AZ Legislative Update – February 18, 2022
Posted by [email protected] on Feb. 18, 2022 / AZ Legislative Update / Subscribe 0
AZ Legislative Update – February 18, 2022
Today marks the 40th day of the Arizona 55th Legislature, 2nd Regular Session and the deadline for bills to be considered in their chamber of origin has officially passed.
Now that we have reached the crossover deadline, bills that have not been heard in their chamber of origin (other than the appropriations committees) are considered dead. However, just because a bill is dead does not mean that the issue is off the table for this session. No issue is ever completely finished until the legislative session has ended, sine die.
Committees, other than Appropriations and Rules, will not be meeting this upcoming week as bills make their way over to the opposite chamber. The only exception is the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. They will hear bills from their previous agenda on Monday morning.
Moving forward, we can anticipate an increase in the number of strike-everything amendments to be used to either resurrect dead issues or to bring up new items that have not been introduced this session.
The next key legislative deadline is March 25th, the last day for committees to hear bills from the opposite chamber. Any bill that has not cleared the committee process by then is no longer viable in its current form.
Below, please find a few bills that we would like to highlight. Additionally, you will find attached your full tracking list of bills.
We are continuing to engage members and staff on our top legislative priorities. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Health Insurance
HB 2144 Health Insurance Coverage; Biomarker Testing (Cobb): HB 2144 passed out of the House Health and Human Service Committee on Monday evening, 9-0. This bill requires hospital and medical service corporations, health care service organizations, disability insurers and group or blanket disability insurers to provide coverage for biomarker testing. HB 2144 directs the AHCCS and its contractors to provide biomarker testing for its members and describes procedures for usage and coverage of biomarker testing. We are continuing to engage the sponsor regarding changes to this troubling mandate bill.
HB 2486 Health Providers; Insurers; Estimated Costs (Wilmeth): HB 2486 was not heard in the House Health and Human Services Committee on Monday after the hospitals objected to the strike-everything amendment that would have changed this problematic “right-to-shop” bill into a study committee. The striker would have required DHS to do a report on existing public data with regards to hospital affordability and potential anti-competitive behavior.
HB 2698 Insurance; Assignment of Benefits (Martinez): HB 2698 passed out of the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday evening, 10-0. The bill stipulates that statute prohibiting insurance payments for services from being made to anyone other than the health care provider to whom payment was assigned applies to an insurer whether acting as an insurer or performing administrative services.
Insurance Operations
HB 2599 Administrative Hearing; GRRC (Grantham): HB 2599 passed on Tuesday afternoon in the House Commerce Committee, 10-0. The bill updates the Office of Administrative Hearing (OAH) process by eliminating the unfair unilateral authority for state agencies to overrule an administrative law judge’s decision and allows businesses to recover attorney fees and costs if successful at OAH. The bill also streamlines the appeals process when the third parties are appealing an agency decision. Additionally, it makes several modifications to the GRRC appeal process by modernizing procedures and leveling the playfield for the business community. There will be a floor amendment that will exempt the Judicial Branch.
HB 2685 Artificial Intelligence; Requirements (Carroll): HB 2685 passed out of the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday evening, 7-2. This troubling bill stipulates that an algorithm that enables artificial intelligence to learn and implement decisions without human intervention must support human agency and fundamental rights, comply with all federal and state laws, fulfill ethical principles that ensure no unintended human harm occurs, and provide transparency and traceability of data logs and decision-making. Mr. Carroll has indicated that he will convene a stakeholder meeting so that we can address our concerns.
HB 2731 Regulatory Sandbox; Expansion (Kaiser): HB 2731 passed out of the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday, 10-0. The bill stipulates that the regulatory sandbox program is no longer limited to only financial products or services.
0 Comments