Illinois to Offer "All Kids" Health Insurance

According to Governor Blagojevich's office, "The state will cover the difference between what parents contribute in monthly premiums and the actual cost of providing health care for each child, expected to be $45 million in the first year, with savings generated by implementing a primary care case management model (PCCM) for participants in the state's FamilyCare and All Kids health care programs."

Critics fear that the funding source is unstable and may not fund the program in the long-term.

To learn more about Illinois's "All Kids" program go to: http://www.allkidscovered.com/

A Look at State Legislative Issues for 2006

With 2006 just around the corner, it is time to look ahead at what the new year will bring to state legislatures across the country. Even though each state is unique, there are often common trends in state legislation. Medical liability reform, scope of practice, Medicaid reform, and physician reimbursement issues are just a few, with provider taxes joining the list as a more recent trend. The State Affairs staff at the College monitors legislative activity in all 50 states in order to not only defend Fellows from unwelcome legislation, but to proactively identify issues and develop strategies that ACS Chapters can use to make the best use of their resources.

• Liability Reform: Medical liability reforms were the priority in many states during 2005 and are again poised to be a top priority in 2006. Those states that passed significant liability reform in 2005 (especially states where caps were enacted--including Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, and South Carolina) can expect their next battle to take place in the courts. Arizona may be taking its fight to the public, since the state constitution does not grant authority to the legislature to enact caps. As such, the Arizona medical community has the option of proposing a ballot amendment (SCR 1035) in November 2006.
• Scope of Practice: Every state saw some type of allied health professional scope of practice bill introduced in 2005, and many states were successful in defeating such legislation. Several states have been successful in creating large coalitions of various specialties to combat scope issues. A "new" physician scope/self-referral issue that was seen in over 25 states in 2005 was the attempt to restrict a surgeon from performing MRIs, CT scans, or PET scans "except for a radiologist group practice or an office consisting solely of one or more radiologists." In some states, the legislation also restricted the use of ultrasound. ACS has joined with several other groups to monitor and fight these attempts. So far, the Coalition for Patient Centered Imaging has been successful in stopping all attempts to restrict a surgeon's ability to offer such services – and expects to see more bills of this type introduced into state legislatures in 2006.
• Provider Taxes: Several states attempted to introduce a new tax on physician services in 2005 in response to the massive budget shortfalls many states are facing--specifically a tax on elective cosmetic surgery. Although none of the states that attempted to pass this type of tax were successful (AR, IL, NY, TN, TX, and WA) it is expected that this idea will be back in other states in 2006. The College has joined with other national special societies to fight physician taxes and in late 2005 the Coalition unveiled a Web site to help educate and monitor these attempts: http://www.stopmedicaltaxes.com. The Web site will be updated throughout the 2006 legislative season.

The College will continue to monitor and advocate for other state issues including trauma system funding and development, office-based surgery regulation, and patient safety. Questions about the College's advocacy activity on state legislative issues and 2006 State Legislative Agenda (40K PDF) should be directed by e-mail to Mindy Baker, State Affairs Associate, at mbaker@facs.org; or Jon Sutton, Manager, State Affairs, at jsutton@facs.org.