January 23, 2009

The General Assembly completed another week of ceremonial activity as the House named committee chairs last week and assigned the relatively few bills filed to committee.

Speaker Richard is committed to passing a statewide economic stimulus in the first month.

The Senate just this week named chairs for committee and the committee chairman. They can be found at: http://www.senate.mo.gov/09info/comm/committees.pdf

The legislature will have a full agenda next week of hearings as they begin to work on the bills filed thus far.

On Tuesday evening Governor Nixon will present his State of the State address and release his administration’s recommendations for the 2010 fiscal year. Projections do not look good with a deficit anticipated between $800 million to $1.2 billion in state revenues. A great deal of the state budget scenario depends on the stimulus package passed at the federal level.

News this week includes:

Attorney General To Focus On Health Care

New Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster intends to devote more attention to health care fraud, consumer protection and anti-trust cases, according to media reports. Koster is a former county prosecutor who was elected to the Missouri Senate as a Republican in 2004. He switched to the Democratic party in 2007 and went on to win primary and general election contests for attorney general in 2008.

MO HealthNet Division Accepting Proposals For Managed Care Contracts

The MO HealthNet Division is accepting bid proposals for managed care contracts for the state’s central, eastern and western regions. Bid proposals are due March 3, and the new contracts will start Oct. 1. A pre-bid conference was held Tuesday to allow participants the opportunity to ask questions about the proposed bid.

Committee Approves Stimulus Package With Funding For Health Information Technology

The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is one of three committees in the House considering legislation that will be merged into a massive economic stimulus bill. The committee has approved the bill, which includes $20 billion for health information technology and $39 billion to extend COBRA coverage for workers who have lost their jobs. Committee Republicans assailed the action because they were not allowed input on the bill and condemned the lack of hearings on it. The American Hospital Association expressed support for the committee’s work but voiced concern that incentive payments for health information technology would not be available to hospitals with fewer than 25 beds, including critical access hospitals.

Next Week

The House and Senate will begin the hearing process.

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