HJBR Jul/Aug 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JUL / AUG 2024 45 of our cultural heritage and what drives millions of tourists here from around the world. We know that foreign seafood con- tains high doses of antibiotics to kill the in- fectious waters that the seafood is harvested in. Antibiotic resistance is a genuine health concern that will limit our ability to counter bacterial infections. Safe seafood, limiting our exposure to toxins and excessive antibi- otics, is something that the federal govern- ment is not taking care of, so the Louisiana legislature stepped up its game this year. It took a tremendous amount of work to get the commercial fishermen, seafood proces- sors, restaurants, and all the government agencies on the same page. In the end, com- promise prevailed, and we will have a mod- el seafood safety program for other states to copy. As a chairman, I have high expectations that people will be honest and come forth with solutions to genuine healthcare prob- lems and not create problems in search of a solution. As a father of four young chil- dren, I want Louisiana to be a healthy place to live and a place that values its health- care providers. If you check your egos and self-preservation at the door and work collectively for the greater good, then we all benefit. I think if we could all focus on that, then it might not have to be the Com- mittee on Health and Warfare after all. n Sen.PatrickMcMath serves as chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, focusing on patient advocacy, child welfare, and public safety. In addition to his work in the Senate, he is an active volunteer in St.Tammany,serving with several local organizations. McMath holds a bachelor’s degree in political science fromLouisiana State University and a law degree from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. marijuana available to patients in Louisi- ana. From 2016 through this just-concluded 2024 session, there have been more than 20 newmedical marijuana laws enacted. I think that shows a change in attitude by legisla- tors over the years and the fact that the pro- gram is rapidly evolving. For me, this year it was important to take the universities, LSU and Southern, out of the marijuana cultiva- tion business. I understand why they were put there several years ago as a compromise to get the program on its feet, but that time has passed and this was a much-needed ad- vancement in the program. SB 219 (ACT 149) is the result of the BCBS hearing. I filed this bill to specifically address many of the problems identified during the BCBS oversight hearing. For oversight to be meaningful, once we identify bad public policy practices, we have to enact good laws to change things. The law is now clear that the mutual insurer’s reorganization plan has to disclose whether it is being pursued in conjunction with a proposed acquisition, the commissioner of insurance must do an independent financial and market review analysis and publish it prior to the public hearing, voting ballots cannot be distributed to qualified voters before the public hearing, and the commissioner must approve all ad- vertisements of the sale to ensure that the information is not false, deceptive, or mis- leading. Finally, there were a series of seafood safety bills that came through the Health and Welfare Committee this year that I was very supportive of. The safety of our sea- food is critical not only to our families and the financial viability of our local commer- cial fisheries industry, but also to the core Senator Patrick McMath Chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee of restraining a physician from practicing when their employment is terminated has been debated at the legislature for nearly a decade and has rarely even made it out of its originating committee. I knew this would be a heavy lift, but I also heard directly from physicians who were leaving the state be- cause they were precluded from practicing medicine as a condition of a non-compete employment contract. We need to do ev- erything we can to keep physicians in this state. This bill pitted physicians, hospitals, provider groups, and healthcare attorneys against each other, and it was only through much collaboration and compromise by all parties that we passed a bill that allows for reasonable prohibitions. Another bill that I think will make an impact on this state is HB 579 (ACT 711) by Rep. McMahen. Louisiana has some of the highest rates of HIV in this country, and this bill allows pharmacists to dispense HIV pre- exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis. From my perspective, it is good healthcare policy to provide additional access to life- saving medicine to someone who may have contracted HIV. As is unfortunately the case, the bill quickly turned into a scope of practice fight with physicians. Ultimately, we were able to pass a final bill that gave the pharmacists authorization to dispense up to a 30-day supply of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and a 28-day course of HIV post-exposure prophylaxis to any person over the age of 17 without a prescription. SB 228 (ACT 150) is my medical mari- juana bill. Access to medical marijuana in Louisiana dates back to 1978. From 1978 through 2015, a span of 37 years, there were three pieces of law enacted to make medical