ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 13, 1996 TAG: 9602130066
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
"While most Virginians look forward to Feb. 14 as the day when they send special notes to their sweethearts, members of the legislature know Feb. 14 as 'crossover day,' which regrettably has little to do with romance," says Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville.
"By this date, the members of the Senate must be done deliberating on all of the bills and resolutions submitted by Senators; and the House of Delegates must likewise finish their work on all bills introduced in the House."
Some of the bills Marye introduced include:
A bill exempting law enforcement security and tactical plans, architectural and engineering drawings, and other operational documents from the Freedom of Information Act, an act that establishes and protects the rights of the public to have access to government documents and plans. The act, as written, already contains certain exemptions, such as security plans for prisons.
"In the wake of the great tragedy in Oklahoma City, when what most people thought was a safe and unimportant federal building became the site of terrorism, it seemed to me that we needed to take measures to protect courthouses, jails, and detention facilities in particular," Marye said.
A bill proposing the establishment of a Virginia Public Campaign Finance Fund, which would be funded in part by voluntary tax return check-off donations from citizens. The bill likely will be carried over until next year.
The General Assembly spent much of last week talking about health care, particularly managed care.
Del. Tommy Baker, R-Pulaski County, devotes his column to the part of managed care that sparks the most emotion: the ability of patients to choose their own physicians. Often in managed-care plans, he says, insurance companies and the health care groups choose the doctors for the patients.
"At issue is the argument of cost," he said. Insurance companies and HMOs say that by restricting the pool of doctors, costs can be driven down, saving the customer medical costs and high insurance premiums. Health care providers say if they're willing to accept the fees set by HMOs, they should be able to participate.
As of last week, all of the legislation dealing with those issues remained in committee. He expects legislation dealing with patient access to be carried over to 1997. "I support the patient access provisions of this legislation as I believe we should each have the right to choose our own physician," he said.
Baker remains opposed to riverboat gambling and higher speed limits on non-interstate roads.
Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, has been named to a special subcommittee to consider major changes in managed care.
The legislature is considering bills that would prohibit certain managed-care practices, require insurers to provide the public with terms of their contracts with doctors, prohibit utilization review and mandate other changes, he said.
"Major insurers and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce believe that their ability to contain costs is dependent on being able to limit the number of providers and services available in managed-care plans," Shuler said. Supporters of the legislation fear that medical care decisions are going to bureaucrats and clerks instead of trained physicians.
"Many physicians feel that they are being forced into adversarial positions with their patients. Instead of acting in the best interest of the patient, they are required to act in the best interest of the insurance company."
"My feelings are that the General Assembly will side with the public and physicians on most of these matters," he said.
Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo is promoting legislation encouraging state employees to audit their medical and pharmacy bills. The bill would allow any state employee who reports an error or overcharge on a bill covered by state health benefits to receive half of the amount saved.
Trumbo also supports: Technology in education. He is pushing for an ammendment that provides funds for Virginia Tech to provide training on using technology in the classroom to elementary and secondary education teachers. The funding would train 250 teachers the first year and 500 the second year. Another amendment would provide funding for Radford University's technology efforts by buying computers and software for faculty and students and education technology for a new academic building.
Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, was disappointed last week when the House of Delegates voted virtually along party lines to reject an amendment that called for the political makeup of committees to reflect the political makeup of the House.
When asked to represent the Minority Caucus and voice concerns, Griffith said he spoke from the heart "about democratic principles of fairness and that right should prevail over might."
The delegate had to reach back to high school biology to follow a debate in the Agriculture Committee concerning a bill that would prohibit the breeding, sale, or purchase of wolf/canine hybrids. That was another emotional bill - on both sides - and there were technical problems with the bill's wording.
"The committee heard testimony from animal experts who stated that the only way to identify a wolf/canine hybrid was through visual opinion and/or input from the owner about the animal's ancestry." If the law passes, Griffith said, dog owners likely wouldn't freely admit that their pets had wolf in their blood.
Griffith pointed out another dilemma: some scientists say wolves and dogs are the same species.
And if that's true, Griffith said, then "in its most extreme form this bill was about to outlaw many, if not all, dogs in Virginia. All breeds of dog at some point were bred from wolves."
The committee has delayed voting on the bill until this week when the language should be more clear.
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB