AZ Legislative Update – March 11, 2022
Posted by [email protected] on Mar. 11, 2022 / AZ Legislative Update / Subscribe 0
AZ Legislative Update – March 11, 2022
Today marks the 61st day of the Arizona 55th Legislature, 2nd Regular Session and with only two weeks left to hear bills in committees, agendas will be rather lengthy up until the March 25th deadline.
While the Legislature should be knee deep in budget negotiations, lawmakers appear to be nowhere close to a deal on a FY 2023 budget package. Meanwhile, lawmakers and the Governor’s Office continue to mull over convening a special legislative session to establish an Arizona Water Authority to invest in various water projects throughout the state. There also continues to be discussion about a possible special session on income tax cuts that would void the current ballot initiative, challenging last year’s $2 billion income tax cut, lowering the rate for most taxpayers to 2.5 percent.
Additionally, making things more complicated, last week, the Legislature inadvertently changed the way political parties’ precinct committeemen (PC) are selected. With the deadline to collect qualifying signatures for the ballot only 4 weeks away, House and Senate leadership quickly pushed through legislation to clarify the number of nominating signatures congressional and legislative candidates will need to collect to get on the ballot this year. It’s was a one-time cleanup, to deal with logistical problems created by the redrawing of political lines in last year’s once-a-decade redistricting process; however, it appears that no one actually read the bill and it included a critical drafting error which has angered Republican PCs.
The Legislature technically needs two-thirds of the body to reverse this change in how PCs are elected; however, House and Senate Democrats are using this issue to leverage Republicans on a number of other matters including proposed election reforms. As a workaround, Republicans passed a bill that included a retroactivity clause without any Democrat votes. Unfortunately, for Republican lawmakers, the Arizona Supreme Court will likely strike this measure down since they just previously ruled, back in August, that a retroactivity clause is not an emergency clause and it cannot be used to avoid the two-thirds vote requirement.
With all the outstanding issues and a significant number of bills still to sort through, any hope of a quick legislative session seems to be fleeting. That being said, things at the Capitol can change very quickly.
In the meantime, please find below a few bills that we would like to highlight. Additionally, attached, you will find your full tracking list of bills.
We are continuing to engage members and staff on your 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 was held earlier this week in the Senate Finance Committee; however, the bill is scheduled to be heard this Wednesday. HB 2144 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 reach out to the proponents of the bill with regards to amendment language that will tighten up the bill and include the key definition of “clinical utility.” The proponents of the bill have still not come onboard with our proposed language yet.
HB 2698 Insurance; Assignment of Benefits (Martinez): HB 2698 passed out of the House Wednesday, 33-24, despite the potential constitutional issues dealing with ERISA preemption. 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 will be heard in the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday afternoon. 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.
SB 1118 Insurance; Fees; Consent; Limits (Livingston): SB 1118 passed out of the House Commerce Committee on Tuesday afternoon, 10-0; however, the bill was amended to include the provisions from Representative Cook’s problematic bill requiring fire insurance policies in Arizona to include coverage for loss or damage that results from specific perils if a fire is the efficient proximate caucus of the loss or damage, the fire ended within 180 days after the loss or damage and the coverage would otherwise be provided for the fire. Representative Cook offered his amendment out of frustration that Senator Livingston is holding his original bill, HB 2183, in Senate Finance. Since this was a hostile amendment, we will be amending the provisions of SB 1118 onto HB 2121 Workers’ Compensation; Medical-Only Loss (Kaiser), as a striker, and it will be heard on Wednesday morning in Senate Finance. By doing so, we will be able to avoid Representative Cook’s additional attempts to hijack the bill. The provisions of the striker to HB 2121 include various minor changes to insurance regulations which include modernization language with regards to customer communications, clarifying language for motor vehicle policy exclusions, amends the definition of an advisory organization and reduces agency filing fees. SB 1118 also allows consumers to receive discounts on Medicare supplemental plans.
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