CPM Spring 2020 - 29

daup h i n c m s .o rg

LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

QUARTERLY LEGISLATIVE
UPDATES SPRING 2020

hile we enter the second phase of the current legislative session, one thing for certain is change. The
Pennsylvania General Assembly began the 2019-2020
legislative session with 44 new faces in the House of
Representatives and 7 new Senators. Since the session has been underway,
we saw scandal cost another Senator his seat and welcomed an 8th new
Senator in a short time period. Over in the House, we saw the addition
of a 45th new member this session when Rep. Fred Keller made the
jump to Congress and was replaced by State Representative David Rowe.
There will be some new faces in the Capitol hallways when the
2021-2022 regular legislative session commences but not at the same
level we experienced at the beginning of this session. As of this writing,
eighteen members of both chambers have announced they would not be
seeking reelection at the end of their current terms. Most notably and
a rarity in politics, each chamber will say farewell to their top leadership,
Senator Joe Scarnati, President Pro Tempore, and Representative Mike
Turzai, Speaker of the House. Additionally, it is important to note and
remember that state politics can be dramatically impacted by what is
happening at the national level in Presidential election year. Election
day performance by President Trump or his yet to be determined
challenger in the Commonwealth can have a significant impact on
those down ballot, meaning that the party of whichever presidential
candidate wins Pennsylvania may seek to benefit greatly.

Both chambers return to Harrisburg in mid-March and will be
around sporadically leading into the Spring primaries. The entire
state House is up for reelection and half of the state Senate is up for
reelection. This is important to note as that is where a lot of focus
will be in the coming months. Once the calendar hits June, the
General Assembly will shift its focus to passing a state budget in a
timely manner. They will then recess for the summer and come
back for a very short fall session where it will be hard to think much
else will be on anyone's minds other than the upcoming general
election. This is key to remember as bills that are not flagged to
be fast tracked or those that are not already at a latter stage in the
legislative process might simply lack the time needed to get to the
Governor's desk and be signed into law.
PAMED will continue to sink our time and resources into our
member determined priority issues and policies. It is our hope that,
together with our provider stakeholder partners, we will be able to
advance important legislation such as prior authorization reform,
credentialing, and telemedicine. We continue to work toward
protecting patients by working on key surprise billing legislation
and prescription drug price transparency and affordability issues.

Looking at legislative activity of the state House and Senate, it will
be interesting to see what issues they decide to prioritize as there is not
a significant amount of session days remaining to advance legislation.

For more information about any of the items mentioned above,
please visit the Advocacy Section of PAMED's web site at

www.pamedsoc.org
Central PA Medicine Spring 2020 29

http://www.dauphincms.org http://www.pamedsoc.org

CPM Spring 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CPM Spring 2020