The regular legislative session concluded on Monday and throughout this week we will be taking a closer look at how certain issues went, what passed and what failed.
Here’s how health and healthcare issues unfolded at the Capitol:
Conservation of the nursing workforce
Several successful bills in this session focus on the Texas nurse shortage, a long-standing problem exacerbated by COVID-19. A pre-pandemic study by the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies projects that Texas will have a deficit of 57,000 active registered nurses by 2032.
Senate Bill 840 will raise the penalty for physically assaulting hospital staff from a misdemeanor to a felony in many cases. Serena Bumpus, CEO of the Texas Nurses Association, said threats of violence cause emotional breakdown among nurses and other health care workers
If we can get things in place in our healthcare organizations to address workplace violence, then we’re likely to keep more nurses, because they’re tired of being assaulted and verbally abused every day when they go to work, Bumpus said.
Currently on Governor Greg Abbotts’ desk is a bill that aims to help more students become nurses in training: SB 25 will create a scholarship and loan repayment program for nursing students, along with nurses who serve as academic nursing teachers, who are also in short supply.
Diane Santa Maria, dean of the Cizik School of Nursing at the Health Science Center at the University of Texas at Houston, spoke in support of the bill as she addressed the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services in March.
Unless we do something dramatic, which is what this bill advocates, we won’t have the nursing workforce we need tomorrow, let alone what we need 10 years from now, Santa Maria said.
Olivia Aldridge, Kut
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End of the tax on tampons
A bill eliminating what some are calling the tampon tax on feminine hygiene products went to the governor’s desk this session.
The legislation removes sales tax from period products such as tampons and pads, as well as supplies for new and expecting parents: adult and baby diapers, baby wipes, maternity clothing and breast pumps.
Democratic Rep. Donna Howard of Austin, one of the bills’ sponsors, spoke with The Texas Newsroom about the legislation earlier in this session.
It should be a bill that focuses on the daily essentials a family might need and a woman in particular might need, Howard said.
These essentials will join products such as food and medicine to be exempt from sales tax.
Aurora Berry, The Texas Newsroom
More options for hearing-impaired Texans
House Bill 109 prevents health insurance companies from denying hearing aid claims based solely on cost.
For example, if a person’s plan includes a $1,500 benefit for hearing aids and the device needed costs $2,000, the enrollee would be able to pay the difference out of pocket, the insurance company cannot deny a claim. outright as it did previously.
That means more options for hearing-impaired Texans. The law applies to both adults and children who use hearing aids.
Michelle Pho, a pediatric audiologist at Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, testified in favor of the bill.
Some hearing aid features may not be available in the level of technology covered by a patient’s insurance, Pho said. So passage of this bill would allow families to select the level of hearing aid most appropriate for their children’s needs, regardless of any limitations in insurance coverage.
An identical bill passed unanimously by the committee last session but did not make it to the governor’s desk.
Alexandra Hart, Champion of Texas
Expanded health coverage for pregnant Texans
House Bill 12, authored by Rep. Toni Rose, extends postpartum Medicaid coverage for Texans from two months to 12 months.
Texas is among the states with the highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, and many of those deaths occur between 43 days and a year after pregnancy ends, according to the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee. The committee and advocates like Diana Forester, director of health policy for Texans Care for Children, said a longer coverage window would help people get treatment to prevent those deaths.
Because not maintaining access to care and empowering people to manage chronic conditions between pregnancies creates more difficult pregnancies, Forester said. It creates worse health outcomes and costs the state more, honestly.
The House approved a 12-month extension in 2021, but the Senate version of the bill, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, only approved six months of coverage. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is still reviewing a Texas application for six months of coverage.
Surrounding states, such as New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana, have all approved and implemented the 12-month extension for pregnant women in their state.
We fell behind, Forester said. We are so far behind at this point.
At a hearing on HB 12 in March, mother Connie Bunch testified in favor of the bill. She had Medicaid coverage for both of her pregnancies, which allowed her to get treatment for chronic conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes.
If I didn’t have that Medicaid extension, I don’t know what I did, Bunch said. I probably wouldn’t be alive, to be honest. Aneurysms can kill you. Heart conditions can kill you. And all this would not be covered because I’m not going [to the hospital]. I don’t have the money.
The bill had broad support from both Democrats and Republicans, including House Speaker Dade Phelan who identified HB 12 as one of his priorities this year, but it changed over the course of the session.
The coverage specified in the original billing language would end on the last day of the woman’s pregnancy, which is the federal CMS language for Medicaid coverage. Republican lawmakers and representatives of anti-abortion groups like Texas Right to Life were concerned that it would allow HB 12 to cover people’s post-abortion care.
The Senate version of the bill, which passed in a conference committee and now makes it to the governor’s desk, still includes the original language but includes a legislative-purpose section stating that coverage is expanded to pregnant women whose pregnancies end in delivery of the child or end in the natural loss of the child. If signed into law, it will go into effect on September 1.
Elena Rivera, Kera
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