Health News
- Advocates Of State Appeals For Medicaid Managed-care Claims Make Last-ditch Effort To Get It Passed, By Hijacking Another Bill
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Advocates of a bill to create a state appeals process for health-care providers to appeal decisions of Medicaid managed-care companies are trying to jam it through at the end this short legislative...
- Fighting Prescription Drug Abuse Back On Legislative Agenda
As expected, finding a way to fight prescription drug abuse was back on the legislative agenda as lawmakers gathered for Day 1 of their special session. House Speaker Greg Stumbo introduced a bill today that will make it "mandatory for doctors to use...
- Pill-mill Bill Does Not Pass As Legislative Session Ends In Failure; Special Session Starts Monday
Though it's considered by experts as the most important bill needed this year, the Senate failed to pass a measure that would crack down on so-called pill mills before the end of the legislative session last night. Gov. Steve Beshear, above, called...
- Legislature Passes Bill On Personal-care Homes But Stalls On One To Regulate Pill Mills As Doctors Lobby Hard
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News The effort to quash "pill mills" that feed one of Kentucky's worst problems, prescription drug abuse, stalled on the next-to-last day of the General Assembly's session and faces cloudy prospects on April 12, when...
- Optometrists' Well-financed Bill Is First To Clear General Assembly
The bill that would significantly increase the care optometrists can provide passed the House Friday morning by a 81-14 vote. The bill, which now heads to Gov. Steve Beshear's desk, is the first this session to clear both houses of the General Assembly, The...
Health News
Beshear will use line-item veto on Medicaid bill to remove mandatory cuts in other state programs and school funding
Democrats appear to have prevailed in the State Capitol battle over the budget and Medicaid. (Update, March 25: Beshear issued the vetoes.)
After the Republican-controlled Senate passed a budget fix that included mandatory spending cuts across state government and basic school funding, and Gov. Steve Beshear said he would remove the cuts with line-item vetoes, the House passed the Senate's bill and the legislature sent it to the governor.
Legislators will return April 6 to give each chamber a chance to override the promised vetoes, but in a rare floor speech before the 86-1 vote, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, left, made clear that the House considers the deal done.
"He said the unusual maneuver was necessary because lawmakers must pass a bill that balances Medicaid before April 1 to avoid what Beshear has said would be 35 percent cuts in rates paid to Medicaid providers. Such a move, Stumbo said, would damage rural health care providers," Tom Loftus and Deborah Yetter report for The Courier-Journal. "House Republican Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown urged House members to vote for the bill, saying that small health care providers will be spared devastating cuts on April 1 and education funding won't be cut."
The House wanted to adjourn the special session, but the Senate declined. Senate President David Williams, who is running to oust Beshear in the November election, "noted that the legislation approved by both chambers Thursday says that lawmakers will not be paid during the veto period. Each day of the session, which was in its 11th day Thursday, costs taxpayers about $63,500," Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer report for the Lexington Herald-Leader. (Read more)
After the Republican-controlled Senate passed a budget fix that included mandatory spending cuts across state government and basic school funding, and Gov. Steve Beshear said he would remove the cuts with line-item vetoes, the House passed the Senate's bill and the legislature sent it to the governor.
"He said the unusual maneuver was necessary because lawmakers must pass a bill that balances Medicaid before April 1 to avoid what Beshear has said would be 35 percent cuts in rates paid to Medicaid providers. Such a move, Stumbo said, would damage rural health care providers," Tom Loftus and Deborah Yetter report for The Courier-Journal. "House Republican Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown urged House members to vote for the bill, saying that small health care providers will be spared devastating cuts on April 1 and education funding won't be cut."
The House wanted to adjourn the special session, but the Senate declined. Senate President David Williams, who is running to oust Beshear in the November election, "noted that the legislation approved by both chambers Thursday says that lawmakers will not be paid during the veto period. Each day of the session, which was in its 11th day Thursday, costs taxpayers about $63,500," Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer report for the Lexington Herald-Leader. (Read more)
- Advocates Of State Appeals For Medicaid Managed-care Claims Make Last-ditch Effort To Get It Passed, By Hijacking Another Bill
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Advocates of a bill to create a state appeals process for health-care providers to appeal decisions of Medicaid managed-care companies are trying to jam it through at the end this short legislative...
- Fighting Prescription Drug Abuse Back On Legislative Agenda
As expected, finding a way to fight prescription drug abuse was back on the legislative agenda as lawmakers gathered for Day 1 of their special session. House Speaker Greg Stumbo introduced a bill today that will make it "mandatory for doctors to use...
- Pill-mill Bill Does Not Pass As Legislative Session Ends In Failure; Special Session Starts Monday
Though it's considered by experts as the most important bill needed this year, the Senate failed to pass a measure that would crack down on so-called pill mills before the end of the legislative session last night. Gov. Steve Beshear, above, called...
- Legislature Passes Bill On Personal-care Homes But Stalls On One To Regulate Pill Mills As Doctors Lobby Hard
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News The effort to quash "pill mills" that feed one of Kentucky's worst problems, prescription drug abuse, stalled on the next-to-last day of the General Assembly's session and faces cloudy prospects on April 12, when...
- Optometrists' Well-financed Bill Is First To Clear General Assembly
The bill that would significantly increase the care optometrists can provide passed the House Friday morning by a 81-14 vote. The bill, which now heads to Gov. Steve Beshear's desk, is the first this session to clear both houses of the General Assembly, The...