[March 08, 2020] | We are in the eighth week of the 2020 legislative session. It was a busy week with the hallways crowded with folks for and against certain bills that were under consideration. Monday was the most crowded I had ever seen. Qualifying for the upcoming election year was starting, and the US Senate candidates had lots of media and well-wishers in the Capitol. It was also Peanut Day! The Ga Peanut Commission was there with their grilled peanut butter sandwiches, promoting our state being the number one in peanut production. Being number one is not by accident, as we all have invested in university research and development of this important crop which we all enjoy.
We passed more than 40 bills and resolutions on the House floor this week, and with ?Cross Over Day? coming up in a few days, we spent a lot of our time this week preparing for this important deadline by voting on other legislation in our committees, some that start meeting at 7 am and others that go into the late afternoon.
I try to pick out the most important bills each week to talk about, and this week it?s clearly a bill that protects all of us, young and older, from incurring unexpected medical costs. One of the leading causes of bankruptcy is surprise medical bills, which is a medical bill that results when an insured patient receives treatment from an out-of-network provider at an in-network facility. To address this, we passed House Bill 888, or the ?Surprise Billing Consumer Act,? which would require insurance providers to pay for emergency medical services without need for any prior authorization and without any retrospective payment denial for medically necessary services, regardless of whether a health care provider giving emergency medical services is a participating provider or not. In both emergency and non-emergency care, the medical provider would only bill a patient based on their deductible, co-insurance, co-payment, or other cost-sharing amount.
We also passed several bills to improve regulations for Georgia?s pharmacy industry and to reduce the costs of prescriptions for our citizens. We passed House Bill 946 to create transparency for prescription drug prices and to allow the state to better oversee pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs), which are third-party prescription drug administrators that pay for, reimburse, and cover the cost of drugs, devices, or pharmacy care on behalf of a health plan. HB 946 would safeguard citizens by ensuring that Georgia physicians are utilized in the development and management of the formularies that PBMs develop. This bill would also require PBMs to report whether drug prices are above or below public pricing benchmarks, which indicate the true cost of drugs. Under HB 946, if a patient uses any discount or coupon, PBMs would be required to apply that toward an insured person?s deductible, cost-share, or co-payment responsibility or out-of-pocket maximum. HB 946 would also prohibit spread pricing, require that 100 percent of all rebates received from pharmaceutical manufacturers be passed back to health plans, and strengthen anti-steering laws by imposing a surcharge on PBMs when they steer patients to affiliated pharmacies. Yes, it?s complex.
These are complex issues that have been worked on for years. If we are successful and pass them through the Senate and have them signed by Governor Kemp, it will have been worth the work! I can provide you with more details of other bills we passed; just ask with the contact below. I work hard to keep everyone informed on what is going on at your Capitol. My office number is 404-656-7153, and my email address is rick.jasperse@house.ga.gov.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve you in the House of Representatives at our Georgia Capitol.