Budget to provide critical services

With nearly 600 bills being signed into law, many major policy issues were addressed this session. As a healthcare professional, I was extremely pleased with the investments and policies made to improve the health of all Oklahomans, including better access to healthcare, especially in rural areas like ours.

The budget includes $164 million to cover the first year of the voter-approved Medicaid expansion, which will provide critical healthcare services to an estimated 200,000 more citizens starting July 1. Since applications opened at the beginning of the month, more than 51,000 people have been approved for benefits through SoonerCare. About 65% of those are women. Under the expansion, adults ages 19 to 64 whose income is 138% or lower than the federal poverty level are eligible for coverage. For an individual, this is around $17,800 annually or nearly $36,600 for a family of four. If you qualify, you may apply online at MySoonerCare.org or call 800-987-7767. 

One of the reasons our state struggles with poor health outcomes is we simply don’t have enough medical professionals, including nurses and doctors, to meet our healthcare needs. To help increase our numbers and get more healthcare professionals on the job, we restored a historic sales tax credit for OU Health that will allow for a tremendous increase in the number of nurses and doctors trained in our state. Nearly $10 million was also appropriated to create a children’s mental health unit to better address the mental health needs of our state’s youth.

More than 70 health-related measures were signed into law, and I was proud to be the Senate author of many of these. My bills address a number of areas, including – 

n authorizing pharmacists to substitute interchangeable biological products for prescribed biological products if the FDA has determined them interchangeable;

n directing the Department of Human Services (DHS) and the State Department of Health to enter into a data sharing agreement to assist with compliance of the federal Uniform Parentage Act;

n authorizing the Oklahoma’s Children’s Hospital to extend services to patients over the age of 21;

n modifying certain statutes pertaining to dentistry, including continuing education requirements, record keeping requirements, grounds for penalties and disciplinary actions;

n directing pharmacies that maintain drugs in an emergency medication kit to establish a policy and procedures governing the maintenance and dispensation of those drugs;

n making it illegal for someone who is the perpetrator of a substantiated finding by the Department of Human Services (DHS) of heinous and shocking abuse to work with children, reside in a childcare facility, or be hired by an employer who offers or provides services to children;

n providing that the safety plan monitor of a child in a safety plan with DHS may, if the child’s parent is unavailable, authorize medical or dental treatment or examinations which are necessary for the child’s well-being;

n limiting abortions in Oklahoma by requiring those performing such procedures to be board certified in obstetrics and gynecology;

n adding findings of child abuse or neglect that is heinous and shocking as legal grounds for the termination of parental rights as well as failing to protect a child from such treatment, even it is not their own; and

n authorizing the DHS director and the executive director of the Office of Juvenile Affairs to enter into agreements on behalf of the state with Oklahoma Indian tribes regarding jurisdiction over child custody proceedings.

 I’m excited about the results we’ll see from all of the changes being made to improve the health of our citizens. Next week, I’ll discuss more of these innovative, but necessary changes. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on these and other bills approved this session.

You can write me at Senator Jessica Garvin, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 237, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105, email me at Jessica.Garvin@oksenate.gov or call (405) 521-5522.