The 439th session of the Maryland General Assembly, which ended April 8, was a strong 90 days for our state’s hospitals and health systems. Among the many successes:
- Secured a $25 million Medicaid Deficit Assessment reduction for fiscal year 2020
- Passed MHA’s bill to modernize the Certificate of Need process
- Defeated a bill requiring burdensome disclosures by hospital-based outpatient clinics
- Passed an MHA-introduced bill to improve the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
- Fended off an effort by the trial attorneys’ lobby to gut the 20 percent rule
This was my first full legislative session with MHA, and I can attest to the tireless and imaginative work of our Government Affairs team and your legislative leads. They teamed up to educate myriad new legislators and deliver impressive wins for the hospital field.
To help you tell the story of our collective success and how this year’s legislative session will affect your own hospital, MHA offers several resources and tools:
I would be remiss if I did not remark upon the tragic loss of our House of Delegates Speaker, Michael E. Busch, one day before session’s end. Mike was a true friend to the hospital field and a tremendous advocate for health care and the health of all Marylanders; he will be missed.
We are already preparing for the 2020 legislative session. We must educate new leaders, proactively address some concerns that surfaced in this session that will linger, and get ready to deal with expected political and fiscal headwinds. With your collective engagement and continued support, we will do well again.