Governor Reynolds has signed 21 bills into law this week, including a bill that requires restoration of farm ground in areas where utility companies are installing power lines.
Representative Shannon Latham of Sheffield said the law protects rural landowners in areas where large scale, high voltage transmission lines are being installed. “It requires certain agland restoration following the construction of these electirc transition lines, including repairing tile, removing rock that’s large from the easement area, tilling deep to alleviate soil compaction and using best practices in wet conditions,” Latham said.
The law is written to go into effect retroactively, so it applies to a transmission line project that started two years ago. The electric grid operator for the Midwest is projected to spend $22 billion to extend high-voltage power lines through nine Midwest states, including Iowa.
A new state law that goes into effect July 1 of this year will require health insurance companies to cover referrals made by a doctor who’s not on the company’s list of network physicians. Representative Austin Baeth of Des Moines, who’s a doctor, said it’s in response to the growing number of “direct primary care” plans in the U.S. and Iowa where people pay a monthly fee. “Like a subscription service with a primary care doctor who’s basically available by phone or to go in essentially unannounced without going through your insurance company,” Baeth said. “These direct primary care providers are actually able to see more patients because there is less busy work involved submitting insurance referrals.”
Baeth said the bill addresses the problem when one of these general practice doctors determines a patient needs something like an MRI or to see a specialist and the patient’s traditional insurance won’t pay for the referral. “We heard from a physician, a direct primary care provider who thought her patient had a blood clot in her leg and she needed an ultrasound to rule that blood clot out, but the insurance company denied that because that provider was not considered in-network,” Baeth said, “so that patient wound up having to go to the emergency department, incurring greater costs to the patient and, in the end, greater costs to the insurance company.” The bill passed the House and Senate unanimously.
Another bill approved by the governor this week creates an Iowa-Ireland Trade Commission. The group will meet quarterly and the law assigns the commission specific tasks. “Promote the advancement of bilateral trade and investment between Iowa and Ireland, recommend joint action on policy issues of mutual interest, promote business and academic exchanges,” Senator Jason Schultz of Schleswig said.
Four legislators will serve on the commission, along with three Iowans from the private sector and a representative of the Iowa Economic Development Authority. According to the latest data from the Federal Reserve, Iowa exported about $22 million dollars’ worth of goods to Ireland in 2022. About 13% of Iowans claim Irish heritage, about four points higher than the national average.
Some other bills you’ve heard about on Radio Iowa earlier this year were signed into law this week. One establishes state regulations for professional and amateur kickboxing matches. Another makes it a crime to falsely claim academic credentials when applying for a job in Iowa.