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- 2024 Public Laws and Resolutions
131st Legislature – 2nd Session
Public Laws & Resolutions
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LD 227 - An Act Regarding Health Care In The State
The law provides protections to persons who seek, health care practitioners who provide and those who assist health care practitioners in providing health care services to transgender patients and reproductive health care services.
LD 372 - An Act To Increase Enforcement And Accountability For Wage Violations
The law allows the Director of the Bureau of Labor Standards within the Department of Labor to order an employer, officer, agent or other person to pay unpaid wages determined to be due as well as an additional amount equal to twice the amount of unpaid wages as liquidated damages and a reasonable rate of interest. It requires the Attorney General to institute a civil action to recover any unpaid wages, liquidated damages and interest, along with the fine as in current law. It clarifies that an employee may not receive payment more than once for the same unpaid wages and liquidated damages owed to the employee. It also provides that the Department of Labor is authorized to receive the unpaid wages, liquidated damages and interest on behalf of an employee, which the director must pay to the employee.
LD 435 - Resolve, To Require The Department Of Health And Human Services To Report On Children's Residential Treatment Services And Implementation Of The Department's Strategic Priorities For Children's Behavioral Health Services
Resolve, Chapter 158 (Emergency—Effective March 28, 2024)
As enacted, this Resolve requires the Department of Health and Human Services to review relevant data and conduct an analysis on the capacity, occupancy and availability of and access to children's residential treatment services in the State and the residential treatment services located outside of the State that are being provided to children who normally reside in this State.
By January 2, 2025, the department must submit to the Legislature a report summarizing the data and results of the analysis of children's residential treatment services, an update on the department's progress in implementing its strategic priorities developed in 2019 to implement the children's behavioral health services plan for Maine developed by the department's Office of Child and Family Services and a summary of the department's current priorities to ensure the availability, quality and consistency of and access to behavioral health care services for children.
LD 646 – An Act To Fully Reimburse Municipalities For Lost Revenue Under The Property Tax Stabilization for Senior Citizens Program
Services
Public Law, Chapter 520 (Emergency—Effective March 6, 2024)
This law authorizes two key financial transfers from Maine's General Fund to support municipalities affected by the Property Tax Stabilization program:
- By March 1, 2024, the State Controller will transfer $15,000,000 from the unappropriated surplus of the General Fund to the Property Tax Stabilization program within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.
- By June 30, 2024, the State Controller will transfer $50,000 from the unappropriated surplus of the General Fund to the Property Tax Stabilization - Mandate program within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.
LD 796 - An Act Concerning Prior Authorizations For Health Care Provider Services
As enacted, this law:
- Permits a provider that is actively treating an enrollee to act as an authorized representative of an enrollee for purposes of grievances and appeals of health insurance carrier decisions without requiring prior written authorization from the enrollee,
- Requires carriers to allow prior authorization approvals to be effective for a 2-week period before and after the date scheduled for service,
- Prohibits carriers from denying claims for nonemergency services that were within the scope of the enrollee’s coverage pending medical necessity review and prohibits carriers from imposing a penalty of more than 15% of the contractually allowed amount for the services that required prior authorization approval on the provider for failing to obtain a prior authorization.
- Prohibits carriers from making determinations of medical necessity based on whether those services are provided by participating or nonparticipating providers.
LD 870 - An Act To Strengthen Freedom Of Speech Protections By Enacting The Uniform Public Expression Protection Act
This law expands Maine's protections against strategic lawsuits against public participation to include protection for any statement in connection with an issue of public interest made in a public forum or other place open to the public and any statement made in a media publication. It is very broadly worded and may also protect defamatory comments in some contexts.
LD 1407 - An Act To Amend The Maine Insurance Code Regarding Payments By Health Insurance Carriers To Providers
As enacted, this law:
- Provides that a health insurance carrier may file notice of a proposed amendment to a calendar year provider agreement only 4 times per year on January 1st, April 1st, July 1st and October 1st, except for changes in response to a requirement of the State or Federal Government or due to a change in current procedural terminology codes used by the American Medical Association,
- Requires a health insurance carrier in certain cases to include an estimate of any adverse financial impact on participating providers as part of a notice of an amendment to a provider agreement if the change is to a reimbursement policy,
- Requires a health insurance carrier to provide to the participating provider both a clean and a marked-up copy of the provider agreement, manual, policy or procedure document being changed; and
- Restricts the authority of a health insurance carrier in certain cases to retroactively deny a previously paid claim to no later than 36 months from the date of the claims payment.
LD 1498 - An Act To Create A Liaison Program And Complaint Process Within The Bureau Of Insurance For Independent Health Care Providers
As enacted, this law requires the Bureau of Insurance to establish a liaison program to assist independent health care providers and to establish a process to receive and investigate provider complaints. The law limits the scope of certain services to be provided by the bureau to an independent health care practitioner or group of independent health care practitioners with 6 or fewer health care practitioners and does not include a health care practitioner or group of health care practitioners that is owned or operated, in whole or in part, by a hospital or health system.
Under the liaison program, the law requires the bureau to assist independent health care providers in obtaining information about health insurance laws and rules and to receive concerns regarding regulatory or compliance issues that may have a market-wide impact.
The law also requires the bureau to establish a process to receive and investigate complaints from independent health care providers regarding an alleged violation of any insurance law or rule and also authorizes the bureau to receive and investigate complaints from other providers. The law makes clear that the bureau is not authorized to act as a legal representative of a provider or to provide assistance with contract negotiations or interpretations of the terms of contracts between providers and carriers in any manner through the liaison program or complaint process.
LD 1740 – An Act To Protect A Patient's Access To Affordable Health Care With Timely Access To Health Care Prices
As enacted, this law essentially attempts to incorporate federal provisions into state law.
- Part A, upon request of an uninsured or self-pay patient, requires health care entities to provide a good faith estimate of the cost of medical services to be rendered directly by that health care entity during a single medical encounter.
- Part B requires that hospitals comply with the price transparency requirements established in 45 Code of Federal Regulations, Part 180, Subparts A and B as in effect on January 1, 2024; as well as requires a hospital to provide price transparency data in a standardized format as established by rule by the Maine Health Data Organization.
LD 1896 - Resolve, Directing The Workers' Compensation Board To Analyze Data On The Adequacy Of Certain Maine Workers' Compensation Benefits
As enacted, this law replaces the bill with a resolve directing the Workers' Compensation Board to collect data from insurers, third-party administrators, group self-insurers and self-insured employers and to analyze that data to make recommendations to the Labor Committee on the adequacy of workers' compensation benefits to claimants under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 39-A, sections 212, 213 and 215. It also requires the board to provide monthly updates to the Labor Committee and submit a final report no later than August 16, 2025.
LD 2055 - An Act To Delay Implementation Of Electronic Visit Verification For Hospice Providers Within The MaineCare Program
As enacted, this law replaces the bill and changes the title. It makes rules regarding electronic visit verification for providers offering hospice services under the MaineCare program major substantive rules, prohibits DHHS from implementing electronic visit verification earlier than March 1, 2025 and directs the department by February 1, 2025 to report to the HHS Committee on efforts to combat fraud, waste and abuse in the delivery of hospice services, to include in the report information on federal initiatives that include Medicaid hospice providers and to make recommendations regarding the application of electronic visit verification to hospice services under the MaineCare program.
LD 2115 - An Act To Prohibit Unfair Practices Related To The Collection Of Medical Debt
As enacted, the law does prohibits “debt collectors” from, 1) charging any interest on debt or fees in connection with the collection of debt that the debt collector knows is medical debt, 2) pursuing litigation to compel payment of medical debt without providing proof that the consumer was sent a written notice; and 3) making false, deceptive or misleading representations when attempting to collect debt.
LD 2126 – An Act Relating To Delegation Of Nursing Activities And Tasks To Unlicensed Assistive Personnel By Registered Professional Nurses
This law authorizes the delegation of specific nursing activities and tasks by a nurse to unlicensed assistive personnel, but preserves the authority of a nurse, in the exercise of the nurse's professional judgment, to refuse to delegate specific nursing activities and tasks in any care setting. The law also specifies that the authorization to delegate may not be construed to require a nurse to delegate, or permit a person to coerce a nurse into delegating, specific nursing activities and tasks against the nurse's professional judgment. The law defines "unlicensed assistive personnel" and requires the State Board of Nursing to adopt major substantive rules concerning delegation.
LD 2140 - An Act To Enact The Interstate Social Work Licensure Compact
This law enacts the Social Work Licensure Compact to facilitate the interstate practice of regulated social workers by improving public access to competent social work services. The compact preserves the regulatory authority of a state to protect public health and safety through that state's current system of state licensure and promote mobility and address workforce shortages by eliminating the necessity for licenses in multiple states by providing for the mutual recognition of other member state licenses. The changes made to the compact by the law are technical in nature, and the law specifies that it is the intent of the Legislature that this compact be interpreted as substantively the same as the Social Work Licensure Compact that is enacted by other member states.
LD 2153 – An Act To Clarify MaineCare Copayments
This law amends the laws authorizing MaineCare member copayments. It removes references to certain service categories subject to copayments, prohibits copayments for community-based behavioral health and primary care services, clarifies the list of service categories subject to copayments and provides the Department of Health and Human Services authority to set copayment amounts.
LD 2184 - Resolve, Regarding Legislative Review of Chapter 9: Rules Governing Administrative Civil Money Penalties for Labor Law Violations, a Major Substantive Rule of the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Standards
That final adoption of Chapter 9: Rules Governing Administrative Civil Money Penalties for Labor Law Violations, a provisionally adopted major substantive rule of the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Standards that has been submitted to the Legislature for review pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2 A, is authorized.
LD 2214 - An Act to Make Supplemental Appropriations and Allocations for the Expenditures of State Government, General Fund and Other Funds and to Change Certain Provisions of the Law Necessary to the Proper Operations of State Government for the Fiscal Years Ending June 30, 2024 and June 30, 2025
The supplemental budget addressed several items of interest for the healthcare industry, including:
- Sales Tax Exemption. All non-profits now get a sales-tax exemption,
- FMLA. Budget doubles the budget for the administration of the new state-mandated paid FMLA program from 5% to 10% of the total revenue generated by the new 1% payroll tax,
- One-time Funding for Establishment of FQHC-related Pharmacies,
- One-time Funding for HealthInfoNet;
- Kennebec County SUD Treatment Facility Funding,
- Transfer to MaineCare Stabilization of $30M,
- Veteran’s Homes Funding; and
- LD 2237 (Speaker’s Response to Lewiston Shooting)
LD 2271 – An Act To Implement The Recommendations Of The Task Force To Evaluate The Impact Of Facility Fees On Patients To Improve Facility Fee Transparency And Notification
The law requires a health care entity to post notice in a location readily accessible to patients, including patient waiting areas, and on the entity’s publicly accessible website if the health care entity is a hospital-based facility that is part of a hospital or health system and whether a facility fee will be charged for receiving services. The law also requires the Maine Health Data Organization to post information on its publicly accessible website relating to facility fees to educate the public about what facility fees are and the circumstances when facility fees may or may not be charged in association with the delivery of health care services.
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