Budget
Update
Joint Appropriations subcommittees continued to meet last week. The Health and Human Services subcommittee focused on mental health and intellectual/developmental disabilities last week, hearing from and about MCOs for the bulk of the meetings (handouts online here).
Bill
Updates
HB 5,
Temporary Funding/Group Homes and Special Care Units (Dollar, Burr). HB 5 allows individuals in group homes and Special Care Units who
are no longer eligible for Personal Care Services due to the change in law to access the $39.7 mil allocated in last year’s budget
for residents of Adult Care Homes who lost Personal Care Services due to the
eligibility changes. The House concurred
in the Senate substitute this week and the bill has been sent to the Governor.
SB 4, No NC Exchange/No Medicaid Expansion (Apodaca,
Brown, Rucho). SB 4 seeks to prohibit
Medicaid expansion and a state-federal partnership health benefit
exchange. The House and Senate conference committees reported their
compromise this week. The new version
repeals the budget provision related to the Dept of Insurance implementing a
state based health exchange; repeals budget and statutory provisions regarding
powers of the Insurance commissioner to implement the ACA; and provides direction
to seek federal funding (with a 90/10 match) for the NC FAST system to make
Medicaid eligibility determinations for the federal Health Benefits Exchange,
as long as the state match is no greater than $5 mil. The bill has been sent to the Governor.
SB 10,
Boards and Commission (Apodaca, Hunt, Rabon). SB 10 has been controversial for
its removal of current members of certain environmental commissions, but it
also seeks to remove certain judicial appointments.
The Senate version eliminated the Special Superior Court Judges, but the
House removed that provision, along with changes to several other
sections. However, the House added a provision limiting
the term for Administrative Law Judges to 4 years. SB 10 passed its first floor vote in the House
and is scheduled for its final vote this evening. The bill is likely headed to a conference
committee where the Senate and the House will need to work out the differences
in the two versions of the bill.
SB 45,
Incapacity to Proceed Amendmenrs (Randleman).
SB 45 was discussed in the Senate Judiciary I committee last week but
was not voted upon. The committee chairs, Senators Goolsby and Newton, spoke
favorably and there did not appear to be any opposition to the bill. The bill
is scheduled for a vote in the committee on Tuesday, March 5.
New
Legislation Filed This Week
SB 125,
Public Meetings/Records Laws Violations (Goolsby, Apodaca). SB 125 would make violations of the public
records and open meetings laws a Class 3 misdemeanor. It has been referred to
the Senate Judiciary I committee.
SB 137, Prohibit Waiver Co-Pay/Medicaid Providers (Tillman). SB 137 seeks to amend NCGS 108A-63 to make it
unlawful for any provider of medical assistance to waive the collection of
co-payments with the intent to induce recipients to purchase, lease, or order
items or services from the provider, or in return for referrals or in return
for purchasing, leasing, ordering, or arranging for a good, facility or service.
It is not a violation if a provider waives a co-payment after determining on an
individual basis that the collection of the co‑payment amount would create a
substantial financial hardship for the recipient, provided the waiver of
co-payments is not a regular business practice of the provider; or if the
provider makes a good faith attempt to collect the co-payment and fails. The
bill has been referred to the Senate Healthcare committee.
SB 140,
Financial Exploitation of Older Adults (Bingham). SB 140 makes several
recommended changes to the law to increase the recognition, reporting, and
prosecution of those who defraud or financially exploit older adults, and to
continue the Task Force on Fraud Against Older Adults. It has been referred to the Senate Healthcare
committee.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We are eager to hear your feedback on our policy blog posts! However, we would like to ask that conversation remain civil. Avoid offensive, vulgar or hateful language and please be respectful of all viewpoints and opinions, even if they may differ from your own. We do not monitor each and every posting, but we reserve the right to delete comments that violate our policy.