklahoma, the law removed MOC as a requirement for physicians to be hired, gain admitting privileges or be reimbursed.
Scope of practice is also expected to be a major issue for TMA in the upcoming session. The TMA Board of Trustees hopes to be able to support a recommendation yet to come from a legislative task force established to explore healthcare access and nursing scope of practice issues. TMA has representation on the task force.
The association hopes that the task force recommendations will be geared toward a team-based approach between physicians and APRNs. The task force met first in June and will meet again Aug. 19.
TMA also expects to advocate on several other issues which could impact the practice of medicine in Tennessee.
Chief among those is the issue of balance billing. During the 2016 session, legislation was considered that would have required healthcare providers who are not contracted with a patient’s insurance provider to give an estimate of anticipated charges to patients.
The legislation was later amended to create a task force to study the issue, though that task force has yet to be convened.
TMA is working with the Department of Commerce and Insurance to reach a consensus on a National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) network adequacy model bill and to make it more Tennessee-specific.
TMA also expects legislation by the Georgia group, Patients for Fair Compensation, to be filed again in the 2017 session.
TMA opposed legislation from the group in the 2016 session that would have taken medical malpractice lawsuits against physicians out of the court system, instead putting them into an administrative patient compensation system.
TMA’s concerns about the proposal include questions about its constitutionality, the cost it would ultimately levy on physicians and the meteoric increase in National Practitioner Databank reports the system would create.
The association is also watching to see what legislation comes out of House Speaker Beth Harwell’s task force on the 3-Star Healthy Project, which could lead to an alternative proposal to Insure Tennessee.
Read more about TMA’s Legislative efforts at tnmed.org/legislative.