HB 471 by Rep. Barbara Frieberg was filed at the request of corporate pharmacies. If passed, it would have allowed any licensees of the Louisiana State Board of Pharmacy (LaBOP) to give any vaccination to any child aged 7 and older. Licensees of LaBOP include pharmacists, their techs and their interns. Proponents of the legislation continue to tout this effort as an increase in access, though this has not proven true when you consider the loss of access to primary care that results from removing children
ACT 333 (SB 188) closely tracks transparency requirements proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services relative to Medicare Advantage organizations expected to go into effect January 1, 2026. Our thanks to Sen. Jeremy Stine for offering this LSMS requested legislation. Further thanks to Rep. Brett Geymann for handling the bill for us on the House side. ACT 333 • Requires health plans to annually report certain prior authorization metrics to the Department of Insurance including:
from a pediatric medical home. This bill went to the wire receiving three votes on the final day of the session. It died on the calendar after the House refused to approve the conference committee report which stripped two key amendments from the bill offered by Sen. Jay Morris . Thank you to Sen. Morris and to the many members who replied to our calls to action on this legislation.
• A list of all items and services requiring PA.
• Percentages of expediated and standard PA requests approved, denied, approved after appeal, approved after the review timeframe was extended and the average and median timeframes between submission and a decision.
• Requires health plans to annually publish to their website (and timely update) items and services requiring PA.
• Requires health plans to provide a list of all items and services that require PA and their policies and procedures used to make PA decisions to health care providers seeking to participate with the health plans. We’ve included a one-page pullout on our prior authorization legislation that can be found on page 11. INSURANCE Legislation
HB 599 became HB 652 when it was reported by substitute from the House Health and Welfare Committee. The original legislation was filed by Rep. Dustin Miller and encompassed components of the Global Signature Authority legislation we have fought in years past. Rep. Miller, who is an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, met with a number of stakeholders before stripping everything but the ability for a nurse practitioner and physician assistant to “certify the existence of an illness of a teacher, school bus driver, or teaching staff for the purpose of using sick leave or extended sick leave.” All parties agreed to work with Rep. Miller outside of the legislative session to address other concerns that were removed from the bill. MEDICAL MALPRACTICE Legislation Last year, legislation was brought related to standard of care under emergency declarations. The author of the 2022 legislation, Sen. Jimmy Harris, sought to shift the burden of proof to the physician and/or other provider and tie the care specifically to the emergency. After testimony was provided in the Senate Committee, Sen. Harris agreed to pull the bill for 2022 and work with varying stakeholders to review the statutes and identify any potential areas that the parties could agree need clarifying. LSMS, LAMMICO and others did have multiple conversations on the statutes but ultimately could not arrive at a consensus. This led to Sen. Harris offering SB 139 which:
Plastic surgeon Dr. James Wade trusted LAMMICO to provide his medical malpractice insurance for nearly 20 years.
As always, the legislation introduced to impact what is covered under insurance and how insurance companies operate is varied.
“LAMMICO has been great to me. I came to them for medical malpractice insurance in 2002 and never looked back. EXPECTATIONS EXCEEDING I chose LAMMICO because of their personalized service of high quality, and because they’re policyholder-owned. They utilize talented attorneys in defense of claims. I appreciated their emphasis on risk reduction. LAMMICO gave me peace of mind. I always felt that they had my back. You cannot put a price on peace of mind.” – James Wade, M.D., plastic surgeon
In addition to our prior authorization legislation, Sen. Kirk Talbot introduced SB 110 for the Louisiana Oncology Society. It closely mirrors Rep. Pressly’s Act 312 and includes some nuanced language specific to cancer. It did pass and has become Act 254 . Unfortunately, Sen. Heather Cloud’s transparency legislation that focused on the Office of Group Benefits and mirrored Sen. Stine’s Act 333 ran out of time while in conference committee. In maternal health areas, legislation requiring coverage of doulas (Act 270) and midwifes (Act 207) did pass. There are some limitations in both bills, but we would encourage our OB/Gyn community to monitor what occurs and provide feedback on how implementation of both is affecting you and your practice. SCOPE OF PRACTICE Legislation Scope remains one of LSMS’ top priorities. This year saw two significant scope of practice bills filed. Both dealt with specific issues we’ve seen before.
• Removed premises liability (general liability).
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• Prohibited attorney chair from raising the gross negligence standard of care in review panel.
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