For Immediate Release
6/10/08

"HealthNET  PA"---$100M

Healthcare Access

• SB5 (Erickson)—Community-Based Healthcare Program (CHC) provides for  the expansion and site development of health care clinics across Pennsylvania in order to provide "medical homes" for the working poor, to be funded partially by an EITC-type credit for businesses which would receive tax credits for financially supporting community clinics. This would also ease pressure on Hospital Emergency Rooms. $50M would expand services to over 175,000 new patients.
• SB1450 (Brubaker)--Establishes a Specialty Physician Volunteer Networking System to provide integrated care to approximately 159,000 uninsured low-income individuals, with a $4M appropriation.
• SB1451(Browne)—Provides Continuing Medical Education (CME) Credits for health care providers, including dentists, who perform volunteer services at clinics and in their community for uninsured low-income residents.
• SB1452 (Corman)—Improves access to healthcare by providing student loan forgiveness for physicians and dentists, who practice at least 7 years in PA.
  $10M would assist up to 1500 new doctors and dentists to stay in PA.
• SB379 (Vance)—Eliminates predatory pricing provisions to allow the sale of low-cost prescription drugs at retail establishment pharmacies
• SB1455(McIlhinney)--Creates a Free Drug Program Registry for use by individuals, clinics and other health care providers to identify companies and drugs that provide access to these resources at a cost of $1M.
• Act 14 of 2008---SB638 (Wonderling) Creates a Cancer Drug Repository in PA.

Healthcare Affordability

• SB8 (Wonderling)-provides $10M for hospital and physician office conversion to the use of Electronic Medical Records, including incentives for the use of evidence-based diagnosis and treatment protocols.
• SB819 (Wonderling)-Encourages Telemedicine expansion in PA
• SB1411 (D. White)-Establishes non-payment by private insurers for medical errors
• SB1267 (Armstrong)-Requires insurers to establish Healthy Living Discounts
• Provides $10M to fund electronic surveillance systems designed to eliminate the occurrence of Healthcare associated infections, such as MRSA as provided in Act 52 of 2007(Erickson).
• SB 1304 (D. White)-Provides for the Blues Merger Oversight

Expanded Insurance Coverage

• SB1422 (D. White)-Mini-Cobra coverage could assist 150,000 individuals for employers with 2 to 19 employees.
• SB1453 (Corman)—Extends to group policyholders the option of dependent coverage to age 30.  This extension could assist approximately 15,000 young adults.
• SB1454 (Folmer)—Creates a High Risk Pool to provide health care coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions who cannot access private coverage.  Benefit designs will include mandate-free and HSA compatible policies.  $10M would be allocated to start up and support the operation of the pool and assist approximately 8000 individuals.
• SB 1182 (Folmer)—Establishes $5M in state tax credits for the use of HSAs.

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