State legislative session begins

Posted on: 2/9/24

The Second Regular Session of the 59th Oklahoma Legislature convened at the Oklahoma state Capitol on Monday, Feb. 5. 

OHA has spent the last month educating our lawmakers on the association’s 2024 legislative agenda, which includes:
• SB 1675 by Sen. Greg McCortney (R-Ada), which builds upon existing managed care guardrails. 
• HB 3379 by Rep. Marcus McEntire (R-Duncan) and SB 1628 by Sen. Brent Howard (R-Altus), which seek to protect the 340B drug pricing program in Oklahoma. 
• SB 1449 by Sen. Greg Treat (R-Oklahoma City), which would appropriate an additional $1 million in funding to the State Department of Health for perinatal services. 

Beyond OHA’s legislative agenda, we are actively supporting the work of our member hospitals, including Saint Francis Health System. At the request of Saint Francis, Rep. Carl Newton (R-Cherokee) is pursuing legislation that would expand peer review protections for those hospitals that conduct peer review of PAs and APRNs (HB 3199).  

One bill of note that passed out of the Senate Public Safety Committee on Thursday, Feb. 8, is SB 2009 by Sen. Howard. The bill would allow the board of a public trust hospital to permit the CEO to designate an individual with a valid handgun license to carry within the facility. The OHA government relations team has reached out to the CEO of every public trust hospital seeking feedback on this proposal. (Scott Tohlen)