Legislative Reports

The Second Regular Session of Arizona's 56th Legislature commenced on Monday, January 8, 2024. The Arizona Medical Association and our allies hoped for a 100-day session earmarked by productive bipartisanship. Unfortunately, the 2024 Legislative Session fell short of this goal. Despite political dynamics, however, ArMA worked harder than ever to secure notable successes for physicians and the broader healthcare community.

The First Regular Session of Arizona's 56th State Legislature commenced on Monday, January 9, 2023. Quickly, it became evident that this year's session would be profoundly unique and, as it turns out, historic. For the first time in nearly two decades, Arizona's Republican-controlled legislature sent bills to the desk of a Democratic head-of-state, a dynamic that significantly shaped the session's outcome.

On January 10, 2022, the 55th Arizona Legislature's Second Regular Session convened, determined to return to a sense of normalcy after enduring two years of instability and unpredictability brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. All meetings were held in person, and remote participation was no longer an option, even for those who requested it. ArMA's advocacy team, in tandem with the Legislative and Governmental Affairs (L&G) Committee, achieved many remarkable victories during this year's legislative session.

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As the 55th Arizona Legislature began, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and with Governor Doug Ducey giving the annual State of the State address virtually from his office, it was clear that this session would be one for the history books.

To say that the 2020 Legislative Session was an unusual one would be an understatement. The ArMA advocacy team, working at the direction of the Legislative and Government Affairs Committee, was enjoying a successful session. Multiple scope of practice expansion efforts had been stopped, including a bill creating a new class of licensure for "Assistant Physicians." Anti-vaccination legislation had stalled, in addition to stopping bad bills, excellent ArMA-supported legislation was moving out of both the House and Senate. The advocacy team was working on final passage of important legislation on issues ranging from prior authorization reform, to non-retaliation protection for physicians, to opioid prescribing, and the momentum was extremely strong. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic struck.

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The 54th Legislature — 2nd Regular Session was 135 days of history making. From a protracted budget struggle to the first case of measles in Arizona since 2016, this session once again demonstrated the importance of physician input in the healthcare policy and political process.

The 53rd — 2nd Regular Session was one for the history books. Not in the sense of hitting any statistical milestones, but for its dramatic start (a special session on opioids), internal turmoil (sexual harassment investigation and ultimate expulsion of a member), and forced-spending finish (the #RedforEd teacher walkout). Download the full report using the button below.

The 122-day legislative session of 2017 was full of complex, multi-faceted and contentious issues for physicians and the practice of medicine. In today's changing world of health care delivery this is the new normal and physician engagement is crucial. It is vitally important that physician input be at the forefront when evaluating health care policy. ArMA and our member physicians represented physicians and patients vigorously throughout the 2017 session. Download the full report using the button below.

From an advocacy perspective, the best measure of a state medical association's effectiveness is how well it handles political adversity in general, and specifically, how effectively it responds to threats against and opportunities to enhance the practice of medicine. Using that litmus test, the 2016 legislative session was one in which Arizona Medical Association (ArMA) resoundingly demonstrated that it is a highly effective advocate for Arizona physicians. The ArMA policy team and your voice at the Capitol worked hard to promote and educate about bills that would advance and enhance medical practice. While it is an honor to promote this kind of legislation, what we often find is that we are called upon to protect patient and physician interests by defeating legislation that would threaten patient safety or limit a physician's ability to practice medicine. ArMA did so most notably this year by successfully thwarting an extremely serious medical threat to expand the scope of practice for advanced practice registered nurses (APRN), an effort led by national and state nurses' groups. Download the full report using the button below.

The shortest regular session in modern state history – a mere 81 days – is the way many will remember the first session of Governor Doug Ducey's administration; but ArMA will also take pride in stating that, as far as results are concerned, it was another outstanding one for Arizona's physicians and their patients. ArMA was hugely successful in this session in terms of advancing much-needed legislation and staving off bills that would hurt physicians and patients. While in global terms the Republican-controlled Legislature cannot be considered "pro-health care," from a policy standpoint, no serious efforts were made to undo the AHCCCS expansion proposal enacted in 2013 (there is, however, at the time of this writing, an Arizona Supreme Court case pending that could jeopardize it). On the positive side of the ledger, we helped shepherd through the process two vital bills to help eliminate the licensing backlog and restore proper function at the Arizona Medical Board (AMB). Download the full report using the button below.