Regular legislative session adjourns as special session continues to deal with state budget

Posted on: 5/26/23

The regular state legislative session will adjourn today, May 26, as required by the state constitution. However, the Legislature called themselves into a concurrent special session to deal with the state budget, which begins July 1, and associated bills. One special session bill of note, Senate Bill 32X, contains $200 million for the hospital gap funding that OHA has been working on with hospitals and legislators since January. We are very pleased that SB 32X is on its way to being signed by the governor today. SB 32X also contains $30 million for provider connection fees for the state Health Information Exchange mandate and an increase of $35 per day for long-term care to get to the pre-COVID rate.  

In other good news this week, an OHA-sponsored bill, Senate Bill 563, received an override of the governor’s veto. SB 563 guarantees in statute that anesthesia services (physician and CRNA) will continue to be reimbursed as they have been since 2007 under SoonerSelect instead of being linked to Medicare rates.

Even though the regular session has adjourned today, the special session will not be adjourned until about June 12 so that the Legislature can return to override any vetoes the governor may issue regarding the budget. (Sandra Harrison)