April 3rd, 2009

Four health-related bills passed the House this week, 3 unanimously:

HB 245, amending family caregiver act;  HB 56, which includes assisted living residences in the older adult protective services act; and HB 84, which denies healthcare facilities from seeking payments in the event of a serious adverse event.

Passing on a vote of 176 to 17 was HB 173, which reauthorizes PHC4 and also creates the PHC4 review committee.

All four bills will now move on to the Senate…

Moving in the House:

HB 721 is headed to House Appropriations, while HB 247 which would require a certificate of need for healthcare facilities, will be discussed in a hearing on April 24.

HB 821 was voted out of Appropriations and received second consideration on the Floor.

A resolution to create a pain task force was set on the House Calendar for April 20.

The House’s Mini-COBRA bill was amended and voted out of the Insurance Committee, it then recieved first consideration in the House on Wednesday.

Legislation that would amend the PA Trauma systems Stabilization Act was taken from the Floor and rereferred to House Appropriations.

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On the Senate side not much happened on the healthcare front:

The big news was the Senate’s version of the mini-COBRA bill, SB 442, passed the Senate unanimously and is now movin’ on to the House.

Both House and Senate now break two weeks for Easter, returning to Harrisburg on April 20th, for more legislatin’ and, of course, more budget debate.