ALC-Review
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Speaker 3
0:30
Members, if you'll find your seat, we'll get it started.
Chair sees the quorum. Did I scare you with that one? Sorry about that. Senator Filippo, Mr. Co-chair, any comments before we get started? All right, seeing no comments. Members, we'll move on to methods of finance. Item B.
Speaker 6
0:53
Ms. Schmidt, will you get us started? Thank you, Mr. Chair. on page one of item b
Chair
Unverified
0:58
you have the letter from the office of accounting with the methods of
finance on today's agenda when we finish the regular methods of finance I'll mention to you the supplemental agenda that has an additional method of finance on it on page two of the packet it shows the listing of the November methods of finance the first one is ASU Jonesboro this is for their Agri boiler replacement. It's to change out the boilers, the pumps, domestic water heater, updating the heater and water cooling systems at the Agri building. It's worth $256,135,
and they note that they have university reserves to cover that expense. The second one there is Arkansas Tech University for Hull Student Union. This is for remodeling and repurposing the building for student use. This is a revised method of finance including all the construction construction costs for four million eight hundred ninety seven thousand dollars. They have funds reserved for facility repairs and renovations to cover the cost. Then we have UA Division of Agri. They have a chiller plant renovation to replace water cooler chillers, cooling towers.
They note that this unit is over 20 years old, and making these changes, they expect to improve the reliability and reduce energy costs, $976,625, and they have plant fund reserves to cover the cost. also number four is for ua division of agri and this is for a pedestrian bridge bridge project for their facility located here in little rock for behind the cooperative extension services from that to a parking lot at ualr they're wanting to build a pedestrian bridge to address safety
concerns due to the high vehicle traffic in the area this is 360,232 dollars they also have the plant fund reserves to cover the project. On the next page, you have UA Community College at Rich Mountain. This is for their baseball and softball facilities. They're wanting to renovate both facilities, the baseball and the softball fields, including the playing services, dugouts, backstops, fencing, press boxes, and this is $975,000. They have reserves to cover those
cost. UAMS has two methods of finance. The first one is for the hospital second floor to remove the current CT scanner and install a new more advanced minimally invasive scanner. This will be $402,500. They have clinical reserves and revenues to cover the cost and then they have the freeway medical sixth floor epilepsy clinic. They're creating a clinic. They're moving the clinic from Jack Stevens Freeway and this is $745,000. They have clinical reserves and revenues
as I stated and these are the methods of finance on
Speaker 11
4:02
the regular agenda and as I said when we finish those we have a supplemental agenda with an additional method
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:10
of finance. All right members any questions on these first seven items methods of finance? Item B. All right seeing none without objection this will be considered reviewed members we have a supplemental agenda to bring up I need a motion to suspend the rules all right we have a motion all those in favor say aye any opposed no motion passes miss Catholic
Chair
Unverified
4:34
will you please explain the supplemental to us okay your supplemental agenda is in your packet it's shown as item H at the bottom of your packet again this is a supplemental agenda method of finance for UA Phillips Community College on On the second page of the packet is the letter from Division of Higher Ed just explaining that there was an oversight on their part and requesting this be on today's agenda due to the fact that these repairs are needing to be done now. It has to do with the building's roof.
Then on page three of the packet is the letter where we received the method of finance from Office of Accounting, including this additional item. And then finally on page four is the actual method of finance for UA Phillips Community College for their technical and industrial education building for the roof repair, $697,840. And they note that they have college reserve funds to cover the cost of that project. All right. Any questions on that item, members?
All right. Seeing none. Without objection, that will
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
5:39
be considered reviewed. Appreciate your indulgence in getting that done, members. We'll move
Chair
Unverified
5:45
on to Item C, General Contractors Construction Projects. Mr. Chairman, this item, an alternative delivery construction project, is for UAMS. The project is for the building out of three floors of shell space for the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. They note that the third floor will house the UAMS Breast Center, Radiology for Cancer Patients, Bone Marrow Biopsy, and other services.
The sixth floor will house the infusion clinic, and the seventh floor will be used for multidisciplinary clinics or teams. The project, the three floors, is a little over 65,000 square feet. They have selected Clark contractors to do the project. They received six proposals. They interviewed three of those contractors. The design professional that they've selected is Cromwell Architects Engineers. they estimate to be completed with the project by December 1st 2020 and it's a
little over ten point five million dollar project 37% of this project will be funded by university reserves and 63% by gifts again that's a the alternative delivery construction project for UAMS any questions on this item members all right
saying none without objection this is be considered reviewed moving on item d
discretionary grants we have two agencies
Speaker 19
7:08
that have provided us with discretionary grants the first one is the health department and on page one
Chair
Unverified
7:15
of this packet the first one is for
their office of oral health it's an amendment to an existing grant that they have with licensed dental hygienist establishing contacts with family practice and pediatric medical providers and providing fluoride varnish toolkits. Number two is for their Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Branch. This is a grant. The project promotes the use of pharmacists as non-physician members of the health care team to improve health outcomes by brokering a partnership between work sites, community pharmacies,
and pharmacy care providers. Numbers three through 12, these are all going to be the same. They are all grants for various vendors dealing with the Arkansas Clinical Transformation Project with development of patient registries and electronic health records. That takes us to number 13, and that happens to be on page 5 of the packet. That one is for the Infectious Disease Division, and this is a grant dealing with the statewide HIV prevention projects.
Those are the discretionary grants for the Department of Health.
Any questions? All right, seeing none, without objection, this item
Chair
Unverified
8:39
will be considered reviewed. The next group of grants, beginning on page 6 of the packet, are for the Department of Human Services. The first one, number 1 through 12, these are all going to be grants for the same projects. They're to provide medication-assisted treatment to uninsured or underinsured individuals.
diagnosed with opioid use disorder. So that's going to take us through number 12, which happens to be on page, takes us to page 10 of the packet. Number 13 there is for the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education. It's a grant to support children ages 0 to 5 living in poverty through the Early Steps to School Success Home Visiting Program and Kinder Boost School Readiness camp to improve literacy and social emotional skills. Number 14 is for, these are for the
Division of Youth Services. Number 14 there provides establishment of camp positive for 30 youth to reduce the incidence of behavioral problems, increase recreational and social opportunities, and promote positive parental involvement. That's for Pulaski County. Number 15 is a project for school-based restorative justice diversion program. Number 16 on page 11 is for providing sexual risk avoidance and healthy relationship education. Number 17 is for
strengthening families program and that's a grant for that. Number 18 is for youth leadership Program. Number 19 is for establishing project success. Number 20 is a grant to establish service strategies to enable targeted and individualized empowerment through education, skill building, and support for diverse groups of high-risk juvenile justice system-involved youth. Number 21 is for the Institute, the Anderson and Anderson Anger Management Curriculum for at-risk teenagers
in grades 9 through 12, and then finally on page 13 is a grant for adjudicated youth with preparation to seek a form of higher education after high school. Those are the grants
for the Department of Human Services. All right, thank you,
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
11:00
Ms. Schmidt. We have a question. Senator Irvin,
you're recognized. Thank you. Question with the grants for treatment on state opioid response,
there's a bunch of them seven through 12 yeah there's a i mean
i just somebody that needs to come up from the division of aging adults and behavioral health science services okay we have anybody here
Speaker 7
11:20
from that division a few gentlemen will introduce yourselves for the record thank
Lee Watson
Unverified
11:36
you mr chairman mark white with dhs jay hill with aging adult behavior health dhs
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
11:42
thank you um do you have a um do you have a map of where all these are located um and the reason i'm asking for that is i'd like to see where we're not providing these services because i can tell you in my area there is no adequate response um there's there's no treatment options for a lot of these people um there's just really nothing for them and so i'd be interested to hear your
response as to your coverage and do these contracts are these the only ones or are there more that are going to be put in place are you having a problem finding
areas to put this in and then how much are you coordinating with the department of
Speaker 39
12:37
are funded through the state opioid response grant which is a two-year grant that ends in September of 2020. We have other programs and contracted providers that cover all 75 counties
of the state. So for instance your area will have a designated provider that we contract with and we fund them through a blended stream of state general revenue, block grant dollars, discretionary grant funding and I'll be more than happy to get you a map to show you what the state looks like as far coverage areas where these providers are and then also for your specific district our contracted provider who has that what we call a catchment area that that region I can provide all that to you okay I know they
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
13:18
may cover a region but for some people it's hard if they don't have a place
right there where they can go to they just don't
Speaker 39
13:26
access it I can and I'll also get you a list of provider
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
13:30
locations within your within your and then just describe that program
Speaker 39
13:38
to me just quickly if you don't mind which which program this this is these these dollars fund medical assisted treatment for individuals who who are afflicted with substance use disorders and so we contract with individual providers we also contract with university of arkansas for medical sciences to locate and fund providers throughout the state particularly in one of these grants funds the
matriarch program which is for specifically targeted at rural areas of the state. Okay
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
14:04
again but I understand that but exactly what do they do with the money? This
Speaker 39
14:10
covers the medications and the staff to provide treatment to persons that come in for services. So medications
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
14:15
is medications are you talking about any to replace or? In lieu of for instance suboxone. Okay so you're you're trying to get them off of one thing but you're actually but you're putting them on a
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
14:32
different substance it's it's the use of medications to wean them off the addiction
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
14:39
of opioids okay all right thank you i'd like to have that map and then thank you appreciate
Speaker 3
14:46
it thank you thank you senator reverend if you gentlemen can send that map to uh committee staff so they can get it to all the members i'd appreciate it
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
14:55
we'll be glad to all right Representative Love, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Hill,
Speaker 50
15:00
here I am. So I had an interesting conversation this morning with some colleagues.
We were talking about homeless persons and where they can come if they have an addiction to drugs and getting treatment, and the same questions came up where these providers and what they were doing. But one of the questions I have for you is this. You said this is just medication and staff. Is there any beds? What do these programs look like? Because they were more interested in if there were some beds for people to actually have a place where they can recover and get treatment and then get clean.
Speaker 43
15:44
So are these not? Yes, sir. Our grants and our contracts do cover residential
Speaker 39
15:50
treatment and assistance. And so all of our providers have either beds on site at one of their facilities or they subcontract with other providers in order to have those residential beds for people that need inpatient services. Okay. And I can get you all of those. For instance, your district,
Lee Watson
Unverified
16:04
I believe it's RCA, I can get you a list of all those and where they contract with. That would be good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 3
16:14
Thank you, Representative Lowe. Senator Hammer, I think you're seat 80. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So when you go to
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
16:22
do that map, I'd be curious to see or curious to know, is it a matter of we don't have enough money or we don't have enough providers through which the money can flow in order to meet the needs of the demand? And in that, do you have a forecasted amount of how much we're going to need money-wise if we had all the providers, good
Speaker 43
16:48
coverage of providers over the state?
I don't have a forecast of what the need may be. Our funding is, as I said, comes from a
Speaker 39
16:58
blend of state general revenue and then federal dollars that we get through a block grant through SAMHSA. That's not a fund that we control how much we get, but we do ask or what we require is that our dollars cover individuals who are either underinsured or have no insurance. They have no payer source. And so for persons that have coverage, have private insurance, have Medicaid, Medicare, those streams are to be accessed for services, which reserves our funding, funding from our division to individuals that have, that are strictly having no pay or source.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:30
So this fund, this money that we're talking about is strictly to meet just the no insured individual, right? That's correct. Yes, Senator.
Speaker 7
17:39
Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Senator Hammer. Representative Crawford. you're recognized uh thank
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
17:50
you excuse me you're far right gentlemen and i may be uh talking to the wrong people after what i just heard but here's my question um my district is fort smith
and perspectives is getting ready to close in january that will leave 2 500 people without mental health services is what we're talking about here the same funding that goes into that no ma'am it's not those those the the funds
that we utilize for providers for mental health
Speaker 39
18:24
is a separate separate contract separate separate group of funds and i believe we do have a provider who is partnering with that entity in in fort smith
Lee Watson
Unverified
18:37
which is Western Arkansas guidance right but
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
18:40
they're already full and looking at that so I guess if you could direct me I was going to talk to Paula Stone today but if there's someone that I could talk to about the funding mechanism of that because the reason they're having to close is because the rates keep going lower they're not getting reimbursed so if you'll just tell me what direction to go i
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
19:07
following this uh our our meeting today that would be correct if i understand all the areas that you're looking for i can direct you to the right
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
19:22
people okay thanks all right thank you any other questions members
Speaker 3
19:25
on uh these grants these are all federal funded dhs grants all right seeing none without objection these items will be reviewed thank you gentlemen thank you we're moving on to item e mr chairman the next group of
Chair
Unverified
19:42
page one of the e packet we have the letter from the department of transformation and shared services office of state procurement and this is a letter from Mr. Armstrong that notes that he's reviewed the contracts accompanying the letter that are on today's agenda and they appear to be legal contracts. The first group of contracts that we look at are the construction related contracts beginning on page two. The first one is for the Agri Department and they have a feasibility study that they've been working on and this will be
phase two of that study and this is the money being added for that project. Number two starts some contracts for parks and tourism. The first one there is an amendment to a contract they have with an architectural service looking at the lodge kitchen roof repair located at Queen Willamena State Park. Number three also for parks and tourism is a contract amendment for the trail and trailhead project located at Hobbs State Park Conservation Area. Number four again parks and
tourism for renovation of the Storm Creek Lake Campground located at Mississippi River State Park. Number five is UA Fayetteville. This is their on-call commissioning services contract amendment, and number six is an amendment for their on-call architectural contract. Those are all of the construction-related contracts on today's agenda.
Members, any questions on the construction-related contracts. Senator Rice you recognized. Thank you and
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
21:17
staff may answer this one on parks and tourism
and it may be some other places I just caught that where it says increased compensation are we talking about labor we're talking about the labor
Speaker 6
21:34
increase we're seeing on most most of those senator rice in the contract terms the way that they fill out the
Chair
Unverified
21:41
contracts they actually break out the cost for the contract and for amendments as compensation the personnel cost the cost for doing the project and expenses and this is just them referencing that breakout okay so this is
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
21:58
not an increase. This is not any ongoing. This is strictly
Chair
Unverified
22:02
for the construction project. It's not an increase in what they're charging per person or anything. It's just the way they're wording it in this amendment
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
22:10
notification. Thank you. I just haven't seen that
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
22:16
before. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Senator Rice. Any other questions? Construction-related contracts? Seeing none without objection, these will be considered
Chair
Unverified
22:26
reviewed. the next group of contracts are intergovernmental contracts those contracts that are procured using
intergovernmental as a procurement method the first one on page five of the packet is the health department with university of arkansas little rock and this is for working with ualr school of social work mid-south for a purpose of obtaining technical services to implement the Women, Infant, and Children, Baby, and Me parenting program in selected WIC clinics across the state. Number two is DHS with UAMS, and this is for continuing the agreement they have for state opioid response medication-assisted therapy and recovery.
Number three is DHS with UAMS, and this is for continuing state opioid response, providing treatment and procedures for opioid use disorder in underserved pregnant adolescent and adult women 13 years of age and older who also have an opioid use disorder living in rural Arkansas. Number four is DHS with Independence County and this is for programming in coordination with the Independence County office for the Independence County Juvenile
Detention Center. Number five is the military department with Arkansas National Guard And this is on this particular amendment, this is no dollar amount being added to this contract, but it's on today's agenda because this agreement is removing the civilian student training program, which was transferred to DHS Youth Services from this agreement. so they might not make you aware of that number six is workforce services with uca and this is
for reporting for continued workforce development and those are the intergovernmental contracts on today's agenda all right members any questions on
these items okay saying none look senator ervin
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
24:27
well sorry i have a question on the mmis contract are we there yet?
Speaker 6
24:32
No, ma'am. Okay, sorry. The next group is our out-of-state contracts.
Chair
Unverified
24:39
The first one is Arkansas State Police, and this is for an original contract for pharmacy benefit management services
for their health plan prescription drug program, and then we have correction department. This is for waste disposal equipment and services to East Arkansas Regional Unit located at Bricky. Number three is Education Department. This is for Electronic Transcript Program Services. Number four, Health Department. This is for Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. Number five on the next page is Public Employee Retirement for some Investment Management Services. Number six is Public Service Commission
to provide legal services to that commission. Number seven is UCA. This is an amendment to an existing contract for transcription services. Number eight, also for UCA, is for comprehensive budgeting, planning, and management software. And number nine, also for UCA, is the contract that they have for providing pharmacy benefit management services for their self-insured health plan. Number ten is Veterans Affairs, and this particular contract is for staff augmentation.
They note that they are providing all kinds of services, including administrative staffing, information technology, staffing, and medical staffing. And those are the out-of-state contracts on today's agenda. Senator Irvin, you're recognized. Health Department. Which
contract? Number four. Number four? Yep.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
26:24
while they're coming members i didn't say the words but without objection item e2 intergovernmental contracts will be
Speaker 3
26:31
considered reviewed you ladies please introduce yourself to the committee for the record thank
Speaker 78
26:38
you mr chair stephanie williams i'm chief of staff with the
Speaker 79
26:41
department of health jamie turpin i'm the pdmp
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
26:49
administrator thank you hi so um i
probably i'm going to meet with you more about this but just quickly just
wanted to ask um there are you know some deficiencies with the program with the database and the way it's utilized and the information and how it's being reported so does this allow for changes to be made or would you need a different amount of money to enhance
Speaker 85
27:20
jamie um answer that this um amendment does have some enhancements but jamie
Speaker 86
27:26
when you say a change are you saying a change within the pdmp system itself that a
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
27:33
user would see that would be updated currently the pharmacies are able to submit error corrections that are updated yes they can currently do that and that is something that will continue with this contract as well right but as far as the pharmacist can do that can the prescribers do that no
Speaker 86
27:51
ma'am only the pharmacy the data that we get with the pdmp is strictly from pharmacy dispensations so they're
the ones that would have to send in
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
28:03
their corrections right so but the providers are the ones that are so then it's up to the providers to look at that information to see if it's correct like every day or whatever and then talk to the pharmacist and then the pharmacist has to go in and change it so why is there not the ability for there to be on the program the opportunity for the prescriber if they look at their information to see that there's
something deficient or wrong why can't they send in a request on their dashboard that says you need
to look at this that would be a lot simpler than the way it is now
Speaker 79
28:39
so I would say we agree we would like to see more functionality in the PDMP and as we have opportunities to increase our funding we're looking at ways to make things easier the next enhancement that the physicians are going to see is ease of use in that they won't have to double sign in for the PDMP it'll integrate with their electronic health record so they'll have a single sign-on so that'll make it easier for them
to use it you know as a tool because you know who likes to have to sign on multiple times but
Speaker 78
29:13
we would like to add additional enhancements as soon as we have the capability to do it with
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
29:19
the vendors okay yeah and i mean there's there's several things that i think that i've identified my question though is do you need more money to make these changes or not like is the funding adequate enough to make this really a user because the providers are the ones that don't
have that information or they are in between seeing patients and they're trying to get the information and it's
you know at the end of the day and you have stacks of charts that are this tall and you're trying to call in medications and deal with lab results and calling the patients for lab results and blah blah blah then after that you know you have to sit down go through to see if this is correct or not and then make a note of that you know at eight o'clock at night when you're going through all the data to call the pharmacist the next day to get them to change it
I mean it I there there are lots of deficiencies in this program and so I'm trying to figure out a way that it actually can be better utilized and so do you need more funding to do that yes or no and then have you made that request and you know there I mean that's just one thing is there like
a price to add drop down boxes I'm
Speaker 79
30:34
not sure the functionality is there that's why I'm hesitating to answer additional funding is always helpful and every enhancement as you
know always costs money so as enhancements and are available yes we'll need additional funding would be my guess but I'm not sure the functionality is there but we would love to add multiple
Speaker 78
30:55
enhancements to the system to make it easier for the physicians to manage and provide information okay okay
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
31:03
well I'll visit with y'all um offline and just go through the different things that
I see as deficients and you know go forward but I think meeting with people and
representatives of this company I'd like to hear from them too if that's a possibility. Thank you Senator
Irvin. Senator Hammer you're recognized. We're here behind the post. Thank you.
Speaker 3
31:26
To follow up on Senator Irvin's question
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
31:30
if you determine that there's an improvement that can be made to the system do you have the authority to do that on your own do you have to come back to us as a legislative branch in order to get it modified or can you simply do that under your authority as the department if
Speaker 78
31:48
it requires an increase in our funding and appropriation we
would have to come back to you for approval yes
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
31:54
sir right so the question is if you find that there's an improvement to the system you're going to determine whether there's a price tag attached to it but if you determine there's not a price tag attached to it what stops you from going on
and making those changes or will every change have a price tag to
Speaker 79
32:11
it i would say it depends on the amount of money that we're talking about if it's something that we already have enough funding to incorporate the change we'll go ahead and do that but if it's something where we're
Speaker 78
32:21
going to have to utilize either new grant funding or ask for additional funding then we would come to you for authorization okay
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
32:28
very good mr. chair at appropriate time I'd like to ask a question about number 10 please veteran affairs okay I've got another
member with a question on this item first representative love you're recognized thank you mr. chair I had a question for
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
32:43
veteran affairs I didn't have anything for adh oh my apologies all right ladies thank you very much
Speaker 3
32:48
thank you can we have a representative from veteran affairs
which item representative love are we looking at number 10 i'm looking at number 10 okay senator hammer same one you want a question okay please introduce
Chair
Unverified
33:22
yourselves to the committee for the record yes i'm stacy crawford i'm actually an employee of the department of finance and administration but currently i'm the acting
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
33:36
goldman i'm with veterans affairs all right thank you Representative Lowe. Yes, actually, I
Speaker 50
33:41
just wanted an explanation because you said staff augmentation. What is included in the staff augmentation that I guess it looks like a total project of $7 million and then it's all cash. So where are you all getting this money and then talk me through what's going on here?
Chair
Unverified
34:02
I can answer the money part. This is for the homes. that we operate, and of course their cash is received through billings for the services from Veterans Affairs, Medicaid, our private pay. And this is a contract that we have had show up in our audit finding where we've not had an official contract for nursing staff, and we had piggybacked off of a contract that DHS had had,
and there was questions whether that was still active or not so this is to actually get us back on path to have standards set and to have contracted procured correctly for those nursing needs that we have in the homes okay all right that sounds good thank you
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
34:53
thank you representative love senator hammer you are
Speaker 105
34:57
recognized thank you so this money is related to the veterans home over in north little rock correct
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
35:04
okay yes sir and you're using the term nursing but does that extend to cnas or is it just strictly for
Chair
Unverified
35:13
nursing it includes the cnas as well the lpns and the rns okay do you know
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
35:17
what your turnover rate is up at the home for staffing i don't have
Speaker 107
35:22
that with me but i can get you that i understand
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
35:26
it's pretty high so before we go my statement is this that before we or as we go about throwing this kind of money and i understand it's difficult to get nurses because what they can get in the
private field is certainly a lot more competitive than what we're paying but um i would just encourage maybe to look at management styles over there and other things other because there won't be enough money to fix it if the management's not right and if we can't get to pay competitive with the private sector to hold them so that's the only thing i would ask about this thank you yes sir is that it senator
hammer wouldn't you agree works for me all right members any
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
36:09
other questions on uh so we are on the
out of state contracts all right seeing none i have a request from representative eubanks to hold item eight for university of central arkansas uh we're gonna uh not take action on that item we're going to send it to the full ALC for review on Friday. Representative Eubanks would just like to get some additional information on that that's not available today. So with that, without objection, all items in E3 out-of-state contracts will be considered reviewed with the exception of item 8.
With that, we'll move on to item E4 in-state
Speaker 19
36:57
contracts. Mr. Chairman, the in-state contracts begin on page 11 of the e-packet.
Chair
Unverified
37:02
The first one is the correction department for waste disposal equipment for the north central unit located at Calico Rock. The second one also for corrections is a contract for waste disposal services for Grimes and McPherson units. The next one is an amendment for DFA Racing, and this is for legal counsel for the Racing Commission.
On the next page, number four, this is a contract for emergency management with Motorola Solutions. This is the only contract on today's agenda that is sole source justified. So in your goldenrod sheet of papers, packet letters, you have a letter from OSP and also from the agency. They received approval from OSP for sole source justification for this project.
AWIN is a statewide multi-agency two-way radio system, and they note that over 30,000 emergency responders use AWIN. Emergency management reports AWIN needs an upgrade of hardware and software for major components of the system. And due to the proprietary nature of the technology supporting the existing AWIN infrastructure, Motorola is identified as the only source of the hardware and software needed for the upgrades. This is a little over $53 million, but I also want to point out it's beginning in November and running through November of 2023.
So that is the contract number four. Also on page 12 is a DHS contract with the Division of Medical Services with HP Enterprises, also known as DXC. This is the amendment to the contract. This is the contract they have for the Medicaid Management Information System, MMIS, and this is for a new project initiative, data quantity improvement initiative.
Then that takes us to page 13, state police, and this is an original contract for their health plan administration services for state police, and those are the in-state
contracts on today's agenda. any questions on in-state contracts representative Dotson you
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
39:21
are recognized thank you Mr. Chair my question is is for item four emergency management
Speaker 26
39:29
emergency management a win contract the representative here from Arkansas emergency management if you will introduce yourselves to the committee for
Speaker 112
40:01
the record yes good afternoon aj gary i'm
I'm the director of the
Speaker 113
40:08
Division of Emergency Management. Penny Rubo, Division Director for
Speaker 114
40:13
AWIN. Bobby Ann Merkel, Administration Division Director, CFO for the agency. Thank
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
40:18
you. Representative Dodson. Thank you. I just wanted to, as we're doing this, I'm over here to your right. As we're going through doing this upgrade, if you could just walk us through what you see as when this is going to be upgraded
and is this going to take care of the ongoing maintenance of the AWIN system and as I understand it this is also going to be in addition to the the current maintenance that we've been doing this is on top of that is that correct yeah so to kind of kind of
Speaker 112
40:54
break it down it's going to be into the latter part of next year before the project really gets off the ground when the funding and everything will be available for it at that point it's probably going to be a little
over two years to get the complete system upgraded they'll have to do it in phases because we have to continue operating while they're doing these upgrades so it'll be a little bit a bit of time the maintenance and also system upgrade is included within that contract so there should not be as far as that part of it any additional costs or anything on down the road this should take us into the next seven years seven actually longer than that but with the upgrades and that
that we have it'll also because of these system upgrades will pretty much double the capacity of our system so that will enable additional first responders to be a part of a system as we move forward without it impacting the the current system so this is going to get us
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
42:00
completely up to date in about two and a half to three years is that right i'm hearing group that yes sir and then and that'll hold us for the next roughly seven until the next time around when we'll have
Speaker 112
42:14
to write and it should take us a lot longer than seven years that's just when this contract will be through but the upgrades will take us longer than that or take us farther
Speaker 3
42:29
than that I should say thank you thank you represented outson senator Irvin is your question on this item on the a win contract okay I'm gonna skip you senator hammer is your question
on a win all right senator hammer you recognized thank you motorola the only
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
42:45
one to bid on this or they don't they're exclusive on
Speaker 112
42:49
this yes sir it's a it's a sole source and the reason is is this system was built out throughout the state over the last
Speaker 124
42:56
few years and the read the way it was built out as local municipalities and counties as they joined a win they would build on to the system so to go with any different system we would have to replace all of the municipality and county systems that are part of this part of the a win system and as far as the funding from
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
43:18
other refresh my memory what other is is that what that legislation we passed this
last time around or the the funding is other 100 what's the other sorry the
Speaker 114
43:33
funding is coming from um the money is generated from the public safety act 660 yes that's what i thought just want to
make sure thank you correct all right thank you senator hammer representative love is your question on this item you're good all right thank you
Speaker 3
43:50
all right no further questions on this item thank you for your time thank you senator ervin you're recognized
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:00
thank you question for um dms for dhs this is uh contract
number five yes department of human services hp
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:11
on the mmi system dxc now yeah please introduce yourselves again
Speaker 127
44:21
thank you mr chairman mark white legislative affairs chief
Speaker 128
44:26
for DHS. Matthew Racone, Medicaid Enterprise IT
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:34
Director. Okay, thank you. Just MMI a system and the way it functions with like different subcontractors on different types of utilizations. I know there's some RFPs, RFIs out. Is that going to, how much is that going to be affected as far as that component of it that dxc is and i guess this is now dxc not hp is that
correct correct so how much of that is it that we are paying for that you know utilization management work that they're doing as it relates to um those type of things and then um are we going to stay with the system or i'm just because i know we've had some issues with subcontractors and their ability to utilize the system or not utilize the system, and so where are we with all that?
Speaker 127
45:28
Sure. We released a request for information.
This was an opportunity for all vendors. I mean, DXC certainly can reply, but others can as well, to give us more information about the provider portal used for that utilization management prior authorization request. And that's an issue we've had over the last couple of years of working with that, trying to improve that experience for providers. So our next steps are we're going to wait for these responses to come back to the RFI We will look and see what's out there see if we need to adjust our approach somewhat see if they're new technologies
We may want to take advantage of and then make some decisions about next steps about do we want to look at carving some of this out? Do we want to keep this within our or add this to our contract with DXC? Those are all questions that have to be answered But we want to get as much
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
46:21
information as we can before we answer those questions okay so you're not you're not opposed to seeing if there's a system out there that's working and that will work and then we don't necessarily have to integrate within mmis
is that what you're saying or that can i believe
Speaker 127
46:35
so yes in terms of the rfi we are open to ideas that may come from any direction from any vendors and we just want to look and see what's out there and try to come up with a good approach now i mean long term our plan is that for the You know, MMIS for that core, that system, that will continue with its existing contract. And so whatever approach we choose needs to be something that complements that system and works with that system. But in terms of the specifics, I mean, we're certainly, we are being open-minded about it.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
47:06
Okay. Yeah, I just, questions, because that's really, really important, you know, that it
happens in a really timely fashion for those patients. Right. So I know there's been some bumps along the way, you know, and bumps recently with all of that and different, you know, components and all of that. So I'm just real watching that. Absolutely. That's totally understandable. Yeah, because that really, really is important to the ability for them
to get care in a timely fashion. and those power authorizations are just really, really important. So, anyway, I appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Senator Irvin. Thank
you, gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That's all we have for you. All right, members, any other questions on in-state contracts? All right, seeing none, without objection, this item will be
Chair
Unverified
48:05
considered reviewed. Mr. Chairman, the other items on the agenda are reports, and I want to point out the first report beginning in item F, F1.
This is the report of contract amendments with no material change for the subcommittee members. We have worked with OSP and made some changes to this report, and hopefully it addresses our needs a little bit better. It's easier to understand and more in line with what we're used to seeing. Next, F2, is the Medicaid non-emergency transportation report. In your packet is the September report. To the side there, DHS has also provided us with the October report.
So we went ahead and made a copy of that for you. So you've got both of those. After that, on page 24, is the report of executed contracts under the threshold for both professional consultant and technical and general services contracts. And then finally, beginning on page 26, is the DHS assessments, the Optum contract request was made at Council last month that DHS continue to provide this committee with an update of the progress of those assessments that are being made under that contract.
So this is the most recent report on that. And that concludes all the reports on today's agenda. all
Speaker 3
49:34
right thank you mr. Schmidt these reports do not require action by committee are there any
Speaker 105
49:44
questions all right saying none well senator hammer
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
49:48
sorry can we get somebody talk about the adult version of the assessment contracts to the
Speaker 105
49:56
table. The Optum contract update? Yes sir. Sorry, yes sir.
Speaker 127
50:22
I'm Mr. Herman Marquette with DHS again, and Ms. Paulistone will be here in just a moment to also help me with some questions. You
Speaker 133
50:31
don't want to go on your own? Oh, here she comes. I'll wait. All right. Fair enough.
Speaker 7
50:52
If you will, please just introduce yourself
Speaker 136
50:56
to the committee for the record. Paula Stone, Department of Human Services,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
51:06
Division of Medical Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the DD and the BH seems to have gotten kind of leveled out. What
about the last population as far as the assessment time on the initial one? I'm trying to look over the report real quick and digest it, but just give me a verbal comfort level that we're getting there as far as the initial assessments for the last of the three populations.
Speaker 137
51:33
Yes, sir. So for the aging population, we are making progress. I will note that
Speaker 138
51:38
on the summary, you see that there are still some areas where they're not completely meeting the contract parameters. And so I've asked them and asked to make sure that we have some additional information on those because we have hired additional, or they have hired additional assessors and have the number of assessors that are needed to complete these. So there were some issues with priority assessments.
So what was happening is there were, so the providers for reassessments, the aging providers are the ones that are identifying individuals that need their assessment then they make that referral for the assessment through EQ Health for the personal care assessments. And if they miss that, and they've been asked to make those about 60 days in advance to give the beneficiary time to make their appointment, complete their assessment. And so sometimes the providers were missing
that timeframe on it, and then they were calling the aging nurses, the DHS aging nurses, and then they were sending those over as priorities. So we were missing our timeframe for priority referrals. So we have a way to correct that process. And so next month, you
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
52:57
should see our numbers improve on that. The last time I heard about them being assessed penalties for failure to deliver, it was north of 200,000. Have we assessed any other additional claims
against them for missing the mark? We
Speaker 138
53:12
have not assessed other claims. So that was assessed in September for August performance. Have we forgiven them any of that $200,000,
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
53:19
or is that still out there? Because I know there was some shared responsibility for the delay. So are we still holding $200,000-plus on them? Yes, we took that out of their September invoice. Okay, so we have taken
Speaker 137
53:32
that. We took it. Do you anticipate taking any
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
53:38
more in the next 30, 60 days if they don't meet their measurables?
Speaker 138
53:43
That is something that we could go back and examine. Again, we had a rationale for why the performance was not at the level on this October data. And so if that doesn't correct it, then we would look at additional assessment of penalties. Okay. So we could see that next month's report or get
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
54:01
a, you'll be on the verge of doing it next month's report if they're not improving. Is that fair? Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you,
Senator Hammer. Mr. White, if you will,
Speaker 3
54:18
Representative Cervillo, you want to ask your question? Hit your yellow button.
Speaker 144
54:28
All right. You recognize Representative Cervillo. Hang on. You're not on. I think you're on now. Okay, thank you. Mark, what is the procedure for law enforcement that has identified somebody that is in need
to be entered into our crisis center here at UAMS? um so how does that can they actually take the person that that they have see the need directly to ums and um they will receive that person without any other formality mr white before you answer that representative servilo since this
Speaker 3
55:19
is not really pertaining to the contracts can you just get with representative servilo after the meeting certainly okay thank
you very much that work for you representative yes sir thank you all right thank you all right members uh
i'm gonna just double check with ms schmidt i think we're
Speaker 3
55:40
finished with agenda items for the day is it correct all right we want to circle back up uh members if you will follow me in the uh item e uh out of state contracts on page 10 it was item number 8 for uca that we were going to pass over representative eubanks tells me that he's got the information he was after
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
56:03
and sees no need to not take action on that
so if there are no other questions on that item for uca without objection we'll consider that item reviewed all right thank
you very much saying no further business we're adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order - Comments from Chairs
B. Methods of Finance
C. General Contractors Construction Projects exceeding Five Million Dollars
D. Discretionary Grants
E. Services Contracts for Legislative Review
F. Reports and Communications
H. Other Business
I. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC - REVIEW, Nov 12, 2019 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| B MOFs | Exhibit | 3 | Official source ↗ |
| C General Contractors Construction Projects exceeding Five Million Dollars | Exhibit | 1 needs OCR | Official source ↗ |
| D Grants | Exhibit | 13 | Official source ↗ |
| E Services Contracts | Exhibit | 13 | Official source ↗ |
| F Reports and Communications | Exhibit | 45 | Official source ↗ |
| H Supplemental Agenda | Exhibit | 4 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Speaker 3
Representative Andy Davis Chair
Unverified
Speaker 6
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 11
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 19
Speaker 7
Lee Watson
Unverified
Speaker 38
Speaker 39
Representative Cindy Crawford
Unverified
Representative Fredrick J. Love
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 43
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 62
Speaker 60
Senator Terry Rice
Unverified
Speaker 78
Speaker 79
Speaker 83
Speaker 85
Speaker 86
Speaker 100
Speaker 105
Speaker 107
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 26
Speaker 112
Speaker 113
Speaker 114
Speaker 124
Speaker 127
Speaker 128
Speaker 133
Speaker 136
Speaker 137
Speaker 138
Speaker 144