Tuition Stability Act would curb college costs
NASHVILLE — Senate Education Committee Chairman Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville) has filed the Tennessee Tuition Stability Act to control the exponential growth in tuition at Tennessee’s state colleges and universities.
Senate Bill 2306, filed on Jan. 21, limits tuition growth to increases in the consumer price index (CPI) and locks-in the in-state tuition and required fees for entering freshmen for four years.
Any increase above and beyond the CPI would require approval from at least two-thirds of the Board of Regents or the University of Tennessee’s Board of Trustees.
“Skyrocketing tuition places a barrier between middle and working class Tennesseans and success,” Gresham said. “It amounts to a tax increase on the American dream.”
Over the past 20 years, in-state tuition and required fees have increased 456 percent at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Over the same period, a family at Tennessee’s median household income has gone from paying 7.3 percent of their income in tuition and required fees for a four-year degree at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville to 28.7 percent today.
Bill targets Achievement School District
State Rep. Antonio “2Shay” Parkinson (D-Memphis) and state Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) have teamed up on a bill to abolish the Achievement School District.
The ASD was created to catapult the bottom 5 percent of schools in Tennessee to the top 25 percent in the state. Shelby County is home to 27 of the 29 ASD schools.
Parkinson and Niceley filed House Bill 1787 and Senate Bill 1797 on Jan. 19. The bill raises questions about the ASD’s success, based on a recent Vanderbilt study, and proposed that the schools return to their local districts.
Biomedical bills go to health committee Feb. 9
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Jan. 19, chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced the Senate Health Committee will hold its first executive session considering bills on biomedical innovation on Feb. 9. At that committee meeting, the committee will consider at least seven bipartisan bills.
The committee’s February meeting will be the first of three. The two meetings held in March and April will consider additional bipartisan bills.
“Senators and staff on our committee have been working together throughout 2015 to produce a number of bipartisan pieces of legislation that are ready for the full committee to consider,” said Alexander. “The House has completed its work on the 21st Century Cures Act. The president has announced his support for a precision medicine initiative and a cancer ‘moonshot.’ It is urgent that the Senate finish its work and turn into law these ideas that will help virtually every American.”
Alexander continued, “The committee has also been working for months on legislation to help achieve interoperability of electronic health records for doctors, hospitals and their patients — and the committee will be releasing a bipartisan staff draft of that legislation later this week for public comment.”
The bills slated for consideration at the Feb. 9 committee meeting include:
- Bipartisan HELP Committee legislation to improve electronic health records
- The FDA Device Accountability Act of 2015 (S.1622)
- The Advancing Targeted Therapies for Rare Diseases Act of 2015 (S.2030)
- The Advancing Research for Neurological Diseases Act of 2015 (S.849)
- The Next Generation Researchers Act (S.2014)
- The Enhancing the Stature and Visibility of Medical Rehabilitation Research at the NIH Act (S. 800)
- Legislation regarding FDA regulation of duodenoscopes
Alexander said the goals of the draft electronic health records bill are:
- Decreasing unnecessary physician documentation
- Enabling patients to have easier access to their own health records
- Stopping information blocking—or intentional interference with access to personal health information
- Making electronic health records more accessible to the entire health care team, such as nurses
- Ensuring the government’s certification of a records system means what it says it does
- Improving standards
Alexander said there would be a second executive session on the innovation agenda on March 9.
At that session, the committee will continue to consider bipartisan legislation to modernize the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health and provide congressional support for the president’s Precision Medicine Initiative.
A third and final session is planned for April 6.
Cancer patients get hope from new legislation
NASHVILLE — Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfrees-boro) and Rep. William Lamberth (R-Cottontown) introduced Senate Bill 2091/House Bill 2239, the Cancer Treatment Fairness Act on Jan. 21 to ensure that cancer patients are able to get the most medically appropriate treatment, as decided between the physician and patient.
Traditional treatments are usually given through an IV or injection and are covered under health care benefits resulting in a small co-pay or no cost at all to patients.
Oral treatments are usually considered to be part of the health plan’s pharmacy benefit and result in high out-of-pocket costs for patients.
This disparity is a result of our laws not keeping up with scientific advancements, which can negatively impact patients taking their medication as prescribed.
“I’ve seen firsthand what treatment options can mean when you’re fighting cancer,” Sen. Ketron said. “As lawmakers, we should do our part to support medical advancements that can save lives in leveling the playing field for patients when it comes to cost.”
“It is important to note that this bill is not an insurance mandate,” Lamberth said. “We aren’t proposing to mandate coverage of oral chemotherapy. We are merely saying that if a health plan does cover cancer treatment, that patients’ out-of-pocket cost should be the same no matter how the treatment is administered.”
Today 40 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation that equalizes the cost of oral anti-cancer medications with traditional treatments for patients.
