The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) advocacy team monitors healthcare related legislation, rule changes, and legislative updates for Ohio’s family physicians.
To access the OAFP Bill Tracker, visit the OAFP Public Policy webpage and click on the Bill Tracker icon.
Read on for this week’s updates and contact Advocacy Coordinator Kaela Springhetti with questions or for ways to get involved.
OAFP Opposes HB 12
The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) recently voted to oppose House Bill (HB) 12, the Enact the Jeff, Dave, and Angie Patient Right to Try Act.
The bill focuses on the prescription of off-label drugs and the limiting the ability for health-related licensing boards, the Department of Health, or another state agency responsible for the licensure or regulation of healthcare professionals from infringing on free speech.
In its written opposition testimony to the Ohio House Health Committee, the OAFP emphasized the concern that lack of regulation on medical misinformation may impact the state’s ability to preserve the standards of the profession, protect the integrity of medical practice, and ensure that Ohioans receive sound, medically appropriate guidance from their trusted physician. The OAFP urges lawmakers to remove the section of HB 12 that aims to limit the ability of health-related licensing boards on infringing on free speech.
Health, Business Groups Oppose Right-to-Try Prescribing Bill
Source: Hannah News
Physicians, healthcare professionals, and business groups expressed their concerns recently with legislation that would broadly authorize off-label drug use, saying it would override providers’ safety concerns and create liability risks.
The House Health Committee had designated the day’s hearing on HB 12 for opponent testimony.
Among the medical groups opposing the bill, mostly in writing, were the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, the Ohio Pharmacists Association, the American Pharmacists Association, the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy, the Ohio State Medical Board, and the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians. Numerous individual providers, hospitals, medical education programs, and others provided opposition testimony as well. The committee set a hard stop for testimony around 1 p.m. but went slightly past that.
Adam Mezoff, MD, chief medical officer for Dayton Children’s Hospital, said the legislation would allow a clinician who’s been uninvolved in a patient’s care to “override the entire interdisciplinary care team and prescribe something that goes against the checks and balances of safe and effective medication use, including the professional judgment of the responsible physician, pharmacists, nursing staff, and other allied health professionals.” He suggested the bill could enable “a dentist prescribing cardiac medications for a 3-year-old in our pediatric intensive care unit.”
Dr. Mezoff also said the legislation’s provisions on bringing patient-supplied medications into the hospital would override “intricate” safety checks set at the state and federal levels and by hospital accrediting bodies.
Representative Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester, OH) said hospitals have complete immunity under HB 12, and hospitals can document their objections to care. She asked Dr. Mezoff if he can supersede a physician’s care decisions. Dr. Mezoff said it’s a broad question, but in general the attending physician is “the captain of the ship.”
Representative Brian Stewart (R-Ashville, OH), an attorney, said one of his colleagues in the legal profession has the free speech right to go around saying everyone is a sovereign citizen and that laws do not apply to them, but if he practiced law following those principles he would eventually lose his license. Rep. Stewart drew a comparison to a physician who advocates for 18th century medical practices like leeches and bloodletting.
Read the full article in Hannah News.
Ohio Lawmakers Want to Keep Medical Debt from Crushing Patients
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
State lawmakers want to make life easier for Ohioans who rack up medical debt because of unexpected health emergencies.
House Bill 257 would cap interest rates at 3% and prohibit providers and collectors from reporting medical debt to credit agencies. The bipartisan bill also bans the practice of wage garnishment for medical debt, meaning courts couldn’t require employers to withhold someone’s earnings and use that money for repayment.
The measure doesn’t forgive medical debt, but backers say these guardrails will protect patients from drowning in unpaid bills.
“No one chooses to get sick or injured. No one plans for a car accident, a cancer diagnosis, or an unexpected hospital stay,” Representative Michele Grim (D-Toledo, OH) said during a news conference on May 6. “And yet for too many Ohioans, this is exactly how medical debt begins.”
About 9.1% of Ohio adults reported having medical debt from 2019 to 2021, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy and research organization. Researchers found people saddled with medical debt cut back on other expenses, such as food and clothing, drained their savings and increased their credit card debt.
Read the full article in The Columbus Dispatch.
Ohio Lawmakers Want to Make Breast Cancer Screening Less Expensive
Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer
State lawmakers and advocates wanted to make sure that insurance companies would cover breast cancer screenings for Ohioans of any age, so they worked to pass a bill that became a state law in 2022.
But there was a problem. Expanded coverage didn’t necessarily mean the screenings became more affordable.
“People are still on the hook for high costs associated with their screenings,” said Representative Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland, OH) who sponsored House Bill (HB) 371, the bill that took effect in 2022.
Rep. Schmidt introduced her new bill, the Breast Examination and Screening Transformation Act (BEST), which seeks to eliminate out of pocket medical expenses such as copays and deductibles associated with supplemental breast cancer screenings, during a press conference recently at UC Health.
BEST is intended to help Ohioans who face costs for breast cancer screenings that range from $200 to $1,000 out of pocket. The costs are high for several reasons, including high deductibles and screenings being coded incorrectly by insurance companies.
Cincinnati-based attorney and Stage 4 breast cancer survivor Michele Young said the high cost of screening means that more women are going undiagnosed until the cancer – and the treatment it requires – becomes debilitating and expensive.
Read the full article in The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Lawmakers Reintroduce Bill to Regulate Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Source: The Dayton Daily News
Lawmakers recently reintroduced the Community Pharmacy Protection Act after the bill failed to make it out of committee under the previous Ohio General Assembly.
The act, which is House Bill (HB) 192, implements regulations for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs are companies that often work with large employers, health insurers and/or other payers for healthcare to help to manage prescription drug benefits.
In negotiating on behalf of those clients, PBMs influence how much drugs cost through negotiating rebates with the drug manufacturers and they can also set the reimbursement rates for pharmacies, the Ohio Pharmacists Association says.
“Many communities and constituents in our districts are facing, or will soon face, a healthcare access crisis as community, independent pharmacies, along with large to mid-size pharmacies, will be rapidly closing,” said Representative Tim Barhorst, (R-Fort Loramie, OH), one of the sponsors for the bill.
Advocates for pharmacies say PBMs’ businesses practices can lead pharmacy closures, many saying the reimbursements pharmacies receive for dispensing certain drugs is lower than what they paid to stock them.
Read the full article in The Dayton Daily News.