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Regular Session, 2011 ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 97
BY SENATOR MILLS
A RESOLUTION
To urge and request the Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs and the Senate
Committee on Health and Welfare to meet and function as a joint committee to study
the effects of local sales taxes on complex biologics administered in a physician's
office, infusion clinic, or outpatient setting have on local revenue and health care
access.
WHEREAS, the general health and welfare of a Louisiana resident is important to
the viability of the state's workforce, and the continued improvement of the state's health
rankings; and
WHEREAS, access to medicine is important to the treatment of diseases; and
WHEREAS, numerous new therapies for serious illnesses such as rheumatoid
arthritis, chronic kidney disease, and osteoporosis have recently been developed; and
WHEREAS, many of these new medications are biologics which are made using
living cells to produce complex proteins that can be used to treat diseases; and
WHEREAS, these treatments are typically conducted in a physicians's office,
infusion clinic, or other outpatient facility where patients are not typically kept as bed
patients for twenty-four hours or more; and
WHEREAS, the physicians and health care facilities keep an inventory of
medications for administration to patients; and
WHEREAS, the end users of these administered complex biologics is the patient and
not the physician, nurse, or health care professional; and
WHEREAS, the Louisiana Constitution prohibits the state from assessing a sales and
use tax on prescription medications; and
WHEREAS, some local taxing authorities currently levy a sales and use tax on these
medications; and SR NO. 97 ENROLLED
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WHEREAS, Louisiana is one of only four states allowing any taxation on these
medications; and
WHEREAS, the physicians, nurses, and other health care providers in Louisiana
must purchase these medications from a wholesale distributor; and
WHEREAS, national health insurance contracts do not provide for reimbursement
of sales and use taxes; and
WHEREAS, there has been no conclusive study conducted to determine the fiscal
or health care impact of local taxation of these complex biologics administered to patients
in a physicians's office, infusion clinic, or other outpatient facility; and
WHEREAS, the Legislative Fiscal Office has determined that exempting complex
biologics from local sales tax should be considered a minimal local revenue loss, and no
anticipated direct material effect on governmental expenditures.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby urge and request the Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs and the
Senate Committee on Health and Welfare to meet and function as a joint committee to
conduct a parish-by-parish analysis of the sixty four parishes in Louisiana to determine the
fiscal impact of sales and use taxes assessed by a local taxing authority on complex biologics
administered in a physicians's office, infusion clinic, or other outpatient facility where
patients are not typically kept as bed patients for twenty-four hours or more, as well as
impacts to access to health care within each parish.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the committee shall report their findings of the
analysis to the Senate on or before by January 1, 2012.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE