Week 12 was a continuation of primarily debating bills that were sent over from the senate.

On Thursday, Gov. Reynolds held a signing ceremony in the Capitol rotunda for two very important bills, House File 2456, the Mental Health bill, and Senate File 2113, a teen suicide prevention bill. Improving our mental healthcare system continues to be a top priority for many Iowans. Legislators in both chambers worked closely with families and individuals who have experienced mental health crises and with mental health professionals and law enforcement to craft this comprehensive bill that will support those dealing with mental illness by closing gaps in the system. This will strengthen Iowa’s regional mental health system and ensure that patients can access services closer to their communities. The Mental Health bill includes provisions for establishing access centers around the state for those entering the system, and it provides for private transportation of mental health patients instead of tasking law enforcement, among many other provisions. The Teen Suicide Prevention bill requires school employees to be trained on recognizing potential suicide victims and how to deal with them, and on identifying adverse childhood experiences amongst the students. This bill is one of many passed this year that will help prevent violence and tragedy in our schools.

Recently US News and World Report rated Iowa #1 in the nation. This past week more stories emerged highlighting the positives occurring in Iowa, this time in our education system. This week’s news is related to teacher pay in Iowa. A report from NPR, in collaboration with a nonprofit called EdBuild, took a look at teacher pay across the country and how it compares when adjusted for cost-of-living in each state. What it found is that Iowa ranks eighth in the country at $60,868 when adjusted. And this is only $69 behind the sixth-place state. Simply using the dollar value, Iowa’s teacher pay ranks 23rd. But with the cost of living adjustment, Iowa ranks easily in the top 10. Another positive story came out of KCRG in Cedar Rapids. They looked into the claim that school funding increases in Iowa have not kept up with inflation and found that to be untrue. Looking at the per pupil amount in the state funding formula, they used the $5,883 per pupil number in 2011 and determined that using only inflation, the number this year would be $6,539. That’s $52 below the actual state cost per pupil established for FY17, which was $6,591. Since that time, the legislature has increased the per pupil amount to $6,731 for the FY19 school year.

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy will be launching an improved Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) on April 4. The PMP is a means of recording and tracking prescriptions to prevent “doctor shopping” in order to obtain more of a drug than would normally be prescribed. This is a major factor in the Opiod abuse epidemic. AWARxE was selected as the winning response to competitive bidding process for an updated PMP system. This new program will allow prescribers to have an easier way to find timely information on preventing patient misuse and abuse of opioids and other drugs. The board also recently announced that effective May 16 dispensers will be required to report to the PMP no later than the next business day following dispensing the prescription. The change in reporting frequency will provide health care providers with more timely information when utilizing the PMP in their prescribing.

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State Rep. Dean Fisher can be reached at 641-750-3594 or via email at dean.fisher@legis.iowa.gov