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House: death stats and ambulance fees

The House voted on a dozen bills in its first hour of crossover week.

Speaker Joe Hackney called for a recess at 6 p.m. so a heavy volume of committee reports could be read into the record. Bills voted on before the recess covered a range of subjects. Here are some highlights of bills that cleared the House.

HB 266: Requires the state to collect and publish statistics on how many people are killed after run-ins with law-enforcement.

The bill adds to the duties of the state Division of Criminal Statistics, part of the Justice Department. The division would have to collect statistics about the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers.

HB 439: Requires the State Health Plan to pay for ambulance services run by cities or counties.

HB 672: Requires more transparency for mental health providers. The bill requires certain local management entities to report twice a year on how they are spending money. The entity must also hold a public hearing once a year.

Health Plan narrowly passes key vote

The State Health Plan bill squeaked through the House appropriation's committee on Wednesday.

The narrow margin 44 to 40 suggested to House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman that he may have some more work to do before he puts the bill up to a vote on the House floor next week.

"I think there's a lot of concern about state employees," said Holliman, a Lexington Democrat. "We're working to make this bill as good as we can."

The plan is facing a shortfall this year of $250 million and in addition to setting premiums and establishing coverage for state employees and their dependents, the bill would keep the plan solvent this year.

For next year, the bill would increase premiums for spouses and children of state employees by 10 percent each year. That increase grew after lawmakers added some $54 million in costs over two years to move the plan to a calendar year and voted to cover chiropractic services and physical, occupation and speech therapy at the same level as primary care.

More after the jump.

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