This week the Ohio House and Senate had their final legislative sessions until January, when the current legislative session will resume until the end of the 2024 calendar year.

This week:

• Prohibition against local communities banning flavored tobacco. The House voted this week to override a veto by Governor DeWine. The Senate has yet to act on the veto. An override would prohibit local governments from implementing their own flavored tobacco bans within their jurisdictional boundaries. Opponents of this override generally see the issue as a public health matter where some communities have passed bans, including Columbus. Proponents of an override frequently cite the challenges that businesses have complying across multiple jurisdictions who have a multitude of different regulations.

• HB 68 was passed and will be going to the Governor. This bill deals with gender transition services for adolescents. Physician groups, including the CMA, raised objections to the legislature inserting itself directly into the practice of medicine with absolute provisions around medications and treatments that would apply in all circumstances for all patients and leave no discretion for physicians regardless of their patients' circumstances. 

• SB 60’s committee hearing and potential vote was postponed. This bill is perhaps a well-intentioned attempt to increase the capacity of mental health services in the state by creating a new classification of provider, Certified Mental Health Assistant. There are concerns that the provisions of SB 60 would not adequately prepare the CMHA for the scope of practice it would authorize, or ensure protection of the patients CMHAs would be licensed to serve. Among other things, the bill would grant prescriptive authority – including the ability to prescribe controlled substances.

CMA members who have questions about these issues, or any other issues, should contact Lisa Oyer at the CMA, or the CMA's public policy consultant Malcolm Porter.