Committee: Children, Families, Health, & Human Services Interim Committee
Author: Sue O'Connell
Posted on July 2, 2018
A legislative committee studying community services for adults with developmental disabilities reviewed five bill drafts in June and asked for revisions that will be considered at the committee's final meeting in September.
In general, the bill drafts would:
• require the Department of Public Health and Human Services to submit a budget proposal for community developmental disability services that reflects an inflationary increase;
• provide funding to increase direct-care worker wages;
• require DPHHS to reimburse certain community services on a daily or monthly basis, rather than an hourly basis;
• create a grant program for providers of community services;
• establish requirements for assessing the support needs of people with developmental disabilities;
• create a regional crisis response program based on the model used in New Mexico; and
• direct DPHHS to review regulatory and administrative requirements for community-based services to eliminate unnecessary duplication, oversight, and inconsistencies where possible.
Committee members made the decisions after hearing public comment on the bill drafts during their June 21-22 meeting.
On another front, the committee continued its review of Medicaid expansion by receiving an update on the voluntary workforce development program for expansion enrollees and hearing from the Legislative Fiscal Division about the anticipated costs of expansion in future years. Members agreed to introduce a committee bill in the 2019 legislative session to eliminate the Medicaid expansion oversight committee if the June 30, 2019, sunset date for the expansion program is removed or extended.
The committee also heard about the budget outlook for DPHHS in the fiscal year that will begin July 1 and for the two-year budget period after that. Members heard about the potential for restoration of some of the funding that was cut this fiscal year when the governor made general fund reductions to ensure that state spending did not exceed revenues.
And after hearing from several Medicaid providers about the agency's planned continuation of a 2.99% Medicaid rate cut into the next fiscal year, the committee agreed to send a letter to DPHHS to ask why the reduction is being continued at that level for a for a full fiscal year when it was originally set at that level to save the same amount of money in a 6-month period.
The committee received a number of updates during the meeting on topics related to past legislative action on behavioral health peer support specialists, children's mental health outcomes, guardianship, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and a publicly funded preschool pilot program.
The committee's next scheduled meeting is Sept. 13-14 in Helena. For more information about the meeting or the committee's activities, visit the committee's website or contact Sue O'Connell, committee staff.
Committee Website: www.leg.mt.gov/cfhhs
Committee Staff: soconnell@mt.gov or 406-444-3597
