Lancaster Physician Spring 2020 - 33

SPRING 2020

Legislative Updates

Pennsylvania

Medical Society

QUARTERLY LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

W

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 seven new Senators. Since
the session has been underway, we saw scandal
cost another Senator his seat and welcomed
an eighth 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, 18 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 a 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 down-ballot candidates. That is, the
party of whichever presidential candidate wins
Pennsylvania may benefit greatly. 

ing 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, when not 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, and
those that are not already at a later stage in the
legislative process, might simply lack the time
needed to get to the Governor's desk and be
signed into law.

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. Both chambers returned 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 com-

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.
Examples of those critical issues include prior
authorization reform, telemedicine, and credentialing. Also, we continue to work toward
protecting patients by working on surprise
billing legislation and prescription drug price
transparency and affordability issues.  

For more information about any of the items mentioned above, please visit the Advocacy Section of PAMED's website www.pamedsoc.org/Advocacy

LANCASTER

33

PHYSICIAN
http://www.pamedsoc.org/Advocacy
Lancaster Physician Spring 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Lancaster Physician Spring 2020
