The 1995 Oklahoma Welfare Reform Act (HB1673) enacted the following changes:

I. Comparable Managed Care entities shall be subject to comparable standards.

Comments: Committee members recognized that PPOs are essentially unregulated while HMOs are heavily regulated. Since both entities represent to the consumer a select panel of physicians and hospitals, for example, both should be held to some basic quality standards. The group found this logic unassailable and strongly supported the above recommendation.

PRINCIPLES OF A SOUND STATE SCHOOL FINANCE SYSTEM

A recent report from the National Conference of State Legislatures defines a sound state school finance system by five principles: 1) Equity; 2) Efficiency; 3) Adequacy; 4) Accountability; and 5) Stability.