HB 3261 Health Care Workforce Incentives and Training

LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

Prepared for OAFP

July 2, 2017

HB 3261 – Health Care Workforce Incentives and Training

Ways and Means put $21 million into the new Health Care Provider Incentive Fund to pay for workforce incentive programs and new health care training programs. The funding includes:

$4 million for Loan Repayment
$1 million for Loan Forgiveness
$5 million for OHSU’s Scholars for a Healthy Oregon scholarship program
$1 million for new scholarship programs like Scholars for a Healthy Oregon at schools like Comp NW and Pacific U.
$4 million for the Rural Malpractice Subsidy Program
$1 million in discretionary funds for the OHPB to invest where it is most needed.
$4 million to help develop health care professional training programs. This could include GME subsidies, preceptor incentives and/or loans or grants to help universities and community colleges create new training programs.

Rep. Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene) said these direct allocations are a transitional step. In 2019, the Oregon Health Policy Board’s Workforce Committee will report to the Legislature how it recommends spending the fund in the future.

Rep. Knute Buehler (R-Bend) wanted assurances that the training funds would be spent in rural Oregon and not downtown Portland. Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-Portland) said the goal is to create training programs in communities like Bend, Medford, Roseburg and Eugene that while not rural are scattered around the state.

The bill passed Ways and Means unanimously and now heads to the floor for debate.

HB 3440 – Naloxone prescribing and dispensing

The Multnomah County Health Officer wants to make Naloxone or narcan more readily available because it can quickly reverse a fatal drug overdose. The bill would remove relatively heavy training requirements

Ways and Means approved the bill. It now goes to the House for debate.

SB 558 – Cover All Kids

An estimated 15,000 undocumented immigrant children under age 19 will be eligible for the Oregon Health Plan. Democrats pushed through the new program in the closing days of the session.

Unlike other Medicaid programs, this one is not eligible for federal matching funds. So the $36 million price tag for 2017-19 is all state General Fund dollars. The cost of the program is expected to escalate to $55 million in 2019-21.

Proponents say it’s worth it, giving children access to health care services, especially prevention and primary care.

Ways and Means approved the bill on an almost party-line vote. It’s expected to be on the floor early next week.

HB 3391 – Reproductive Health Insurance Mandate

Health insurance plans will have to cover women’s reproductive health services with no cost sharing. Most already do that. But the bill became controversial because it includes abortions. The bill’s $11 million price tag is generated by costs to OEBB and PEBB, and coverage for undocumented women.

Services covered by the bill include birth control, prenatal and postpartum care, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases, breastfeeding support and supplies, and counseling for domestic violence victims and tobacco cessation.

Republicans objected to new state funding for abortions that could pay for about 300 procedures.

Providence threatened to withdraw from the Oregon insurance market if it was required to cover abortions. So Providence was carved out of that requirement. Rep. Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte) complained that Providence was given a monopoly on insurance plans in Oregon that do not include abortion coverage.

Supporters argued that reproductive health services are threatened at the federal level and Oregon needs to do all it can to protect and provide these valuable services.

On a near party-line vote, House Democrats approved HB 3391. It now goes to the Senate for debate.

HB 2300 - MH Rx Advisory Group within OHA

OHA will create a new 12-member Mental Health Clinical Advisory Group to develop a voluntary evidence-based formulary for mental health drugs. Medicaid will continue to pay for mental health drugs without restrictions through 2020.

The group is to make final recommendations to the legislature by December 2018.

Ways and Means approved $467,000 for the program, sending it to the floor for debate.

HB 2342 – DCBS Emergency Rulemaking

This bill provides emergency powers to the Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) if there are sudden changes in the federal health insurance law.

There were no questions. The Senate Rules Committee passed the bill. It now goes to the floor for debate.

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