Missouri is Lucky #13, Florida Less Fortunate

I'm happy to report that Governor Nixon (of Missouri) finally decided to sign DPC legislation on July 2 (after sitting on it for over a month)!  See the Missouri page for my general thoughts about the legislation.  

Florida's House passed DPC legislation in a special June 2015 session, but the Senate decided not to hear any additional legislation when debates about other Medicaid legislation stalled.

I am not aware of any other states with pending legislation at this time, but I am aware that discussions have been started in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York and likely many others.  Please send me a message if you have any legislative updates to report.

Hopefully each of you are planning to attend the DPC Summit in Kansas City (see the events page) later this week - if so I will see you there!

Texas is #12, Florida and Missouri Still Possible

Texas became the 12 state to enact DPC legislation on May 28, 2015.  The law is effective immediately and offers helpful protections to Texas DPC docs.  The "scope" provision (section 5) of the legislation was well written and the critical "not insurance" protections were present, but their definitions of "direct care" and "direct primary care" were ambiguous and unhelpful when compared to other state and federal legislation.

The Missouri governor continues to ponder whether he should sign DPC legislation that was passed by both the House and Senate on May 6, 2015.  I have no idea what he is waiting on.

A Florida special house session has been convened and we might have good news about proposed DPC legislation later this month.  The bill appears to have broad support, so whether it passes will likely depend on the level of attention it receives on the busy House calendar.

Kansas is #11, Missouri likely #12, Texas & Florida?

Kansas became the 11th state to enact DPC legislation with the passage of HB 2225, signed by the Governor on May 7, 2015.  The law defines the phrase "medical retainer agreement" and contains language similar to that found in Utah's DPC law.  

Missouri sent a bill to Governor Nixon on May 6, 2015, but his website does not indicate any decision yet about whether to pass or veto the measure.  The Missouri legislation is modeled after Utah's "medical retainer agreement" language as well.  

The state legislative sessions appear to be calming down, but  there may still be more action on the horizon.  Florida has DPC legislation that will be considered in a special session on June 1, 2015 and Texas passed DPC legislation through the House followed by a slightly amended version that was passed in the Senate on May 12.  The Senate's only addition was a mandatory disclosure clause (an item that should not be controversial).  

Although Florida remains a bit of a long shot compared to Missouri and Texas, I am predicting that we will have 14 states with enacted DPC laws within the next two months!