Report To The People
Study Committee Created In Hopes Of Providing Transportation For Cancer Patients
By Tommy Reynolds
Dist. 33 Rep.
The House of Representatives passed House Concurrent Resolution 26, which I authored, to create a study committee to make recommendations for the development of a program for providing medically necessary transportation services to financially needy cancer patients.
Under the resolution, the committee must make its report to the Legislature no later than December 1 of this year. I strongly support providing transportation for needy cancer patients to attend their chemotherapy sessions. It is my hope that this Bill will prove the need of transportation services for needy cancer patients. This Resolution is strongly supported by the American Cancer Society.
The House of Representatives on Friday passed SB 2904 which I strongly supported. It will remove the 30-day limit of inpatient care days per year from transplant patients on our state Medicaid program.
This Bill will allow bone marrow and other transplant patients to have as many days as is necessary of Medicaid coverage so they will not be terminated from Medicaid during the course of hospitalization stay. Often when a patient undergoes bone marrow transplant or other transplant their period of hospitalization stay exceeds 30 days and under current law their Medicaid payments stop at the end of the 30 day hospitalization.
SB 2904 will allow the patient to continue to be covered by Medicaid for the total length of their hospital stay and will remove the arbitrary 30 day limit. I am very pleased that the number of transplants at our state’s University Medical Center is greatly increasing and that we are beginning to meet some of tremendous needs of our state for transplant services.
The House of Representatives approved appropriations bills for many state agencies for the state fiscal year beginning on July 1.
The House handles roughly half the initial 100 or so appropriation bills for state agencies and later the Senate will present to the House appropriation bills for the other half of the state agencies.
The House of Representatives has a March 12 floor deadline for “money bills” originating in the House, and a March 18 deadline for House committees to report on general bills that originated in the Senate.
If I can be of any assistance to you please call on me. My phone number in Jackson during the session is (601) 359-3365. The phone number in my Charleston office is (662) 647-3203, and my residence phone number is (662) 473-2571.
I can also be contacted by writing me at my home address of 15 CR 429, Water Valley, MS 38965, or at my office address of P.O. Box 220, Charleston, MS 38921.
