HARRISBURG — A mandate that health care providers receive specific implied consent before performing certain procedures on an anesthetized or unconscious patient is among the new laws passed through Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and signed by Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Shapiro signed six bills across the past two weeks, raising the total to 33 new laws approved in his first year in office. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to host session days Dec. 11-13, the final three voting days planned for 2023.
The total greatly trails that of the past two first-year governors, Tom Wolf and Tom Corbett, however, the pace has hastened over the last two months. Entering October, just seven bills became law through the first nine months of 2003.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell saw 38 bills adopted into law through November in his first year, comparable to the total so far this year, but 27 more laws were approved in December 2003 alone.
House Bill 507 became Act 31 of 2023. It received no opposition votes from the floor of either legislative chamber.
Introduced by Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler, D-Philadelphia, and Rep. Liz Hanbidge, D-Montgomery, the measure amends the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error Act.
The amendment requires health care providers, whether they’re providing professional instruction or clinical training, to obtain verbal and written consent from patients before performing any of three examinations while the patient is under anesthesia or unconscious: pelvic exam, prostate exam, rectal exam.
According to Fiedler and Hanbidge, medical students are currently permitted to perform the exams in Pennsylvania on unconscious patients for training purposes.
“When patients arrive at the hospital for surgeries or treatments that require anesthesia, they are understandably worried or anxious about the outcome of their procedure, rarely thinking that an unrelated internal and intimate exam by a medical student might be part of the process,” Hanbidge said in a statement following the bill’s passage. “House Bill 507 puts the power back in the hands of the patient, giving them the final say in the care they receive while under treatment.”
The law establishes liability for violations by supervisory providers and their hosts, such as a university — a $1,000 penalty to the institution and the potential for civil damages.
There are exceptions for when the exam is already within the scope of care for the patient or in the event of an emergency. Exams can be delegated to another qualified provider but not a medical student.
“As chair of the [Senate] Health and Human Services Committee, I was stunned to learn that medical students and institutions were able to perform these pelvic, rectal or prostate exams on patients without their knowledge while under anesthesia for unrelated procedures,” said state Sen. Michele Brooks, R-Crawford/Mercer/Lawrence. “I would like to acknowledge the efforts of Representative Fiedler and her companion sponsors Senators Muth and Collett, in helping us bring an end to any such procedures happening to patients without their knowledge or permission.”
Other bills recently signed into law:
Senate Bill 500, which became Act 32 of 2023. The law requires Medicaid coverage for pasteurized donor human milk deemed necessary for “medically fragile babies.”
House Bill 295, which became Act 30 of 2023, realigns the product registration process and tonnage reporting in the Agriculture Code’s Soil and Plant Amendment Act with the Code’s Fertilizer Act.
House Bill 623, which became Act 28 of 2023. It authorizes up to $1.3 billion in additional principal debt to be issued by the commonwealth to pay for capital projects.
House Bill 1461, which became Act 11A of 2023. The measure settles, albeit temporarily, discord within the General Assembly over annual appropriations to state-related universities: Penn State, Pennsylvania College of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln. The total allocation is $603,527,000 — a $6.47 million increase split evenly between Penn College and Lincoln. Funding for the other three schools remained flat.
House Bill 1556, which became Act 29 of 2023. The new law requires state-related universities — Penn State, Pittsburgh, Lincoln, Temple — to provide public access to additional information under the Right to Know Law. That would include information related to contracts, financial statements, faculty, compensation, enrollment, courses and meeting minutes.