Did you know that the Utah Legislature meets more than just during the regularly scheduled time of the Legislative Session. During the summer months and leading up to next year's session, legislators will meet once each month to discuss upcoming topics for the next session. These meetings are call Interim Meetings.
Interim Meetings of the Utah State Legislature begin this month, which means the Utah Pharmacy Association is already hard at work for you and all members of pharmacy. The 2016 Legislative Session brought many subjects up that require additional discussion during interim meetings. Items agreed upon by leadership for interim include the following topics:
Health & Human Services Interim Committee
Representative Kay L. McIff Co-Chair Senator Evan J. Vickers Co-Chair
Opioid Misuse and Abuse - Studying the underlying causes of the problem and considering steps the Legislature might take to either enable or motivate patients, prescribers, dispensers, state regulators, community organizations, and others to take additional action to stem the epidemic.
Medical Marijuana - Review and make recommendations regarding any draft legislation that is essentially ready for introduction during the 2017 General Session.
Access to Health Care - Examine the adequacy, distribution, and use of Utah's medical workforce, including the staffing of rural and urban health care clinics, the use of mid- level providers, whether the number of residencies for family practice doctors should be increased, and whether there is any way to reduce the disparity in compensation between primary care providers and specialists.
Intergenerational Poverty - Consider related issues within the purview of the committee, particularly the availability of health care, mental health services, and treatment services for substance use disorders.
End of Life Options - Consider issues related to end-of-life legislation debated during the past two sessions of the Legislature.
Other Issues - Conduct sunset reviews that fall within the committee's purview, receive and evaluate the necessity of statutorily required reports, and act on a January request by the Administrative Rules Review Committee to consider the Department of Health's process for modifying the Utah Medicaid Provider Manual.
Judiciary Interim Study Items
Representative LaVar Christensen Co-Chair Senator Mark B. Madsen Co-Chair
Marijuana Impairment and Penalties - to study marijuana impairment standards and possession penalties
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