by Jeremy Pittari, Magnolia Tribune
Mississippi Capitol (Photo: Sarah Ulmer/Magnolia Tribune)
The Mississippi Senate Insurance Committee is preparing for the potential introduction of several bills as the 2027 legislative session nears.
Two days of hearings this week covered topics such as vision plans, distracted driving, ambulance services, and how insurance companies pay claims.
Distracted Driving
For more than a decade, smartphone use has increased the instances of distracted driving and the associated collisions that occur.
Mississippi has had distracted driving laws in place since 2015, with those laws amended over the years to prohibit the drivers from sending texts and emails as well as using social media. Enforcement, however, is not consistent.
Today, lawmakers were told that motorists see the eyes of too many oncoming drivers focused on a screen instead of the road.
“They’re shopping on the phone, they’re face timing on the phone, they’re streaming movies on the phone,” AAA Public Affairs Specialist Don Redmond said.
Mississippians have been found to spend 8% of their time behind the wheel using a smartphone, putting the state at the bottom of the national ranking.
Data collected by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a company that provides insurance companies with underlying technology used in their smartphone applications to track driver habits and in turn offer safety discounts, shows Mississippi’s habits are not improving. The data shows that Mississippi drivers spend two minutes and eight seconds per hour moving their phone for one reason or another, 31% higher than the national average.
Phone motion data indicates the device is being picked up or rotated while the vehicle is in use.
“It captures motion even when the screen isn’t touched, such as answering a call, checking notifications or just handling the phone for any purpose,” Redmond explained.
If the state could bring that statistic in line with the national average, Redmond estimates 15 vehicle collision-related deaths could be prevented.
“It is estimated that distracted driving contributed to 60% of the state’s traffic fatalities,” Redmond added.
To address the issue, he proposed a law similar to one passed in Ohio, which prevents a person from handling, propping up or using the phone to record videos while operating a vehicle. Hands free use of headphones, bluetooth devices or the vehicle’s infotainment system to answer calls would continue to be permitted. These restrictions would give law enforcement more leverage to enforce the law.
“Nationally, nearly 10 people a day are killed by a distracted driver,” Redmond said.
Redmond also asked the Senate committee to consider a change to the state’s Move Over law by adding stranded motorists and vehicles parked on the roadside for emergencies such as a flat tire. The current law pertains to law enforcement, emergency responders and tow truck drivers.
“It’s a very dangerous place to be on the side of the road,” Redmond said. “We lose two people a month due to secondary crashes on the side of the road.”
Pharmacists Ask for Fair Payments
Lawmakers were told that pharmacists across Mississippi are providing services without insurance compensation that other medical professionals can bill.
Members of the Mississippi Pharmacy Association asked the Senate committee to revive the pharmacist care services payment bill so they can be paid for the full scope of the services they provide. Similar bills introduced over the course of the past three years failed to cross the governor’s desk.
Mississippi Pharmacy Association Executive Director Dr. Mona Arnold-McBride said the bill they are proposing will not expand a pharmacist’s scope, add covered benefits or affect self-funded employer plans under ERISA.
Dr. Buddy Ogletree, a pharmacist with four decades of experience, said some of the services not covered under insurance plans include teaching someone how to use an inhaler or providing chronic disease management.
“If somebody goes to the doctor’s office with asthma and they get a new inhaler, if the nurse at the doctor’s office trains them how to use that inhaler, that can be billed to insurance and get paid,” Ogletree described. “Now I can’t tell you how many times I have trained a patient on how to use an inhaler at the drug store but I don’t get paid.”
He clarified that Medicaid does pay pharmacists for chronic disease management.
States such as Kentucky have passed similar laws, leading to either no increase in policies or a nominal increase of 0.03%.
Committee members cited the vagueness of language in previous versions of the bill for its failure to become law, and asked the association to come back with a list of about 10 services they provide not currently covered by insurance along with the anticipated increases in insurance premiums and the revenue a pharmacist would receive.
Vision Plans
Another topic covered by the Senate committee was vision plans, which are described as the Groupon of vision care by Dr. Steven Reed, an optometrist practicing in the Magee area.
He contends that vision plans are not regulated in the same manner as a typical health insurance plan, leading to some unattractive operational practices. Reed stated that that unregulated nature allows vision plans control over the types of lenses and frames a patient can obtain under their plan, many times forcing them to pay extra for the frames and lenses they really want.
“Patients think when you have a vision plan that everything is covered and they’re going to get a pair of glasses or whatever they need,” Reed said. “Well, the truth is they’re limited.”
Additionally, Reed said that patients under a vision plan can be steered toward a certain eye care provider, specifically those willing to play ball with that particular company.
He recalled an instance when a patient in his chair received a text message from their plan provider reminding them they could buy their glasses from the company’s preferred retail outlet, instead of Reed’s business.
“So literally they are stealing patients out of our examination chairs, and I can show proof of that,” Reed said.
While Reed has a lab in his business, patients are being advised to use labs associated with the plan provider, which only increases the time it takes for a patient to actually get their hands on the eyewear.
Due to these issues, Reed said he typically does not participate in vision plans, save for one that pays “just a hair over half of what Medicaid pays” his practice.
The Senate committee was asked to consider legislation similar to what the states of Arkansas and Louisiana have put in place. New laws in those states seek to ensure fair reimbursements for care, ban unfair audits, provide payment protection, and prohibit virtual credit card fees.
Before leaving the podium, Reed advised the committee to “protect the doctor patient relationship,” and predicted someone from out-of-state would advise the committee to hold off on any changes.
J.P. Weiske with the National Association of Vision Care Plans argued that vision plans are regulated and asked the Legislature to ensure continued competition in the market.
“It’s our view that the Legislature should not become the negotiating agent for one side of a private business relationship,” Weiske stated. “That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It certainly circumvents the market.”
As for use of their labs, Weiske said that the labs provide vision plan holders with lower costs.
Weiske did admit the need for discussions about patients receiving texts while in a medical provider’s chair.
Denied Claims
Claim denials are negatively affecting the medical practices in the state, lawmakers were told.
Warren Herring, President and CEO of TrustCare Health, told the Senate committee that denials have increased over the past three years. He said about 41% of physicians today are seeing a 10% or more rate of claim denials on the backend, a 30% increase since 2022.
In 2025, commercial insurers initially denied about 21% of in-patient and 11% of out-patient claims submitted by hospitals.
“In the end, only about 3% of those claims did end up going unpaid,” Herring added. “In other words, most denials are not about care that shouldn’t be paid, they’re about whether the provider can afford to prove that it should be paid.”
One of the issues at hand is that providers have to repeatedly submit appeals for denied claims, increasing administrative and other costs in the process. Reed esimated that it costs his office between $57 to $80 per appeal submission, depending on the insurer. It also means the insurance company gets to hold on to that money for weeks or months while the appeals process plays out.
“The burden of proof has shifted to the clinicians, and the earned revenue sits with the insurer in the meantime,” Herring explained.
There are times where if the claim costs more to fight than it would pay out, providers may just decide to consider it a loss.
Providers are also dealing with the negative effects of an insurer downcoding already provided care to a lower rate as well as clawbacks that can take place a year or more after the care was provided to the patient.
Herring called for a “pay first, audit later” approach, establishing time caps on clawbacks and setting deterrents for wrongful denials. Those deterrents may include allowing the provider to collect not only interest on that denied payment, but other penalties as well.
Ambulances
Inadequate reimbursement rates are a concern for ambulance services, especially in rural parts of the nation. While Mississippi has addressed the problem with HB 1489 that passed two years ago. It has a sunset provision for 2028.
Terrance Ramotar, Director of Government Affairs with Global Medical Response, told the Senate committee that states that did not pass similar legislation are seeing EMS closures and subsequently increased response times.
DeSoto County EMS Director Mark Davis informed the committee that since the passage of the bill, he has been able to provide a 10% increase in salaries to EMS personnel, which is helping his agency be competitive with competing paramedic positions in hospitals or with medical providers.
Also on the topic of EMS, Adam Beck, Senior Vice President of Commercial Employer Product Policy at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), asked the lawmakers to consider changes to the health code to prevent charges for ambulance services from being higher than they should be.
Beck suggested the committee do further work on the balanced bill protections put in place in 2024 to ensure fair payments to EMS providers so they can continue operations while also protecting ratepayers from premium increases.
Portable Benefits
Within Mississippi there are about 270,000 self-employed workers, who contribute $12.5 billion to the state’s economy. Many of these men and women do not have access to benefits traditional employment provides, Austin Banning, Employment Fellow at Americans for Prosperity, told the committee. Freelance positions can include real estate agents, hair stylists, photographers, or several other roles where the person is not considered a W2 employee under the tax code.
While 80% of those workers are perfectly happy working freelance, they are 11% less likely to carry health insurance, Banning said.
Starla Brown, State Director of AFP, asked the committee to consider legislation that would create portable benefit plans for these working adults.
“Because these workers operate outside traditional employment they often lack job-based benefits such as health insurance and paid leave,” Brown described. “Not because companies are unwilling to offer the benefits, but because outdated laws make it risky to provide them to non-employees.”
The legislation AFP proposes would provide legal protections for companies who seek the services of 1099 workers, while still allowing that employee to save for retirement, health costs or health insurance.
Portable plans can, at times, include contributions from the employer, such as a pilot program offered by DoorDash in Georgia in 2025 where drivers could receive deposits from the company of 4% of their pre-tip wages.
Since 2023, 11 states have enacted similar laws, Banning said.