These new Tennessee laws go into effect this week
* The "Right to Shop" health insurance price transparency law, sponsored by Rep.
"It is a new way to approach health care that hopefully will correct some of the issues causing health care [costs] to increase," said Smith, a registered nurse who is chairwoman of the
People "are really getting to see that our utilization of health services has declined over the past years, but costs increase," Smith said, calling it "just a function of contracting through insurance companies. This [law] is going to be a little bit of pressure for the cost curve to bend down."
"If you know in advance, unless it's an emergency, you have broader control," Smith said.
She noted some health insurers, which fought a broader version of her bill, have already started posting the information for policy holders to shop. As it takes effect Wednesday, the new law applies solely to commercial insurance but it will later apply to TennCare and Medicare, Smith said.
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It revises existing safeguards and procedures in the existing Elderly and Vulnerable Protection Act to add new focus on crimes involving sexual exploitation of an elderly or vulnerable adult.
It expands the definition of "neglect" to include failure by a caregiver to make a reasonable effort to protect an elderly or vulnerable adult from abuse or sexual exploitation.
And it requires people convicted of abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect or financial exploitation to be placed on a registry managed by the
Gardenhire said he pushed the issue after hearing "a lot of testimony that some elderly person was in bed and not being able to defend themselves and taken advantage by the people in the nursing home or assisted living place. It really left them vulnerable."
Noting he'll likely follow through with more legislation in 2020, Gardenhire said, "We want to make sure we really close the loop on all the elderly abuse that goes on."
* A bill requiring the state health insurance plan to allow use of proton radiation therapy to treat cancer, vetoed in 2018 by then-Gov.
Proton therapy is seen as a more targeted radiation approach that is less harmful to surrounding healthy tissue.
* Another new law seeking to better inform health care consumers about costs and billing goes into effect this week. Dubbed the Healthcare Billing Clarity Act, it helps patients figure out what charges come from a hospital and what charges come from a specialty physician working there. According to the
* A new state grant program will provide funding for select volunteer fire departments to use in the purchase of firefighting equipment or to meet local match requirements of federal grants for the purchase of equipment and training. It was sponsored by Sen.
* Residential contractors who were licensed on or after
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