Weekly Wrap

In what seemed like a whirlwind, the House of Representatives and Senate were in session last week for four days, attempting to move bills across chambers or to the Governor’s desk before Thanksgiving.

Monday started off with the House Education Committee reporting out two bills: S.B. 751 (Aument, R-Lancaster), which would revise the educator evaluation system; and H.B. 1800 (Turzai, R-Allegheny), which would provide tuition grants for Harrisburg School District students.

In the Senate, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee reported three bills out of their committee:

  • B. 606 (Browne, R-Lehigh), which would allow a health care practitioner to prescribe or personally furnish antibiotics to treat sexually transmitted infections without having examined the individual;
  • B. 1001 (Oberlander, R-Clarion), which would license and regulate milk banks; and
  • B. 1662 (DiGirolamo, R-Bucks), which would amend the Methadone Death and Incident Review Act to include deaths and incidents attributable to any medication approved for treatment of opioid use disorder.

The Senate Labor and Industry Committee voted favorably on S.B. 594 (Langerholc, R-Cambria), which would require employers who have a certified safety committee as part of their workers’ compensation program to include information about the risks associated with the use of opioids.

Tuesday, the House Finance Committee reported four bills out of committee:

  • B. 105 (Cox, R-Berks), which would allow for like-kind exchanges in Pennsylvania, thereby mirroring the Internal Revenue Code;
  • B. 285 (Metcalfe, R-Butler), which would permit the deferral of taxation on a lump sum distribution from the Employee Stock Ownership Plan of a company;
  • B. 333 (Nelson, R-Westmoreland), which would allow small businesses to deduct the full purchase price (up to $1 million) of qualifying equipment under the “179 deduction”; and
  • B. 1796 (White, R-Philadelphia), which would extend the ability of businesses operating in the City of Philadelphia to carry-forward NOLs.

The House Human Services Committee held a public hearing on S.B. 675 (Brooks, R-Mercer), which would establish a program for certification of buprenorphine office-based prescribers. In addition, the House Health Committee reported out H.B. 945 (Barrar, R-Delaware), which would prevent a managed care organization (MCO) from entering into a contract for pharmacy services with a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), and S.B. 841 (Martin, R-Lancaster), which would reauthorize and modernize the PA Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4).

The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee reported two bills out of their committee: S.B. 595 (Mensch, R-Montgomery), which would expand insurance coverage for breast density screenings; and H.B. 427 (Benninghoff, R-Centre), which would provide health insurance coverage requirements for state four, advanced metastatic cancer.

In other committee meetings on Tuesday, the Senate Communications and Technology Committee reported out S.B. 810 (Phillips-Hill, R-York), which would consolidate the administration and management of the state’s information technology under the Office of Information Technology. The Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development reported out H.B. 1045 (Turzai, R-Allegheny), which would require the Commonwealth Financing Authority to meet every other month. Lastly, the Senate Finance Committee reported out H.B. 1100 (Kaufer, R-Luzerne), which would provide for an energy and fertilizer manufacturing tax credit.

On Wednesday, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee held a joint informational meeting with the Senate Transportation Committee on the Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP).

In the House, the House Health Committee reported out S.B. 432 (Phillips-Hill, R-York), which would allow a MCO the ability to query the Achieving Better Care by Monitoring All Prescription Program (ABC-MAP) system.

On a rare Thursday session day, the Senate Transportation Committee reported out S.B. 773 (Killion, R-Delaware), which would increase penalties for individuals with multiple DUI convictions. The House Urban Affairs Committee reported out three bills:

  • B. 1569 (Issacson, D-Philadelphia), which would require the City of Philadelphia to reduce its tax rate, if necessary, so that the total amount of taxes levied for that year does not exceed the total amount it levied on all properties in the year preceding the reassessment;
  • B. 1737 (Davis, D-Allegheny), which would grant the same protections to land banks that are presently given to redevelopment authorities when they are dealing with brownfields; and
  • B. 1860 (Longietti, D-Mercer), which would allow a borough to establish a redevelopment authority.

The House finally passed the following bills that will now go to the Senate for consideration:

  • B. 410 (Oberlander, R-Clarion), which would allow payment for FDA-approved anti-obesity drugs;
  • B. 419 (Donatucci, D-Philadelphia), which would expand the Pennsylvania Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program;
  • B. 533 (Owlett, R-Tioga), which would require health insurers to accept the Council on Affordable Quality Healthcare’s credentialing application or another designated application;
  • B. 941 (Heffley, R-Carbon), which would the Department of Human services to conduct an audit or review of PBMs;
  • B. 942 (Grove, R-York), which would make changes to the membership of the Pharmaceutical and Therapeutics Committee;
  • B. 943 (Gaydos, R-Allegheny), which would allow pharmacies to provide individuals with informational concerning the cost of a prescription drug;
  • B. 1024 (Rader, R-Monroe), which would establish standards for the state when approving drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation facilities;
  • B. 1052 (Nelson, R-Westmoreland), which would require treatment facilities to notify an emergency contact if the patient leaves a treatment facility against medical advice;
  • B. 1457 (Schroeder, R-Bucks), which would provide insurance coverage for custom-fabricated breast prostheses post mastectomy surgery;
  • B. 1880 (Gillespie, R-York); which would omit health care workers’ names from their identification badges.
  • HB 1985 (Lawrence, R-Bucks), which would make changes to the Outdoor Advertising Control Act; and
  • B. 857 (Vogel, R-Beaver), which would authorize the practice of telemedicine by health care providers.

The following bills passed in the Senate and will now go to the House for consideration:

  • B. 754 (Thomas, R-Bucks), which would extend the moratorium on increase in income due solely to a Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for PACE and PACENET enrollees;
  • B. 67 (Ward, R-Blair), which would authorize Pennsylvania to enter into the Psychology Interjurisdictional Licensure Compact;
  • B. 74 (Martin, R-Lancaster), which would provide a tax credit for making an eligible donation to a Pennsylvania pediatric cancer research hospital;
  • B. 79 (Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia), which would gradually increase the minimum wage up to $9.50/hour by January 1, 2022;
  • B. 596 (Mensch, R-Montgomery), which would provide for the regulating of electric vehicle charging stations and infrastructure development and development;
  • B. 637 (DiSanto, R-Dauphin); which would allow an individual with a conviction to not automatically be prevented from receiving a license, certification, registration or permit from the Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs;
  • B. 842 (Phillips-Hill, R-York), which would omit health care workers’ names from their identification badges; and
  • B. 906 (Yudichak, D-Luzerne), which would provide for a moratorium on the closure of the Polk and White Haven state centers, finally passed and will go to the House for consideration.

The following bills are on the Governor’s desk awaiting his approval:

  • B. 17 (Ryan, R-Lebanon), which would: (1) provide a sales and use tax exclusion for canned computer software used by a financial institutions; (2) authorize a Financial Institution Data Match (FIDM) program; and (3) allow the Department of Revenue a 10-year time period to collect taxes owed;
  • B. 49 (Brown, R-Monroe), which (1) allow a student to complete a course in personal financial literacy to apply credit towards their graduation requirement; (2) extend the deadline for the Public Higher Education Funding Commission to issue a report of its findings and recommendations from July 2, 2020 to November 30, 2020; and (3) addresses school security;
  • B. 97 (Rapp, R-Warren), which would provide definitions relating to minors’ use of tobacco products and prohibit tobacco products in schools;
  • B. 956 (Murt, R-Montgomery), which would reduce the Pennsylvania Lottery’s minimum rate of return from 25% to 20% for the next five years;
  • B. 1051 (Stephens, R-Montgomery), which would increase penalties for failure to report suspected child abuse by mandated reporters;
  • B. 1203 (Ryan, R-Lebanon), which would increase auditing standards of municipal authorities;
  • B. 1402 (Nesbit, R-Mercer), which would create the offense of sexual extortion;
  • B. 1410 (Stephens, R-Montgomery), which would create a military installation remediation program and the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances remediation program;
  • B. 1896 (Hennessey, R-Chester), which would transfer land in East Vincent Township, Chester County to the Pennsylvania American Water Company for a new water treatment plant;
  • B. 314 (Baker, R-Luzerne), which would establish the Pennsylvania Rural Health Care Redesign Center Authority;
  • B. 473 (Scavello, R-Monroe), which increases the legal age to purchase tobacco products from 18 to 21 years of age;
  • B. 572 (Aument, R-Lancaster), which would establish a procedure for prescribers to enter into treatment agreements with a patient prior to prescribing an opioid treatment course for chronic pain; and
  • B. 733 (Browne, R-Lehigh), which provides for the Pennsylvania Gaming Economic Development and Tourism Fund (GEDTF) Capital budget for 2019.

In Other News

  • Governor Wolf vetoed B. 321 (Klunk, R-York), which would prohibit an abortion being deemed medically necessary based on a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.
  • Department of Transportation Secretary Leslie Richards was appointed General Manager of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).
  • The Senate confirmed two nominations: Kathy Boockvar as Secretary of the Commonwealth and William Lieberman to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.