Followup Oklahoma Legislative Session 2016

In March of 2016, we really started hearing about the dire circumstances of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority's (OHCA) budget being determined by the Legislature this session.  An unprecedented $1.3 Billion budget shortfall in the state was staring the legislature square in the face.  This translated to a potential 25% drop in Medicaid payments which would clearly result in catastrophic access to care issues for Medicaid patients.

During our Annual meeting of the OKAAP board and following on the heels of the OSMA statement interpreted by the media as a "call to doctors" to no longer take Medicaid patients, we decided to put our own position statement together as well as a list of talking points to assist our members in speaking to their legislators about the impending budget crisis. We had met the day before with OHCA's CEO, Nico Gomez, regarding what the chapter could do to help. Nico informed us about the Medicaid Rebalancing Act of 2020 (HB2803) and the $1.50 cigarette tax (HB3210), which would provide revenue to aid implementation of and sustain the Medicaid Rebalancing Act of 2020.  


Unfortunately, despite help from the Oklahoma State Medical Association (OSMA) and many calls to action to our members, the Medicaid Rebalancing Act of 2020 and the cigarette tax did not pass. 

In the end, after a series of legislative gymnastics moves that included removing some earned income tax credits, taking out some transportation bonds, and dipping into the state's "rainy day" fund, the budget sent to the Governor ended up increasing the OHCA's budget by 2% from the original plan which seems to have plugged the hole in the dam.....for now.   It looks like a 25% provider cut has been averted this year but we can certainly expect the exact same issues to rear its ugly head again next year.  I'd call that a narrow win. 

A big win that the OKAAP didn't have any influence on (and didn't know anything about) was SB1148 being called the "Right to care" Act.  On April 12th, Governor Fallin signed this bill into law which bans forced Maintenance of Certification (MOC).  

“Nothing in the Oklahoma Allopathic Medical and Surgical Licensure and Supervision Act shall be construed as to require a physician to secure a Maintenance of Certification (MOC) as a condition of licensure, reimbursement, employment or admitting privileges at a hospital in this state."  

Big. Win. Oklahoma is now the first state to have legislation of this kind. 

Finally, I received a call a week ago from Dr Tom Kuhls asking me to serve on a board of directors for a new grassroots organization: the Oklahoma Vaccine political action committee in Norman. As we work to move Dr Ervin Yen's SB830 through - removing non-medical vaccine exemptions in Oklahoma - this new organization is a much needed addition and I look forward to continuing to be involved with this.