The Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) advocacy team monitors healthcare related legislation, rule changes, and legislative updates for Ohio’s family physicians.
Read on for this week’s updates and contact Workforce and Advocacy Manager Caitlin Laudeman with questions or for ways to get involved.
OAFP Submits Comments on HIPPA Privacy Protections to HHS
On June 13, the OAFP submitted a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding a proposal to strengthen HIPPA privacy protections, especially for sensitive personal health information (PHI) like reproductive healthcare and gender affirming care. The OAFP wants to be on the record that the patient-physician relationship is sacred and utilizing an individual’s PHI for non-healthcare related issues will have dire consequences. We stand firmly behind these proposed protections for physicians and patients alike.
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) also responded to the HHS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to strengthen HIPAA Privacy Rule protections by prohibiting the use or disclosure of PHI to investigate or prosecute patients, providers, and others involved in the provision of legal reproductive healthcare, including abortion care. The proposal includes extending additional privacy protections for providers, insurers, patients, and others to safeguard PHI when that information otherwise would be disclosed or used to identify, investigate, sue, or prosecute someone for seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive healthcare.
Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of August 8 Special Election
Source: NEA Consulting Weekly Ohio Update
In response to the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision issued June 12, the Ohio Ballot Board recently voted 3-2 to adopt a slightly adjusted ballot title and language for Issue 1 to reflect the Court’s wishes. The board accepted new language that made minor changes to the previous language. Specifically, the second point in the language now reads that the amendment would “Require that any initiative petition filed on or after Monday, January 1, 2024, with the secretary of state proposing to amend the Constitution of the State of Ohio be signed by at least 5% of the electors of each county based on the total vote in the county for governor in the last preceding election.” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose also gave the issue the new title of “Elevating the Standards to Qualify for an Initiated Constitutional Amendment and to Pass a Constitutional Amendment.”
House Bill 68 Reported Out By House
Source: NEA Consulting Weekly Ohio Update
House Bill (HB) 68, which would prohibit gender transition services for children and ban transgender women and girls from playing women’s and girls’ school sports, was recently reported out of the House Public Health Policy Committee. Representative. Andrea White (R-Kettering, OH) joined all Democrats in voting against the legislation. Rep. White said she supports parts of the bill, but believed it needed more work before being reported out of committee. Representative Beth Liston (D-Dublin, OH) said the bill “dehumanizes” transgender individuals and inappropriately puts the government in charge of medical decisions that are best made by families and their doctors. House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill, OH) told reporters after the floor session that HB 68 will “probably” be on the House floor the week of June 19. OAFP member Mark McLoney, MD, provided testimony on behalf of the Academy regarding gender affirming care in May.
Senate Passes Budget Bill
Source: NEA Consulting Weekly Ohio Update
The Senate passed its version of budget bill (HB 33 (Edwards)) by a vote of 24-7 on June 15 with Republicans touting the measure’s tax cuts and education policies and Democrats condemning the legislation as “out of touch” and harmful to Ohioans. The bill now heads to the House for a concurrence vote and will likely be sent to a conference committee. The Senate Finance Committee had made a final round of budget changes on June 14 in a 2,100-plus page omnibus amendment. The omnibus packaged dozens and dozens of individual amendments addressing everything from tax policy to preemption of local tobacco regulations to limiting how much time state employees can spend working from home.
Compared to the substitute bill version of HB 33 unveiled the previous week, the version reported by committee on June 14 included about $58 million more in state-only General Revenue Fund (GRF) money for FY24 and about $43 million more for FY25. Funding totals remain below House-proposed levels by more than 2% in each fiscal year. Among major changes is the inclusion of Senate Bill (SB) 83 (Senator Jerry Cirino (R- Kirtland, OH)), a major rewrite of higher education laws sponsored by the finance committee vice chair, Sen Cirino, as well as the inclusion of SB 1 (Senator Bill Reinke (R-Tiffin, OH)) which removes most of the authority of the State Board of Education, giving it to a new state education department under the governor.
Four Major Companies Will Pay $679.6 Million in Opiate Crisis Settlement
Source: NEA Consulting Weekly Ohio Update
- $156 million over 13 years from Teva
- $93 million over seven years from Allergan
- $206.3 million over 10 years from CVS
- $224.3 million over 15 years from Walgreens.
Scientists Call For Research to Maximize Use of Fentanyl Test Strips
Source: Ohio Health Policy News
The government’s top addiction scientists and key public health officials are calling for more research on maximizing the potential use of fentanyl test strips (Source: “Top Health Officials Call for More Research to Support Fentanyl Test Strips,” STAT News, June 10, 2023). Amid a devastating overdose epidemic, the U.S. must ensure that test strips are legal and widely available, the officials wrote in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective published recently. Additionally, they argued, the U.S. should work to develop new products and technologies that facilitate drug-checking.
Drug-checking, an increasingly common harm-reduction tactic, involves testing a supply of illicit drugs to determine its contents. In recent years, as fentanyl has come to contaminate much of the illicit drug supply in the U.S., the strategy has become a critical component of overdose-prevention efforts. While most states once classified drug testing strips as illegal paraphernalia, fentanyl test strips are now legal in a large majority of states (including Ohio, which decriminalized them in early January).