(MURFREESBORO) State Senator Shane Reeves gives an update on last week's activities in the Tennessee General Assembly. By the way, the Rutherford County delegation will be on WGNS next Friday (2/28/2020), and you can phone questions to 615-893-1450. The broadcast is from 8:10 to 9:00AM.

Senator Reeves said, "It was a short, but busy week on Capitol Hill as we returned from observing the President's Day holiday to act on a wide variety of bills.

This week, I presented SB1888 and it was approved by the Health & Welfare Committee. This bill creates parity for hospitals which provide charity care to patients on a sliding scale. It redefines charity care to align it with Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations so hospitals with sliding scale policies are fully recognized when calculating supplemental payments. Sliding scale charity care discounts help limit financial exposure for lower income individuals who are uninsured or under-insured. The legislation is supported by the Tennessee Hospital Association.

On Wednesday, the TN Department of Environment and Conservation presented its budget to the Senate Energy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. They mentioned that due to TN's high air quality scores, we are on track to move forward in the removal of the emissions testing requirement hopefully sometime this year. I will update more as this process moves along.

I was fortunate to meet with members from the 14th District, including the Murfreesboro Fire Department, RHA Health, Tennesseans for Quality Early Education, the American Cancer Society, and the Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year.

Again, the Rutherford County delegation of state senators and representatives will be on WGNS next Friday morning to interact with the public.