SC EMS Association
Legislative Update for March 14 - 18, 2011
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S. 472 by Senator Billy O'dell - "Assignment of Insurance Benefits Bill" in the
Senate. This bill was referred to the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.
This bill can be viewed and printed by clicking on the following link. Senate bill
B. 472 Please remember to contact your Senators and ask them to support S. 472 sponsored by Senator Billy O'dell. We would love to get as many co-sponsors for this bill as possible! There were no meetings on this bill this week.
* H. 3509 by Rep. Deborah Long- "Assignment of Insurance Bill" in the House. This bill was introduced on Thursday, January 27th and was referred to the LCI
Committee. The bill can be viewed by clicking on the following link. House bill
H. 3509 Please remember to contact your Representatives and ask them to support H. 3509 by Rep. Deborah Long. We would love to get more co-sponsors for this bill!! There were no meetings on this bill this week.
*S. 434 by Senators Peeler & Bryant- Proviso Suspensions (Hold-Harmless)- This bill was introduced on January 26th and referred to Senate Finance Committee. The Senate took this bill up on Thursday and by a vote of 24-11, gave it second reading. It is on the calendar to receive third reading on tomorrow. This bill was introduced in the House and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee on 3/2/11. This bill was voted out of the House Ways and Means sub and full Committees favorably. The House will debate this bill on the floor when they come back from furlough the week of March 28th.
*H. 3417 by Rep. Laurie Funderburk- "Special Purpose or Public Service Districts". This bill was introduced on January 15th and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The Judiciary Committee voted this bill out favorably with the amendment that struck out "emergency medical services" and replaced it with "rescue response services". This bill was then sent to the House and placed on the calendar for Second reading. Second and third reading was given on Tuesday and Wednesday and then sent over to the Senate. The Senate read this bill across the desk for the first time and referred it to the Senate Judiciary Committee. We are planning on getting an amendment added in the Senate to exclude ambulances with
Paramedics/EMT's. This bill was assigned to a subcommittee in which Rep. Ray Cleary is the Chairman. There were no meetings on this bill this week.
*S. 27 by Senators Leatherman, McGill, Rose and Leventis- "Property Tax Exemtions"- This bill was introduced on January 11th and referred to Senate Finance. This bill gives a property tax exemption to a firefighter classified as totally and permanently disabled due to a service-connected disability. We have Senator Glenn Reese offering an amendment to add EMT's to this bill. This bill is still on the
Senate Calendar. No debate or discussion on this bill this week.
*S. 392 by Senator Ford- "Workers' Compensation/Occupational Diseases"- This bill was introduced on January 19th and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. This bill relates to occupational diseases for the purposes of Workers Compensation. We have Senator Glenn Reese offering an amendment to add EMT's to this bill. There were no meetings on this bill this week.
*H. 3424 by Representative Gilliard, Whipper, Gambrell, Hosey and Mack- "Workers Compensation/Occupational Diseases"- This bill was introduced on January 25th and referred to the House Judiciary Committee. This is the companion bill to S. 392. It also relates to occupational diseases for the purposes of Workers' Compensation. We have Representative Paul Agnew offering an amendment to add EMT's to this bill. There were no meetings on this bill this week.
*S. 523 by Senators Leatherman and McGill- "Special Purpose Districts to include Fire and Public Service Districts"-This bill was introduced on February 9, 2011 and referred to the Senate Finance Committee. The Senate Finance Subcommittee held a meeting on this bill on last Tuesday in which we along with the SCAC expressed our concern about opening this bill up statewide and how this could hurt our already established County EMS Services. The subcommittee passed this out without any recommendation to be discussed before the full Senate Finance Committee this week. The Senate Finance Committee voted to amend the bill to only affect the South Lynches Fire District for bond purposes. This bill is now on the Senate Calendar for consideration.
The House spent last week working on the 2011/2012 Budget. Without alot of delay
and debate the House adopted the $5B budget on Wednesday. Below is a recap of some items of interest.
*Local Government Fund (LGF) Cut- The House adopted a $20 million cut in LGF
funding from last year’s LGF appropriation. This cut will reduce the LGF to $182.6
million.
*Medicaid Provider Rates "Hold Harmless" Proviso- This Proviso was deleted in the Ways and Means Subcommittee. There was no attempt made on the House floor to put this Proviso back in. According to Tony Keck, Director of DHHS, there will be an initial 3% across the board rate cut to all Medicaid Providers. In July, there will
be additional targeted cuts.
*Proviso for Use of 911 Funds- Reps. Bill Taylor offered a proviso on the House
floor that would have allowed a local government that imposes a monthly 911 charge
for public safety communications to use the Individual PSAP Communications Facility portion of the funds for the lease, purchase, lease-purchase or maintenance of emergency radios or other communications equipment. The proviso was tabled on the floor by a 60-54 vote. There will be an attempt in the Senate to put this in place. We will continue to work with the SC Association of Counties to gain support for this Proviso.
*Proviso 22.9 DHEC EMS Funds- This was a conform to funding Proviso which adjusted the amount of EMS funds from $1,610,512 to $1,234,288.
*Proviso 22.35 DHEC State Trauma Care Fund- This was a conform to funding Proviso which adjusted the amount of State Trauma Care Funds from $2,948,519 to $2,268,885.
The House is on furlough the week of March 21st. They will return at noon on
Tuesday, March 29th.
