{ legislative & regulatory }


2024 Session Summary Two MDA priorities going to the Governor’s desk: Virtual Credit Cards, Assignment of Benefits


by GRACE RILEY O


n Friday, May 17, Missouri law- makers adjourned for the year with approximately one percent of policy bills introduced this


session making it to the Governor’s desk. This marks the lowest figure in recent his- tory, even surpassing the 2020 session dis- rupted by COVID, which saw 32 bills passed. The good news is two MDA priorities, Virtual Credit Cards and Assignment of Benefits legislation, did pass, along with some dental appropriations successes. Read below for more details on the MDA’s legislative priori- ties or head over to MoDental On Demand (media.modental.org) to watch a short video where we recap the session.


2024 SESSION ENDS IN GRIDLOCK


The Missouri legislative session concluded passing only 28 non-budget bills, a record low number. Senate dysfunction was the prevailing theme, resulting in many senators’ and representatives’ non-controversial priori- ties simply dying on the debate calendars due to a lack of time. In fact, during the final week of the session, the Senate, which normally processes about 80 percent of the bills passed in a year, conducted no business. The Senate Freedom Caucus members had an agenda and from the opening day of the session: they set the tone that unless they approved, issues would struggle to make progress and, in most cases, even reach the debate floor, which caused a bottleneck that became unrecoverable. In many instances, more hours were spent reading books on the Senate floor than debating topics. For the first time in our experience, no legislation was sent to a conference committee.


12 focus | SUMMER 2024 | ISSUE 2


The House of Representatives processed all the bills they could without needing Senate concurrence. They too faced controversy throughout the session, but their rules and processes allowed them to work around these issues and remain functional on the floor. The House continued working on the final day of the session to pass key legislation but ran out of tasks once the Senate con- cluded their day that morning.


The legislators now turn their attention to the upcoming August primaries, which will determine the November winners in 90 percent of the races, including most of the statewide races. One U.S. Senator and five of the six statewide officeholders (excluding the Auditor) will be elected.


WHY MORE BILLS DIDN’T PASS IN 2024


There are an endless number of variables to consider when evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of the Missouri General Assem- bly in any given year. A few examples for the 2024 session:


• Election Year Posturing: legislators pri- oritize issues for voter appeal, slowing down legislation.


• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: some legislators seek attention through con- troversial issues, hindering cooperation.


• The Role of the Freedom Caucus: ideo- logical stances obstruct bipartisan bills, leading to gridlock. • Increasing Partisanship: partisan divides reduce collaboration, impeding legislative progress.


MDA 2024 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES


Virtual Credit Cards: Our virtual credit card legislation passed this year in Senate Bill 1359! With so few bills being truly and finally passed, virtual credit card legislation found success by being amended onto SB1359, sponsored by Senator Curtis Trent. The original law we passed allowed for dentists to “opt out” of this type of payment, however we learned from you that the insurance com- panies implemented this law in various ways, making the process still very cumbersome for providers. This year, our bill requires an “opt in” only provision, therefore requiring carri- ers to receive explicit, written consent from the provider before issuing payment via a vir- tual credit card. This legislation will go into effect August 28 if signed by the Governor.


Assignment of Benefits: Assignment of ben- efits legislation also passed this year in Sen- ate Bill 1359! This legislation focuses on two things: 1) If a person with health insurance assigns their payment to an out-of-network healthcare provider, the insurance company must make the payment to the provider in accordance with the “prompt pay laws”, which is within 45 days. 2) If a person does not assign the benefits to a provider, then the insurer shall also pay the patient in accor- dance with the prompt pay law — which is 45 days from receipt of the claim. The bill has an effective date to match the beginning of the insurance policy year.


Dental Loss Ratio: House Bill 2890 was filed by Representative Mike Stephens to require Medical Loss Ratio apply to dental plans in a similar way as it applies to medical plans. Given the late filing of this bill, opposition


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