Wyoming Legislature 2023: Labor/Health Committee Retooling Brings Back Experience, Healthcare Knowledge

AARP Wyoming Photo

2023 Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee
Committee Chairs (click to meet the committee)

Senate - Fred Baldwin 
House - Dan Zwonitzer

Senate committee members - Dan Dockstader, Lynn Hutchings, Anthony Bouchard, Eric Barlow.
House committee members- Forrest Chadwick, Ken Clouston, Kevin O’Hearn, Ben Hornok, Sarah Penn, Tamara Trujillo, Jeanette Ward, Mike Yin

What was old is new again for the Labor, Health, and Social Services Committee. Fred Baldwin (Pictured above), himself a Physician Assistant, will head up the Senate side of the committee, while Rep. Dan Zwonitzer takes the helm of the House Committee. While there is turnover in the committee, the Senate side in particular has a number of familiar faces from previous terms. 

“We kept (Senator Lynn) Hutchings and I got (Senator Anthony) Bouchard back who was on the committee before. We added Senator (Dan) Dockstader who was on the committee years ago and I served on Labor/Health when Senator Eric Barlow was on the Labor/Health Committee in 2015-16,” Baldwin says. 

“Everyone on my committee has experience,” Baldwin continues. “Last time (four years ago)I had two new legislators and one new member of the committee. It was a steep learning curve, but these guys will understand the Medicare and Medicaid and health issues facing the state.”

The Labor/Health Committee won’t come into the session with many committee bills. Two of the bills deal with multi-state licensure compacts in an effort to make it easier for mental healthcare workers to serve clients in Wyoming. SF10 would allow licensed professional counselors the ability to get into use licensure in other compact states to practice in Wyoming. SF26 would do the same for Psychologists. 

This concept is nothing new to Wyoming, as physicians, nurses, and other medical specialists have already asked for and received permission from the Legislature to join similar licensure compacts. Last year the Psychologist compact, known as PsyPact passed the Senate but ran out of time to get through the House. Traditionally, there has been pushback among the more conservative lawmakers who are concerned the state is losing the ability to control licensure requirements of medical professionals.

Continuing with the what-is-old-is-new theme is an Upper Payment Limit bill for additional funding for behavioral hospitals like Wyoming Behavioral Institute in Casper. Over the past 10 years, Wyoming has entered into similar programming with nursing homes, hospitals, and emergency medical systems around the state. In an UPL setting, the facilities charge themselves an assessment, which is then matched by the federal government and sent back to facilities in the state. 

While it is a Revenue Committee bill, Baldwin said it is possible that Labor/Health will be the first to offer Medicaid Expansion a hearing. 

“I am assuming it will probably come to us,” says Baldwin. “That will be up to the President and Majority Floor Leader, but I am assuming it comes to use because the Revenue Committee that will be seated is completely different from the committee that voted to sponsor it. I think it will get out of committee, probably on a 3-2 vote. The floor is a different story. I am not sure the votes are there in the Senate.”

Baldwin also suspects individual bills will come forward on the subject of emergency medical systems, as well a couple of Baldwin’s own sponsored bills.

Senate File 9 would authorize pharmacists to bill Medicaid for services such as immunizations, which is not currently allowed. Baldwin, who is bringing the bill and points out right now pharmacists aren’t being reimbursed by insurance companies or Medicaid  because they are not on something called the approved provider list. Senate File 9 seeks to change that. It is a change AARP Wyoming supports. Baldwin is also sponsoring Senate File 37, which would allow for Podiatrists to become Medicaid-approved providers as well. 

“Pharmacists have proven to be valuable providers with increasing responsibilities and this bill seeks to improve their status as Medicaid approved providers,” says Baldwin. “Getting pharmacists and podiatrists on the Medicaid Provider list will also help them get paid by private insurance too, as companies like Blue Cross, Blue Shield will look at a Medicaid provider list and if a specialty isn’t on that list, the private insurer won’t pay them either.”