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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ORDER OF BUSINESS
health and welfare policy is implicated in the potential for artificial intelligence to be used for purposes of diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions and in the determination of health insurance coverage decisions and requests the Joint Legislative Committee on Technology and Cybersecurity to study and make recommendations to the legislature. Another accomplishment I’d like to highlight for you this afternoon is our successful efforts in opposition to the Blue Cross Blue Shield proposed acquisition by Elevance. After doing our due diligence, the Louisiana State Medical Society was the first organized physician group to come out publicly in opposition to this proposal. Our concerns were related to limiting access to care, increasing administrative burdens, and reducing and/or delaying payments. These concerns were crucial when considering the acquisition would have transferred 65% of the private health insurance market, in our state, from a home grown not for profit company to a publicly traded one, where profits and shareholder value would have been the new corporate mission. We worked with our friends in the legislature to be sure that the public was apprised of the lack of transparency throughout the process, submitted public comments to the Department of Insurance during both comment periods and were prepared to testify at the final hearing when it was announced that the parties had decided to withdraw their proposal. As a result of the problems identified multiple bills were filed this year to address the lack of transparency and ACT 149 by Senator McMath was successful. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention ACT 273, the non-compete legislation which was passed this year. For many years it has been a top priority of the LSMS to limit the use of non-compete clauses within physician contracts. We have heard countless complaints of physician members who were “trapped” by their employers with no end in sight. This legislation, which is effective on January 1, 2025, will prohibit enforcement of a non-compete clause upon a primary care physician after 3 years of employment and after 5 years of employment for all other physicians. This is a huge step in the right direction.
Anthony Blalock, MD, Chair, presented the report of the Committee on Rules and Order of Business which met earlier in the day. The Committee recommended the following rules for use by the 2024 House of Delegates: 1. Limitation of Debate: The tradition of previous meetings regarding limitation of debate be as follows: Each speaker addressing an item brought to the floor for a vote is limited to two minutes of debate. Each delegate may return to the floor for one minute for the purpose of rebuttal or to summarize his/her position.
2. The election packet was approved as presented.
The report and recommendations of the committee on Rules and Order of Business were approved by the House of Delegates. REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT Dr. Trawick introduced Richard Paddock, MD to give him an opportunity to address the House.
“Good afternoon. I hope everyone is enjoying their time here in Sandestin.
I would like to briefly highlight some of the past years accomplishments for you.
As some of you will recall, when I spoke before the House of Delegates last year, I prioritized Artificial Intelligence issues related to the house of medicine. Because of its interstate commerce impacts, this a an extremely complicated issue to tackle and one that many other states as well as the AMA have been grappling with. Thus, I was extremely pleased that Representative Melerine agreed to an amendment requested by LSMS that added “health and welfare policy” into his House Concurrent Resolution 66. This resolution provides for an established joint legislative committee to study regulations regarding AI. HCR 66 specifically states that
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20 J LA MED SOC | VOL 176 | FALL 2024
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