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News from the 2012 Georgia Legislative Session
by LaRae Brown , VIce President for Professional Practice

LaRae has composed a legislative update to keep members informed about important legislation affecting our members this 2012 legislative session.  This report follows.

House Bills
HB 52  This bill will add public and private schools and colleges and universities to places where a disabled persons may be accompanied by a guide or service dog. This bill was passed by the House on 2-16 and has most recently gone through a second read in the Senate on 3-10.

HB 181  This bill related to scholarship programs  for special needs students to attend a private school or another public school if the child has an IEP relating to eligibility requirements (further information can be found at http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/External-Affairs-and-Policy/Policy/Pages/Special-Needs-Scholarship-Program.aspx.). This bill passed the House  on 3-15 and Senate on 3-22.

Read more >>

 

Success at the Capitol
By Kelly Ball, GSHA President

I am thrilled to announce that our grassroots advocacy efforts have been successful.  Members of GSHA have worked with our lobbyists, Stan Jones and Helen Sloat, music therapists, and various interest groups to reach a compromise on Senate Bill 414 which would license music therapists.  This compromise resulted in a substitute bill which eliminated our concerns pertaining to encroachment on speech-language pathologists scope of practice.  The substitute version of the bill passed out of the subcommittee and full House Regulated Industries committee yesterday.  Therefore, we do not need to continue calls to legislators about opposing the bill.  The bill will still have to pass several additional votes in the House and Senate before becoming law.  I am so proud of all the GSHA members who stepped up and wrote or called their legislators.  I especially want to thank Jessica Niederkorn (Healthcare chair), LaRae Brown (Vice President of Professional Practice), Debra Schober-Peterson, Colleen O-Rourke, Maryanne Weatherill, Margaret Ann Parker, Pat Wahoske, Melanie Hudson, Carol Ann Raymond, Madeline Adams, and the students at GSU who came to the capitol or were prepared to come to the Captiol to attend meetings with legislators.  At GSHA day at the capitol on Monday we were told numerous times by legislators that our voices were being heard.  Grassroots advocacy is a very important part of our profession, and we have made a difference with our efforts over the past month!
 

Licensure Bill Withdrawn!
On a separate and wonderful note, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today that the Georgia Secretary of State is withdrawing his attempt to reform professional licensing procedures until next year.  Here's an excerpt.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is withdrawing his attempt to reform professional licensing procedures until next year."We got some really good feedback in the committee hearing," Kemp said today. "And even though there was some opposition there was a lot of agreement on speeding up licensing times and the enforcement part of it."His proposal to take approval of licenses for nearly half a million Georgia professionals -- including jobs from cosmetologists to engineers -- and disciplinary hearings from more than 40 boards and give them completely to his staff drew concern from many of those licensed.Kemp said the 800-plus page bill was too unwieldy to modify and get passed before the legislature finished work this year.  The bill would have to pass one chamber of the General Assembly in the next five working days.He plans to return to the Legislature next year with an improved bill.--Christopher Quinn

SB 445
Please show opposition for SB 445. This bill proposes to revamp the way that professional licensing occurs in Georgia. In essence, the Georgia Secretary of State is proposing to disband the current professional board that reviews applications (SLPs review SLP applications). This bill states that there will be a seven person consumer board appointed to review license applications, renewals, and the like. As you can imagine, these seven people will not have the appropriate knowledge or experience about our profession (and the many other professions that require licensure) to determine eligibility status for licenses. The bill also states that state employees and the consumer board will be making judgments on professional scope of practice.

Currently there are about 500,000 license holders in the state, and this does not include new applicants. The seven person board of consumers will be tasked with reviewing all license applications, even though it will have no professional training with regards to the types of professions it will be reviewing.


SB 414
Please show opposition for SB 414. If enacted, this legislation will require Music Therapists to be licensed by the Secretary of State. In SB 414 no scope of practice is provided to indicate what the Music Therapists will be practicing. The American Music Therapy Association asserts that music therapits can assess communication abilities. SB 414 leaves the door wide open for music therapists to claim that they may be able to address certain problems that are not within their scope of practice. Further concern is that music therapists may attempt to bill Speech Therapy codes, which could negatively impact patients' ability to seek and obtain qualified speech therapy services.


HB 673 (note change - this is a House Bill and not a Senate Bill)
Please show support for HB 673. This bill requires that student athletes who incur concussions as a result of sports in school must have a doctor's order/release before returning to sports. Requiring a doctor's clearance to return to sports can prevent long-term communication, processing, and memory deficits for these students.


Again, please act QUICKLY!

Jessica Niederkorn
Chair, GSHA Healthcare Committee

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Trialliance Update
On Friday December 2, 2011, the Trialliance met with representatives from Amerigroup Community Care organization at the request of the Trialliance to begin a more consistent dialogue between Amerigroup and the state occupational, physical and speech therapy organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss specific issues pertinent to relations between therapy providers and Amerigroup. Kelly Ball, GSHA representative, Nicole Walker, GOTA representative, Aime Locicero, PTAG representative, Karen Bennett, PTAG representative, Stan Jones, GSHA lobbyist, Tom Bauer, GOTA’s lobbyist, Francesca Gary, Amerigroup Chief Operating Officer, Mel Lindsey, Vice President of External Relations, Dr. Donald Paul, Medical Director, and Tabbatha Echols, Manager, Health Care Management Services were present for the meeting.  Click here to view notes from the meeting.

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Provider Rate Cuts
We received some good news regarding the .5 percent rate cut for Medicaid providers.  See information below from our lobbyist Helen Sloat:

Provider Rate Cuts – Rescission Public Notice.  The Board previously adopted a notice on June 9, 2011 to implement a provider rate reduction of .5 percent as required in the State's Budget for FY 2012 beginning on July 1, 2011.  This cut would impact all providers except hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, home and community-based services, federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics and hospice providers.  The notice presented at this meeting would rescind the prior notice.  Public comment will be held on December 28, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. and written comment may be submitted on this issue up to 5:00 p.m. on December 28, 2011.  The Board will take final action on this rescission on January 12, 2012.  The Board agreed to post this Notice.

So, it would appear that there will be no cuts to provider rates – it is  not clear if the Department has heard back from CMS on the issue.

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Member Q & A:

Q:  Have Medicaid rates changed recently? I was told they had but got no info about the new rates and am continued to be reimbursed as always.  Thanks for any info concerning this.

A: The budget, which was approved during the last legislative session, gave Medicaid providers a ½% rate cut.  This cut was supposed to go into effect on July 1, 2011.  Click here to view the document for the background on this cut.  CIS providers may have noticed that the July 1 manual showed these rate cuts but providers continued to get paid their regular rate.  In the Oct manual the posted rates returned to the original rates.  We have reached out to our lobbyists to find out the reason for these changes in the CIS manuals and to find out what providers can expect in the future.  Stan Jones and Helen Sloat, our lobbyists, have in turn reached out to DCH for clarification on these issues but have not heard back.  We will pass along additional information as it becomes available.