Maryland

New Maryland health care laws | Maryland Daily Record

Published

1 year ago

June 27, 2023

New Maryland health care laws | Maryland Daily Record

The Maryland General Assembly’s 2023 legislative session resulted in the enactment of many health care laws that will impact health care facilities, providers, insurers and licensees in the state. Here are some of the highlights.

Cannabis reform

The Cannabis Reform bill will impact all medical cannabis licensees (growers, processors, and dispensaries). Notably, all medical cannabis licensees, including approved and preapproved licenses, will be required to convert their medical cannabis licenses to medical and adult-use cannabis licenses by July 1, 2023.

Unconverted license holders are not permitted to operate or renew licenses after the July 1 deadline.

The newly established cannabis division must issue regulations concerning annual license renewal fees not to exceed 10% of the licensee’s annual gross revenue, impose a sales and use tax of 9%, and outline new ownership restrictions for all license holders.

Telehealth

The Preserve Telehealth Access Act of 2023 extends the inclusion of certain audio-only conversations between providers and patients to be defined as “telehealth” for the purposes of reimbursement for telehealth services as if the health care appointment occurred in-person through June 30, 2025. This extension impacts both Medicaid and commercial health insurance providers.

The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) must also conduct a study regarding telehealth services and make recommendations regarding payment parity to the Maryland General Assembly by Dec. 1, 2024.

Prescription drug affordability

An emergency bill reestablished the Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) and reinstated its authority to draft an action plan for setting upper payment limits on certain prescription drugs. Qualified prescription drugs for consideration of an upper payment limit must be products that either have or will lead to an affordability challenge. If an upper payment limit is set for a prescription drug product, then the PDAB must monitor that drug’s availability. Should a shortage occur, the board may suspend or alter the upper payment limits.

Additionally, the Maryland Department of Health and PDAB must conduct a study and report their findings to the Maryland General Assembly by October 31, 2023, describing how much Managed Care Organizations paid for prescription drugs in 2021 and 2022, and what that amount would have been if claims had been reimbursed at Medicaid fee-for-service rates. The study must also address the inconsistencies in the cost of a drug versus the fee for dispensing it.

Assisted living

A bill was enacted to hold unlicensed assisted living programs accountable for reported abuse, exploitation and neglect of the residents. If a credible allegation is received concerning a facility operating without a license and that a resident has been harmed, the state health department has authority to investigate and immediately prosecute.

Long-term care

Upon receipt of the notice of acquisition of a nursing home, the MHCC must provide findings and recommendations to the Office of Health Care Quality that the secretary of health must consider prior to taking any action related to the facility’s license.

Additionally, to avoid the certificate of need requirements often imposed upon certain health care facility projects, a written notice of intent to acquire a nursing home must be filed with the MHCC 30 days before making a contractual commitment to acquire a nursing home.

Hospitals

Certain patients who were qualified for free care but paid hospital fees between 2017 and 2021 are eligible for reimbursement of those out-of-pocket costs. The Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) must establish a review and refund process.

This new authorization also permits the HSCRC to impose a fine of $50,000 for each violation or instance a hospital fails to issue a refund under the Maryland Consumer Protection Act.

Health occupations

A “clinical nurse specialist” is now authorized to prescribe certain drugs and medical equipment.

Registered nurses certified as nurse-midwives and licensed certified midwives are also granted new prescription authority permitting them to prepare and dispense starter doses of certain drugs under specific circumstances related to midwifery.

Licensed athletic trainers may be authorized by the State Board of Physicians to perform dry needling after a certain number of hours of instruction, meeting a continuing education requirement and receiving hours of instruction under a licensed health care practitioner.

A new authorization for the State Board of Chiropractic Examiners to take disciplinary action independently without judicial review against chiropractors will take effect Oct. 1, 2023.

Barry F. Rosen is the chairman & CEO of the law firm of Gordon Feinblatt LLC, heads the firm’s health care practice group, and can be reached at 410-576-4224 or [email protected] K. Eva Kessler is the research services administrator at Gordon Feinblatt LLC, and can be reached at 410-576-4251 or [email protected]

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Maryland

The Biggest Cities and Areas in Maryland (Population) – The MoCo Show

Published

3 hours ago

June 29, 2024

Press Room

Maryland

Published June 29, 2024 at 9:50PM

According to the 2020 census, Maryland’s population is 6,177,224, ranked 18th in the nation. Maryland’s population continues to grow by at least 7% each decade. It is the 22nd fast-growing state in the nation relative to its population. The “biggest” cities (incorporated) and areas (unincorporated), in terms of population, can be seen below:

CITIES (incorporated)
OVER 10,000 POPULATION

	1990 census	2000 census	2010 census	2020 census
Baltimore	736,014	651,154	620,961	585,708
Frederick	40,148	52,767	65,239	78,171
Rockville	44,830	47,388	61,209	67,117
Gaithersburg	39,676	52,613	59,933	69,657
Bowie	37,642	50,269	54,727	58,329
Hagerstown	35,306	36,687	39,662	43,527
Annapolis	33,195	35,838	38,394	40,812
College Park	23,714	24,657	30,413	34,740
Salisbury	20,592	23,743	30,343	33,050
Laurel	19,086	19,960	25,115	30,060
Greenbelt	20,561	21,456	23,068	24,921
Cumberland	23,712	21,518	20,859	19,076
Westminster	13,060	16,731	18,590	20,126
Hyattsville	13,864	14,733	17,557	21,187
Takoma Park	16,724	17,299	16,715	17,629
Easton	9,372	11,708	15,945	17,101
Elkton	9,073	11,893	15,443	15,807
Aberdeen	13,087	13,842	14,959	16,254
Havre de Grace	8,952	11,331	12,952	14,807
Cambridge	11,514	10,911	12,326	13,096
New Carrollton	12,002	12,589	12,135	13,715

Source: Quick Facts, U.S. Census Bureau, as of April 1, 2020.

AREAS (unincorporated)
OVER 20,000 POPULATION

	1990 census	2000 census	2010 census	2020 census
Columbia	75,883	88,254	99,615	104,681
Germantown	41,145	55,419	86,395	91,249
Silver Spring	76,046	76,540	71,452	81,015
Waldorf	15,058	22,312	67,752	81,410
Glen Burnie	37,305	38,922	67,639	72,891
Ellicott City	41,396	56,397	65,834	75,947
Dundalk	65,800	62,306	63,597	67,796
Wheaton-Glenmont	53,720	57,694	61,813	68,860
Bethesda	62,936	55,277	60,858	68,056
Towson	49,445	51,793	55,197	59,553
Aspen Hill	45,494	50,228	48,759	51,063
Bel Air South	26,421	39,711	47,709	57,648
Potomac	45,634	44,822	44,965	47,018
Severn	24,499	35,076	44,231	57,118
North Bethesda	29,656	38,610	43,828	50,094
Catonsville	35,233	39,820	41,567	44,701
Essex	40,872	39,078	39,262	40,505
Woodlawn	32,907	36,079	37,879	40,469
Severna Park	25,879	28,507	37,634	39,933
Odenton	12,833	20,534	37,132	42,947
Clinton	19,987	26,064	35,970	38,760
Oxon Hill-Glassmanor	35,794	35,355	35,017	37,221
Olney	23,019	31,438	33,844	37,221
Chillum	31,309	34,252	33,513	36,039
Randallstown	26,277	30,870	32,430	33,655
Montgomery Village	32,315	38,051	32,032	34,893
Suitland-Silver Hill	35,111	33,515	31,775	32,220
Pikesville	24,815	29,123	30,764	34,168
Parkville	31,617	31,118	30,734	31,812
Owings Mills	9,474	20,193	30,622	35,674
Bel Air North	14,880	25,798	30,568	31,841
Eldersburg	9,720	27,741	30,531	32,582
Carney	25,578	28,264	29,941	29,363
Milford Mill	22,547	26,527	29,042	30,622
Perry Hall	22,723	28,705	28,474	29,409
Crofton	12,781	20,091	27,348	29,641
South Laurel	18,591	20,479	26,112	29,602
Reisterstown	19,314	22,438	25,968	26,822
Edgewood	23,903	23,378	25,562	25,713
Lochearn	25,240	25,269	25,333	25,511
Middle River	24,616	23,958	25,191	33,203
North Potomac	18,456	23,044	24,410	23,790
Scaggsville			24,333	9,217
Pasadena			24,287	32,979
Fort Washington	24,032	23,845	23,717	24,261
Fairland	19,828	21,738	23,681	25,396
Ilchester			23,476	26,824
Arnold	20,261	23,422	23,106	24,064
Landover*		22,900	23,078	25,998
Cockeysville			20,776	24,184
Arbutus	19,750	20,116	20,483	21,655
White Oak	18,671	20,973	17,403	16,347
Elkridge	12,953	22,042	15,593	25,171
North Laurel	15,008	20,468	4,474	25,379
St. Charles**	28,717	33,379
South Gate***	27,564	28,672

*(defined in 2000)
**(included with Waldorf for 2010 Census and beyond)
***(included with Glen Burnie for 2010 Census and beyond)
Source: Quick Facts, U.S. Census Bureau, as of April 1, 2020.

Featured photo shows the city of Baltimore, by @DronifyDMV. Information courtesy of Maryland.gov

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Maryland

Maryland Collected Nearly $15 Million In Marijuana Sales Tax Revenue For First Quarter Of 2024

Published

10 hours ago

June 29, 2024

Press Room

Maryland Collected Nearly $15 Million In Marijuana Sales Tax Revenue For First Quarter Of 2024

“The growing cannabis industry holds immense potential for economic growth for Maryland.”

By Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters

Cannabis taxes paid to the state of Maryland for the first three months of 2024 grew by less than 1 percent even as collections fluctuated sharply on a regional basis.

Maryland collected nearly $14.7 million in taxes on sales of recreational cannabis in the first quarter of this year, an increase of less than 0.7 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the Office of the Comptroller. The data released Wednesday is just the third quarterly report since July 1, 2023, when Maryland residents 21 and older could legally purchase cannabis for recreational use.

“The growing cannabis industry holds immense potential for economic growth for Maryland.” Comptroller Brooke Lierman said in a statement. “Reinvesting the revenue from adult-use cannabis sales into communities that were damaged by misguided policies allows us to further create a more equitable, resilient, and prosperous future for all Marylanders.”

Maryland imposes a 9 percent sales tax on recreational cannabis products. There is no sales tax on medical purchases.

The Maryland Cannabis Administration divides the state into five regions—Capital, Central, Eastern, Southern and Western.

Currently, there are 96 dispensaries spread across the state’s 23 counties and Baltimore City. A comptroller’s spokesperson declined to release county-by-county tax collection data Thursday, saying that doing so could potentially lead to the identification of individual businesses and violate tax privacy laws.

Tax collections in some regions have fluctuated over the first nine months of recreational sales. Officials in the comptroller’s office and the cannabis administration could not immediately account for the variances.

The Capital Region, comprising the two most populous counties in Maryland—Montgomery and Prince George’s—accounted for more than $6.7 million in taxes, a 76 percent increase over the previous quarter. The amount represented 46 percent of all cannabis taxes collected in the first three months of the year, the first time the region has led the state in cannabis taxes remitted.

The $3.7 million remitted by shops in the Central Region, meanwhile, was a drop of nearly 44 percent from the previous quarter. The region comprises Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties.

In the Eastern Region, which includes nine Eastern Shore counties stretching from Cecil to Worcester, sales tax collection grew to nearly $1.6 million. That is 15 percent more than in the previous three months, and it marks the second consecutive quarter of increased collections for the region.

Sales tax collections in the Western Region grew by more than 29 percent quarter over quarter. It was also the second consecutive quarter of growth for that region, which includes Allegany, Garrett, Frederick and Washington counties.

The Southern Region remitted $618,218, a decrease of more than 40 percent over the last three months of 2023. The amount is also lower than the more than $760,000 collected in the first three months of legal recreational sales. The region includes Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties.

Taxes from the sales of recreational cannabis are divided among the counties, the state and the Maryland Cannabis Administration, which got nearly $2.8 million in this quarter. The rest of the money is divided between jurisdictions.

Areas disproportionately impacted by the enforcement of cannabis prohibition laws prior to last July receive 35 percent of the taxes collected each quarter, after the administration takes its cut. That fund will receive nearly $4.2 million from collections in the first quarter.

Five percent of the total tax collected in a quarter is earmarked for the state’s 24 major political subdivisions. This quarter the counties and Baltimore City will split more than $593,000. The split is based on the percentage of taxes collected by each jurisdiction. Those jurisdictions then share 50% of their respective cut with municipalities that have cannabis dispensaries that contributed to the sales and use tax collection.

Another 5 percent goes to a fund to help address health effects of recreational cannabis use.

A fund established to help small, minority-owned, and women-owned businesses enter the adult-use cannabis industry also receives 5 percent. That earmark continues through fiscal 2028.

The state receives the balance. More than $5.9 million in taxes collected in the first three months of the year will go directly to the general fund, according to the comptroller’s office.

This story was first published by Maryland Matters.

Maryland Governor Launches Marijuana Workforce Development Program Focused On People Criminalized Over Cannabis

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Maryland

Maryland weather: First Alert Days for the weekend

Published

17 hours ago

June 29, 2024

Press Room

Maryland weather: First Alert Days for the weekend

CBS News Baltimore

Live

BALTIMORE — A bumpy forecast is expected in Maryland for the weekend. A FIRST ALERT WEATHER DAY has been issued for both Saturday and Sunday due to potential storm threats.

Temperatures are muggy and warm and near averages this morning with the 70s in store for a few more hours. A few clouds will move in for the latter half of the day, but a lot of us will stay dry until the evening. An uptick in humidity by late afternoon as temperatures begin to climb. Showers and storms are expected to move in for the late afternoon and evening periods.

Highs for Saturday will be in the lower 90s today and very sticky.

A lot of the activity expected will be to the west of I-83.

Sunday will bring a likely round two of showers and storms to the region, but it is heavily dependent on cloud cover throughout the morning hours. Nonetheless a few showers are still looking likely. It will be even hotter for Sunday afternoon, giving us the right ingredients, but timing will have a big influence on things.

Our primary concerns are winds and heavy rain but tornadoes cannot be ruled out at this time.

Next week will be cooler and drier as we see the aftermath of the frontal system and high pressure moving through.

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