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Rep. Noah Sanford
While most bills are pending consideration in the various committees, several have made their way to the House floor.
The Mississippi Prior Authorization Reform Act passed unanimously, 115-0, following a very similar bill having been vetoed by Gov. Tate Reeves last year. The purpose of the Act is to provide health insurance companies set requirements in how they must respond to a provider’s request for coverage of a non-emergent treatment or procedure. One of the most common complaints legislators have heard from doctors and patients concerns the long delays providers often experience with health insurance companies when trying to get a surgery or other procedure approved for coverage. Gov. Reeves, in his veto message to the legislature, argued that the Department of Health should not be in charge of implementing the law; this year’s Act, for this reason, delegated that authority to the Department of Insurance.
House Bill 331, which passed the House on February 8, would seek to fix a problem unknowingly created last year. In the final days of the session, language was added to an existing bill that required every county in the state to create an office which permitted construction within unincorporated areas of the county. Proponents of that law argued that, after hurricanes and natural disasters, out-of-state contractors—some unlicensed—come in, take advantage of storm victims, and then return home with the local and state government having no ability to hold them accountable. Many rural counties, however, have never regulated construction and did not wish to start. HB 331, which passed 82-29, would return to the previous law, which allowed counties to choose whether or not to have a permitting office and require all construction to be performed by licensed contractors.
The deadline for bills to be voted out of committee is the first week of March, so committees will begin to move many bills to the floor over the next few weeks.
I appreciate the opportunity to serve. Please contact me if I may be of assistance or if you have questions or concerns.
Noah Sanford represents parts of Covington, Simpson, Jefferson Davis, Forrest, and Jones Counties in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He can be reached at NSanford@house.ms.gov.
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