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JEFFERSON CITY - I had a busy week presenting my legislation to the various Senate Committees. When a bill is proposed in either the House or the Senate, it is assigned to a committee, based upon its subject matter, where a public hearing is conducted. Any citizen who is interested in a particular piece of legislation is encouraged to attend these public hearings to testify before the committee either in support or opposition of the bill. My office can give you the time and location or all hearing schedules are available on the Senate homepage -- www.senate.state.mo.us.

Once a hearing has been conducted and testimony has been heard, the committee has the option to make changes to the bill. If the committee votes the bill "Do Pass," the legislation moves before the entire Senate for its consideration. There is always the possibly that a bill will not make it out of committee, therefore no further action will be taken on that piece of legislation.

I presented my "Family Tax Relief Plan for 1998" (SB 491) to the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. This legislation has three provisions. Part 1 calls for pension equality for all pensioners. Currently, private pensioners are not allowed the same state income tax allowances that federal and state employees receive. However, under this bill, the first $6,000 of passive investment income to be exempt from the state income tax for all pensioners age 65 and older.

Part 2 extends the current FICA tax deduction to all income taxpayers not just the individuals who itemize their state income tax return. This will prevent double taxation, in other words, having to pay state taxes on a federal tax. Under part 3, the dependency exemption deduction would be increased from $400 to $1,200. This tax reduction package should return approximately $240 million to Missouri citizens.

I believe my "Family Tax Relief Plan for 1998" received a favorable response. The American Association of Retired Persons, (AARP) had a representative at the hearing who testified in favor of the bill.

On Wednesday, I presented another bill, SB 569, to the Senate Insurance and Housing Committee. This act calls for the Missouri Department of Insurance to create a standardized explanation of benefits (EOB) form. When your physician or health care provider submits a claim to an insurance company, he/she is required to use a standardized form – HCFA 1500. However, when the insurance company replies to your physician or health care provider regarding the claim, each company uses its own EOB form. As an example, one particular insurance company uses a different EOB form for each region. This creates a nightmare for patients and providers when trying to figure out exactly what the insurance company covered. With no two forms alike, it takes a great amount of time to learn the different EOBs with an end result of the expense being passed on to the patient.

As a physician, I am faced with this dilemma on a daily basis. For this reason I asked my medical nurse, Joyce Thullesen, to appear before the committee and present a number of different EOBs and the various information -- and often times, the lack of information -- that is included. The Missouri Hospital Association and the AARP testified in support of this measure. The AARP representative told the committee, "This requirement would make it simpler for the prospective buyer (the patient)." I wholeheartedly agree with this.

As I suspected, the insurance companies are opposed to this legislation. I hope that local medical personnel who deal with EOBs will express their support of this bill.

"Working for the 32nd District"