The House voted 66-32 in favor of allowing the Legislative Auditor to access income tax records of Medicaid recipients, sparking a testy back and forth between bill author, Prairieville Representative Tony Bacala and New Orleans Representative Gary Carter, who voted against it.
Carter called the legislation an assault on working class Medicaid recipients…
Cut 3 (13) “…benefits.”
The House Labor Committee advances a Senate-approved bill to address PTSD and mental health among firefighters and police, adding the mental illness to the list of injuries eligible for public employee benefits. One Madison Parish firefighter testified saying he has suffered from depression since 2014, adding he had suicidal thoughts while on leave for PTSD related to his job.
US Senator Bill Cassidy is working with a bipartisan collection of Senators to combat surprise medical billing with the STOP Surprise Medical Bills Act. Cassidy says a care provider would be paid the cost difference between a patients in-network cost sharing and the median or average cost for the in-network rate for their services.
Cut 7 (08) “…is held harmless.”
Scenarios in which patient balance billing occurs would be prohibited include emergency services and non-emergency services performed by an out of network provider at an in-network facility.
Two people are dead after the car they were traveling in collided with a train. The driver 48-year-old Shonda Hayes and the passenger 38-year-old Gary Briggs, both of Monroe, were traveling in a Chevy Cruze when the driver failed to yield to the train while crossing the tracks on Sumlin Ranch Road in Richland Parish. The crash is under investigation.