Last Thursday I managed HF 313, a bill that relates to testimony at an involuntary commitment hearing for substance abuse disorder or serious mental impairment.

This bill allows for an advanced registered nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant to testify at these hearings if they have witnessed the examination, reviewed the report, and the professional that had originally examined the individual is unable to attend the hearing.

This bill came to us from county attorneys. Some professionals that had examined the patient initially would not show up for the hearing, in which case the patient had to be released even though they may have been deemed a danger to themselves or others during the exam.

The bill passed unanimously.

Health and Human Services

The following bills concentrate on the medical training at our state public hospital and medical school. These bills aim to focus our taxpayer funded institutions on intentional efforts to grow the health care workforce for all of Iowa. The data shows that if you do your medical school training and your residency training in one state, you are far more likely to stay and practice in that state. Unfortunately, the University of Iowa’s retention of physician workforce in Iowa is not providing results for the entire state, and these bills aim to make improvements while continuing the exceptional medical training received at UIHC.

• Prioritizing Iowans, Rural Rotation — HF301 codifies requirements that were placed into session law in 2019 in House File 532. Additionally, it adds fellowships to the requirement that UIHC prioritize Iowans.

• Requires medical residencies at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinic to give priority to applicants that have an Iowa connection (resident of Iowa, went to undergrad in Iowa, or medical school in Iowa).

• Requires primary care residencies (family medicine, OB, psych, and internal medicine) at UIHC to provide the opportunity to participate in a rural rotation to expose those medical residents to rural areas of Iowa.

• UIHC Medical Residencies — HF379 requires the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics to offer an interview for the medical residencies of some of the most-needed specialties in Iowa to those with an Iowa connection.

Three-year Medical School Study — HF386 requires the University of Iowa and Des Moines University to study the feasibility of transitioning their medical schools to three-year programs. This would probably apply to family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics.

In-State Training — HF137 requires the University of Iowa medical school and dental school to have at least 80 percent of their students be residents of Iowa. This bill also requires an annual report by UI regarding the same schools and UIHC medical residencies demographic information.

Additionally, this week the House held a subcommittee on House Study Bill 191 from the governor’s office to address health care in Iowa. The governor is proposing the following this year:

• Investing $642,000 into newly unbundled Medicaid maternal rates.

• Working with CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) to implement a funding model to provide more Medicaid rate flexibility and incentivize creative regional partnerships.

• Consolidating and more than doubling funding for our healthcare student loan repayment programs.

• Establishing a Medicaid Graduate Medical Education (GME) enhanced payment to draw down over $150 million in federal dollars for more residency slots in Iowa’s 14 teaching hospitals.

• Streamlining the approval process for certificates of need to build new health care facilities or enhance current ones.

• Improving the Health Information Exchange network by authorizing HHS to competitively procure and manage it.

Commerce

While I do not sit on the Commerce committee, this is a bill that is very important to health care.

House File 303 is one of many bills in the Iowa House this session aimed at improving access to quality healthcare in Iowa. It does this by addressing prior authorizations by insurance companies.

Prior authorization is a practice that requires insurance companies to approve a medical procedure or medication before it can be given to the patient. The goal of this practice is to control costs, but it can often result in delays in getting the patient the care they need. This bill aims to improve access to quality care in a number of ways:

1. Insurance companies must respond to a request for prior authorization from a health care provider in 48 hours if it is an urgent request. A nonurgent request must be responded to in 10 days. The bill does allow 15 days to respond if it is a nonurgent request and a complex/unique situation or when experiencing a high volume of requests.

2. Insurance companies must review all health care services that require prior authorization every year and eliminate those that don’t promote health care quality or reduce health care spending.

3. Health insurers must implement a pilot program that exempts a subset of providers from certain prior authorizations. They then must submit a report on their pilot program to the Insurance Division by Jan. 15, 2026.

This bill will speed up Iowans’ access to the care they need and lower the administrative burden on health care providers, allowing them to spend more time with patients. It’s been very busy with committee work as we move closer to the first funnel. While all bills do not make it across the finish line, I’m excited about the work we’ve been doing to improve access to health care.

State Rep. Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge, represents Fort Dodge and eastern Webster County.