Legislative Update

The 2021 legislative session ended on June 24, 2021, with many bills being passed into law. Below you’ll find a list of the bills that affect hospitals and health systems. The Governor has now acted on all the bills that impact hospitals, so this list has been updated to include all the bills that required his action.

The 2021 legislative session began how the 2020 session ended – completely virtual. Challenges related to such a format continued throughout most of the session. While some legislators met in-person on a limited basis for hearings and session days, the public was not allowed into the State House or Legislative Office Building until the State of Emergency was lifted by the Governor in mid-June. Having limited in person access to legislators proved to be especially difficult. Despite these challenges several high priority bills were reintroduced this year that were delayed due to the pandemic in 2020. 

The SFY 22/23 State Budget was one of the highest priorities this year. The House and Senate passed the compromise budget bill (HB 1 and HB 2) on June 24, 2021, after a lengthy Committee of Conference process and the Governor signed it into law. While there are some controversial policy provisions in the budget that were not supported by NHHA, the overall financial components of the budget support hospitals and health care providers, including maintaining the Medicaid rate increases that were passed into law in 2019, and ensuring that the 2018 settlement agreement regarding the Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments due to hospitals is properly funded. The budget also provides much needed funding for behavioral health programs, to include mobile crisis units, transitional housing and much more. 

Other priority bills for NHHA included updating the advance care planning statute, establishing a committee to study workplace safety, the reporting of health care associated infections, the adoption of liability protections for health care providers during the pandemic and allowing for the integration of controlled drug prescription health and safety program information with electronic medical records. We are happy to report that all of these bills were passed this year and have  been signed into law.

As with our entire legislative agenda and activities, it is your active involvement that enables us to be successful. Our success is built upon that partnership, and we thank you for your leadership and engagement.

*Asterisk indicates a bill that has been passed and added to this document since August 5, 2021, when the most recent Legislative Newsletter was released.

** Links to the bills and affected statutes are provided below. Please note that the online RSAs are provided for ease of reference, however they have not yet been revised with the enacted changes.