HUMAN RESOURCES-Week of January 30

SSB 3036 – State-licensed-only Health Care Facility Inspections

SSB 3038 – Child Abuse Registry Changes

SSB 3041 – Iowa Controlled Substance Act and Iowa Precursor Substances Act Updates

SSB 3043 – Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment Form

COMMITTEE ACTION:

SSB 3036 is a Department of Inspections and Appeals bill. It repeals the moratorium on regular state-licensed-only health care facility inspections. It is retroactive to October 24, 2011. This bill legalizes current procedures of the Department. DIA is and will be doing regular inspections of Residential Care Facilities (RCF’s) once every 30 months. [1/30: short form (Johnson excused)]

SSB 3038 makes changes to the sealing and expungement of founded child abuse information. The bill requires a person’s name to be removed from the registry by the Department of Human Services after 10 years as long as that person has had no subsequent founded child abuse report during that 10-year time span. The bill is based on recommendations from an interim workgroup that was authorized last year in House File 562. [2/1: short form (Whitver “no”; Johnson excused)]

SSB 3041 is a Board of Pharmacy bill. It amends the Iowa Controlled Substances Act and the Iowa Precursor Substances Act to conform to federal law that is currently in effect. Criminal penalties applicable to violations involving the drugs that are the listed in this bill are also identified. [2/1: short form (Johnson excused)]

SSB 3043 pertains to Iowa Physician Order for Scope of Treatment (IPOST), which has been piloted in Linn and Jones counties over the last four years in the Patient Autonomy pilot project. IPOST, based on a national movement, is a form intended as a communication tool for patients to articulate their treatment preferences based on their personal medical condition in consultation with their provider and family. An IPOST is meant to complement advance directives by translating patient treatment preferences into a medical order that may be relied upon by healthcare providers across all healthcare settings. It is meant for patients who have a serious, chronic condition, a terminal illness, or for the frail and elderly. The statewide advisory group for that pilot project recommended expansion of the pilot statewide, which this legislation authorizes. [2/1: short form (Johnson excused)]