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ALC-Administrative Rules

November 13, 2019 ·9:00 AM ·Room A, MAC ·51:04
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Unknown speaker 0:00
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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Speaker 2 2:00
Folks, we're going to go ahead and get started but before we begin i want to announce to all the members that we will have two additional
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Speaker 3 2:35
meetings on december 3rd and the 4th and these meetings will be separate from our regular rules meeting in december as you remember there were meetings last year presented to act 781 of 2017 which required agencies to list their rules identify those rules they wanted to repeal and those they want to keep. The rules that agencies wish to keep were referred to for group consideration. Under this act, agencies will divide into six different groups by the governor's office. Each four years, the group's rules are considered for renewal. Group one agencies are on the first rotation and their reports will be reviewed at the December third and fourth meeting. And staff will be sending out reminders from the agenda for the group one agency reports. So you might be watching for that. And with that, we'll go ahead and proceed to the agenda. We have no reports from the executive subcommittees this month, so we'll proceed with the administration, with the reports on administrative directives pursuant to act 1258 of 2015 for the quarter ending September 30th, 2019. These reports on administrative directives pursuant to that will someone from the agency please come forward introduce yourself and present your report
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Solomon Graves Unverified 4:21
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Solomon Graves, Chief of Staff and Legislative Liaison for the Department of Corrections Office of the Secretary. Go ahead, you may present your report. First report I have is the quarterly report from the Division of Correction, formerly the Department of Correction. The following administrative directives were issued by the division director during the third quarter of this year. Administrative directive 1921, which is the division's family medical leave policy, this administrative directive was amended to extend the number of days an employee is allowed to be on sick leave before FMLA paperwork has to be initiated from three consecutive working days to five consecutive working days. Administrative Directive 1922 is the Division's policy on employee orientation and training. This AD was amended to clarify the time allowed for employees on extended military leave, FMLA, or catastrophic leave to complete their required training hours. Also employees who have been rehired and worked a total of six months during a calendar year are required to meet their annual training requirements. Administrative Directive 1922 is the Division's policy on leave audits. This administrative directive was updated to reflect that leave audits are conducted upon request by the Central Human Resources Division as opposed to at the facility level. Administrative Directive 1924 is the Division's policy on inmate grievances. This policy was amended to update the current inmate grievance policy by clarifying the the impact of PREA allegations on the grievance process and to clarify various procedural definitions. Administrative Directive 1925 is the Division's policy on unit entry procedures for the control of contraband. This administrative directive was updated to document current practice which prohibits an employee or visitor from attempting to withdraw from the entry process after the process has begun. If a visitor is found to be withdrawing from the entry process, they are subject to an extended visitation band. Employees who withdraw from the entry process after it has begun is subject to termination. This policy was subsequently clarified in September to clarify the potential termination of ADC employees. A.D. 1926, A.D. 1927, and A.D. 1928 deal with youthful inmates, punitive housing, and restrictive housing specifically. Each of those policies was updated to reflect the limitations on the placement of juveniles in restrictive housing pursuant to Act 971 of 2019. AD 1929, which is the division's policy on the movement and restraint of pregnant women. This policy was updated following legislation passed by Senator Bledsoe and Representative Petty, which restricts the situations in which pregnant inmates can be shackled, both in transportation and during active labor. AD and postpartum I'm sorry AD 1930 is the division's policy on inmate death this policy was amended to clarify the division of corrections current procedure relating to the disposition of an inmate's remains following their death those changes were also impacted by legislation from the 2019 session and finally AD 1921 is a new policy over the summer the division implemented a lactation program for postpartum mothers housed at our Wrightsville unit and this policy was amended to reflect these the procedural guidelines associated with that lactation program mr. chair that completes the report for
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Speaker 14 8:40
the division of correction thank you members are there
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Speaker 15 8:47
any questions I don't see anybody on the board with no questions in this without objection this report will be reviewed and filed. Thank you very much. And members will move
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Solomon Graves Unverified 9:01
to D. The Insurance Department indicated, oh I'm sorry, the Division of Corrections again. Next up is the Division of Community Correction. Their report for the third quarter of 2019 is as follows. Administrative Directive 1917 was amended to include a requirement that facility business managers ensure new items are added to the EOMIS inmate banking system, and obsolete information about item costs were removed pursuant to administrative regulation. The Board of Correction approves pricing for our commissary items, and the pricing information is then entered into the commissary management system by the division's contractor, so that pricing information in the policy was obsolete. A.D. 1914 is the Division of Community Corrections policy on restraints. It was amended to reflect the restrictions in Act 566 of 2019, again, dealing with the restraints placed on pregnant women. And then prenatal care pregnant residents administrative directive 1916 was also updated to reflect guidelines in Act 566 with deal with the ability of women within state custody to receive necessary hygiene items and prenatal care. Offender Case Records Administrative Directive 1918 was updated to add in language quoted as follows, employees must protect the confidentiality of records containing information about child support. Additionally, all ACC employees must be trained on this policy during new employee orientation. Also, the following instructions were provided to staff regarding the potential breach of data security. That is a requirement which requires potential data breaches to be reported to the Department's Information Technology Administrator. AD 1919 is the Division of Community Corrections Facility Sanitation and Food Service Administrative Directive. This policy was updated to reflect Department of Health rules and regulations dealing with the issues of stock rotation the use of pallets or shelving to store food and the fact that those pallets or shelving must be at least four inches off the wall and six inches off the floor a representative food tray for each meal is retained for three days to aid in any potential investigations of food related illnesses food will be used or discarded within seven calendar days and whenever possible food service staff will be on duty during all hours of food operations and the staff member will be served safe certified then finally administrative directive 1913 is the division of community corrections policy on personal cleanliness and grooming for residents residents arriving at the division of community correction will be clean shaving to provide a clean shaving photo for security reasons if a religious accommodation is approved for a beard the resident may grow a beard a picture must be taken with the beard security will take updated pictures as needed based on appearance changes to keep all pictures in the electronic institutional file current mr. chair that concludes the quarterly policy report for the Division of Community Correction thank
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Speaker 15 12:48
you without objection this report is reviewed and filed mr. graves I believe you also had
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Speaker 19 12:55
the parole board and this is a verbal report during the third quarter the parole board did not issue any
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Speaker 21 13:01
or any new or revised administrative directives I believe a copy was provided to staff okay
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Speaker 15 13:08
then members any questions then seeing them without objection this report is reviewed and filed thank
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Speaker 3 13:14
you very much and moving on to item D the insurance department indicated they have a conflict later today so unless there any objections we're going to move the insurance department rule to the top of agenda that it was number eight on
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Speaker 25 13:35
your agenda we didn't chair does not recognize representative love in that if you would please introduce yourself and
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Speaker 28 13:46
and present your report good morning members I am Alan Kerr the Arkansas insurance commissioner and I really appreciate you giving us the time this morning. We are here to review a rule that we have developed in relationship to a bill that was co-sponsored by Senator Bledsoe and it's a very good one. This is a multiple employer welfare association rule. What a MIWA is, which which is short for that, is, for instance, if Senator Rice's business wanted to band with some other furniture stores
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Speaker 30 14:34
and buy a health insurance policy to benefit that group, he can do that with this rule. That quite simply does it. A lot of industries like real estate agents, for instance, real estate agents for decades have always had trouble getting health insurance, but couldn't buy a group policy because each one of them had their own tax ID number, which kept them out of the realm of a group policy. They can do that now by banding together. Now, they can do this either fully insured, or if they can put the cash together, they can do a self-insured as well. I'm going to let Booth Rand, our attorney who put this together, go through those details on the surface. and if you have any questions, we can dive
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Speaker 32 15:24
deeper into it. Thank you, Commissioner, members. This is just a mechanism that allows small employers to band together to
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Speaker 33 15:31
create large group health plans, to give them more leverage, more freedom to design flexibility. This is an alternative to retail insurance, and so it's been a lot of insurance departments are seeing a lot of demand for these programs. And, Commissioner, I don't know if he explained this, But we've had a law in place for the last, I guess, 25 years, and the law has basically said the insurance commissioner shall issue a rule to develop these programs. Well, nobody has until we have done that. So we looked around the country to look at what works. And so if you look at our proposed rule, it follows Texas and Oklahoma. They have a very vibrant Mewa market. It's working in those states. and this is simply a mechanism to offer employers a different option than they're going to get with fully insured products and so we're I think one of the leading states doing this I know President Trump is trying to encourage association health plans this is one of those this is an AHP issue so we also want to say that these programs will comply with state laws medical laws medical coverage laws like any other insurance company the pbm law will apply to this these entities the any willing provider the prior authorization laws are all going to apply to these programs we assured the medical society that this would not be a mechanism to for these plans to avoid state laws they don't like so whatever blue cross and blue shield has to cover these things have to cover okay so we've worked with we had a public hearing last month and it was we had all favorable comments and so we anticipate having several three or four of these in the next year that we're going to review and form and the commissioner staff is going to review all the financial asset requirements to make sure these are safe they're not going to fail and leave providers you know with without any payments and so our goal will be to make sure these are solvent and able to pay claims pretty quickly to providers and so this is just our
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Speaker 32 17:41
answer to providing alternative to traditional health insurance to allow these employers to self-fund and band together. And
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Speaker 30 17:50
with that like he said we we had the hearing had several public comments that we've incorporated into the to the rule they were all very good suggestions and we believe we've covered all the basis and we're ready for questions from the members sure i have one so
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Speaker 3 18:04
how are we going to get the word out to the public that we've changed this rule i think it's a great opportunity for our state and so how do we first get the word out and then how do we train the business in
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Speaker 39 18:19
operational procedures well the first thing we
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Speaker 30 18:21
do is we send a bulletin out uh to the industry to let them know that this is passed and and what the rules are and how they may go about getting it set up when you get that out to the industry you got some hungry insurance agents out there they're gonna want to start start promoting these these products and use them as as tools to to build their business so that's the first step step number one after that we can put out a press release and let them know that that this is done also so will
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Speaker 3 18:55
you be walking people that decide to go down that route will you be walking them through training to make sure they're they know all they have to do and compliant and they're yes I assume that when you say that you're going to assure their
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Speaker 28 19:09
success yes sir that's absolutely we have we'll we'll have this information down in our consumer
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Speaker 30 19:14
department we'll have this with our finance department finance department be able to walk them through what needs to be done it's it's not as complicated as you might think it's pretty much going to be just like any other group policy um you're going to have a group of people that are all wanting to buy a policy you get that that list of folks and
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Speaker 45 19:35
and uh um do it just like any other group sign
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 19:40
up really great senator hammer thank you um are they required to meet the all the requirements
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Speaker 33 19:48
of the affordable care act yes but well by and large this is right now under federal. One of the issues, Senator Hammer, is whether these association health plans have to cover essential health benefits, okay? Several attorney generals on the East Coast challenged association health plans maintaining that they have to cover EHB. Now, my answer to that question is it's under appeal right now in federal courts about whether these things have to cover essential health benefits under the Affordable Care Act but this will will follow state law so I can't say federal right now because it's under appeal so. Senator if
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Ryan James Unverified 20:29
I may as well Ryan James government relations insurance department the the federal rule equated association health plans with large group under federal law it also equated large group with me was at the state level thus allowing states to regulate these these entities large group plans are not subject to the EHB requirement okay if it was a small group plan they would be but the ten essential health benefits that an individual would find on the individual market the large group policies that are sold today in this state that we regulate are not required to to follow the ten federally mandated EHBs what we've done in this state and mr. Rand did an excellent job of this was incorporating all the mandates that this legislature and previous incarnations of the legislature have put on health care in this state which would include the PBMs which would also include craniofacial and diabetes and other stuff that the legislature has mandated insurance like an insurance policy in the state that's otherwise sold outside of this
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Speaker 56 21:45
me what construct we've applied that to these me was can I
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 21:52
have some follow-ups mr. go ahead so will they be required to use a PBM or could they go to like EBRX in order to meet their we don't we're not
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Speaker 33 22:05
directing them one way or another so they've got the latitude they've got tremendous latitude they've got
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 22:11
the latitude to do that okay and I'm just I was looking through the public comments I don't unless I missed it was there any complaints or objections from the Blue Cross Blue Shields of the world or how is it
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Speaker 33 22:22
they were in support of the regulation I think they look at it as another
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Speaker 44 22:26
opportunity to sell insurance they've got a third-party administrative company
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Speaker 32 22:29
that could administer these programs all right thank you thank you Mr. Chair. We're always glad to see more
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Speaker 63 22:38
people want to get into business and have an incentive
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Speaker 15 22:41
in a competitive market so thank you. Any other questions members? Go ahead. Commissioner, how does
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Senator Lance Eads Unverified 22:50
this differ from what we would consider a traditional like pool offering through like a PEO like where small employers sometimes have gone through professional employment organizations to where they've pooled their insurance in that form is is it very similar to that it's very similar to that very similar to it just a little more
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Speaker 33 23:10
latitude in this particular i think this is unique because this permits self-funding so you don't have to go if you're a peo and get a fully insured group policy you can design it on a self-funded out of your own assets and so one of the unique things about this rule is that it's addressing your ability to fund and pay
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Speaker 32 23:27
for claims out of your own assets instead of having to go go get an insurance company to insure that like you would a PEO. Okay all right thank you.
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 23:45
Senator Hammer. Let me ask one more question on the PBM matter. So the insurance companies previous legislative session were pretty resistant to us doing any changing with the PBMs and is the plan going to have the choice of the PBM versus EBRX approach or is that going to be the final decision to be controlled by the insurance company that's selling the policy on these on
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Speaker 33 24:12
these there's no insurance company actually underwriting these policies these are self-funded
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Speaker 32 24:17
so the organization would have freedom to select whatever pbm or pbmrx model it wanted to do if they choose to go self-funded
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Speaker 44 24:24
i mean they could go they can go fully insured they can go self-funded if they're going fully insured then yes
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Speaker 30 24:29
the insurance company is going to going to choose the pbm but if they're going self-funded they they hold all the cards they they direct all the uh the traffic okay thank you i see no further questions that's i believe senator rice had a question oh i'm sorry senator rice when you're through with
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Speaker 79 24:54
these others this this is a something different but it might help membership
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified 25:03
you're okay thank you and uh i'm having some contacts on uh and just reading to bring us up rather than out in the halls might help some other members extended warranty companies now doing whole home type stuff covers everything in the house all what can we tell constituents whether that is whether they are licensed companies in arkansas home warranties they're seeing it on national advertising and you are are we talking home warranties and home warranties uh extended warranties on items cars cars okay and everything i mean there it's it's really proliferated yeah
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Speaker 35 25:44
unfortunately um warranties are not considered insurance okay and uh doesn't fall underneath
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Speaker 30 25:50
the insurance department um there is a lot of talk about those types of of contracts at the neic and we're deliberating now on what to do about it we're working with the attorney generals in different states to to maybe get get our arms wrapped around that issue thank you for that information thank mr. chair okay
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Speaker 15 26:18
if there are no further questions members then without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you thank you mr.
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Speaker 3 26:29
chairman thank you committee and we will move on to under D Item 1, the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism.
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Speaker 15 26:38
And if someone from the agency would come and
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Speaker 91 26:51
introduce yourself. Thank you, Mr.
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Speaker 93 26:55
Chair, members. Boyd Mayer, I'm the Director at Capital Zoning District Commission and agency of the Department of Parks, Heritage, and Tourism.
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Speaker 48 27:08
Go ahead and submit your report. Yes, our
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Speaker 93 27:12
proposed rule incorporates language from the Transformation Act from the last session earlier this year. It was non-controversial. We didn't get any comments on it. It was largely cut and pasting from our statute and incorporating the transformation changes into our agency's rule members do we have any questions and if
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Speaker 15 27:35
there are no questions then without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you thank you mr. chair
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Speaker 25 27:53
our next item is the Department of Education if someone wouldn't from the department would come forward and present
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Speaker 4 28:06
your rule. If you would please introduce yourself and
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Speaker 100 28:10
proceed. Taylor Dugan attorney for the Arkansas Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education. And what we have in front of us today, Mr. Chairman and members, is the Arkansas department of education division of elementary and secondary education rule governing the school worker defense program and the school worker defense program adversary board we made a few changes to these rules ones for some for clarification and the other were to incorporate act 557 of 2019 that prohibited corporal punishment on a student with a disability we respect the division respectfully request that the panel approve these rules if there there are any questions. Are there any questions? Seeing none,
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Speaker 15 29:00
then without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have the Division of Environmental Quality. Someone please come forward and
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Speaker 13 29:16
you may introduce yourself and present the
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Speaker 103 29:35
rule good morning Michael prepaid Department of
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Speaker 104 29:41
Energy and Environment I'm here to present a repeal of the old rule 14 which the new tap power tire program we created rule 36 to replace it is simply a repeal of the old rule I'd be glad to take any
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Speaker 15 30:02
questions members any questions and if there are no questions and without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you thank you and next we next we have the Department of Human Services Division of Aging and Adult Behavioral Health Services and someone please come forward and introduce yourself and
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Representative Roger D. Lynch Unverified 30:26
present your rule Thank you, Mr. Chair. Isaac Lynham, Office of Rules Promulgation with DHS. Jay
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Lee Watson Unverified 30:51
Hill, Division Director for Aging Adult Behavioral Health with DHS. And this morning we are presenting a request to repeal the rules, the minimum standards for community mental health centers. these rules were adopted in 1990 1996 when at that time CMHC's community mental health centers were designated in special language which required the adoption of these rules as of 2017 the special language was eliminated and community health centers are now selected through a procurement process following state guidelines and all the minimum standards and rules that existed are now incorporated into those contracts these rules and the standards are monitored by the division and they're reviewed annually by this by this body by the legislature and because they are now in in contract we are seeking to repeal the outdated rules and the repeal will in no way impact beneficiaries so if i
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Speaker 63 31:56
understand we do we kind of cut and paste the
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Speaker 15 32:00
rule from one to the other so there's no
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Lee Watson Unverified 32:03
actual change in the rule there are no changes to the rules no sir they are adopted into the contracts and
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Speaker 3 32:12
as they were there there are no changes okay and i understand right now there there's a process going on where many of our community mental health centers are now merging their businesses into one is that going is this rule will that impact their ability to bid on that contract since they're all they've merged into one company i don't
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Lee Watson Unverified 32:30
believe the rules will impact their ability to function as a community mental health center our contracts stipulate that one provider can have one catchment area what we call a catchment area a region or a zone of service and so dhs will be looking at that because we have four that are combining into one entity four of our larger community health centers are merging together but the rules itself will will not prevent them from serving okay so it's
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Speaker 3 32:55
really a separate issue yes sir okay and how will we monitor that when that will that require a rule change then to allow a company to operate in more than one catchment area i don't know that that will
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Lee Watson Unverified 33:10
that that would require a rule change i believe that's more of a of a dhs policy and
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Speaker 25 33:16
a practice okay if you could just get back and let us i'm interested in their their ability to continue they're operational now doing a good job in their area and if we set up a process where they can no longer where it's more difficult for them to procure that contract I just like to be aware of that certainly okay Senator Hammer thank you mr.
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 33:40
chair I'm just curious what the changing of the rule was there any reduction or was there a requirement for any reduction in manpower at the department with this rule going through or these changes happening were you able to cut any staff because of this or did you just reassign duties or how did that have effect on this anything
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Lee Watson Unverified 34:02
no sir we didn't reduce staff the the same number of staff are monitoring our contracts as before the rules were always in existence we were always monitoring those performance indicators standards of the standards of performance we just simply transferred that from this rule into the contracts themselves and so we still have the same the same staff members the same group working these contracts. So was there what was there
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 34:29
were no reductions in staff. Okay were there any savings what was the what were the savings in doing this I guess or where were the areas of
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Lee Watson Unverified 34:37
savings identified to make that change? I don't know that there were savings identified simply by shifting the rules into the contract. We did that because the contracts have never existed before and and so this just allowed us to uh to monitor those and to to repeal the rule that's no longer required because we have a contract rather than a cmhc being designated as in special language okay all right thank you
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Speaker 15 35:06
mr thank you seeing no more questions and then without objection this rule is reviewed and approved. Thank you. Moving on to item five on our agenda, the Department of Human Services, County Operations. Would you please come forward and introduce yourself and present your rule?
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Speaker 124 35:40
Good morning. I'm Mary Franklin, Director of the Division of County Operations for the Department of Human Services. This rule is for our Medical Services Policy Manual, and it is regarding the Achieving a Better Life Experience Program, the ABLE program. And what this rule does is change the policy so that ABLE
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Speaker 125 36:08
accounts are exempt from estate recovery should the designated beneficiary pass away. This
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Representative Roger D. Lynch Unverified 36:15
is an implementation of Act 59. That's Representative Julie Mayberry's act from the 2019 session. We had language in the
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified 36:24
policy manual that said that the ABLE accounts were subject to estate recovery. representative Mayberry's act said that we are not allowed we're prohibited from accessing those funds through a state recovery so we just made that change in
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Speaker 15 36:41
policy great thank you members anyone have any questions then without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you and item six the Department of Human Services Division of Medical Services if someone from the division would please come and introduce yourself and present the rule
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Speaker 131 37:13
good morning my name is Elizabeth Pittman I'm
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified 37:18
deputy director for DMS mr. chair federal law requires Medicaid to offer early and periodic screening treatment and diagnostic services to medic medicaid beneficiaries we do that and in addition there is a specific federal regulation that requires the agency to set the schedule and the content the contents of those screenings according to standards of recognized medical organizations in child health care the way that we had we comply with those federal regs is in our state plan we say that we will follow the recommendations of the american academy of pediatrics uh the aap and the aap has uh since our last update they have come out with a new set of standards and we have just incorporated the updates into our medicaid manuals anyone have any questions
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Speaker 15 38:12
and with no questions without objection this rule is reviewed and approved i think you have another
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Representative Roger D. Lynch Unverified 38:18
item go ahead yes sir this this rule concerns a state plan amendment for the primary care case manager program I want to emphasize that
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified 38:30
there are no changes at all in the program the only reason that we were bringing this promulgation is CMS had a new template for this portion of the state plan they asked us to migrate our information from the old template to the new template it looks different on the page and under the administrative procedure act here in arkansas if it's going to look different on the page we have to bring a promulgation and so that's what we've done no changes at all and no public comments senator hammer
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 39:06
when thank you Mr. Chair, when CMS, you know, you guys come before us pretty often saying that CMS says, was this one of those that they verbally told you, or was it in writing that they told you, and how in-depth is the communications that they send you when they want something like this done?
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Representative Roger D. Lynch Unverified 39:24
What happened with this was, if you'll recall, earlier in the year, we ran a state plan amendment changing some of the requirements in the patient-centered medical homes the language in the state plan the patient-centered medical homes language is adjacent in the state plan to the PCCM changes so whenever we were
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified 39:48
running the PCMH spa they asked us to whenever as part of our revision they asked us to use a new template then they had a policy at the time where if any state made a change to the PCMH language, they were going to also ask them to migrate their language on the PCCM side. And so at that time, they said as a condition of approval of the PCMH SPA that they would require us to make this migration for PCCM. I don't recall if there was specific written communication on that point uh i know we have uh calls with cms every two weeks uh it may have come up in
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 40:39
one of those calls so if i wanted if i said to you produce me a piece of paper that shows that cms required this would you produce me a
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Speaker 111 40:50
sears catalog or a one sheet i would produce you a one sheet uh you know i could
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified 40:55
go back and see if we had some uh an official communication on their letterhead if not i could easily ask cms to produce one okay all right we'll talk offline thank you i'd be
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Speaker 15 41:08
interested in sitting in on that too just to uh it seems like we make a lot of these based upon cms request however there's when we ask
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Speaker 25 41:16
for documentation to verify that request it's very difficult to find so i'd be interested in sitting in senator hammer do you
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Speaker 15 41:24
have another question to what you just said when we were
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 41:29
going through some of this stuff about six eight months ago in public health I asked that from that point forwards that you know that you bring and I'm not directing this you personally because I'm not sure it involved you too but that whenever the whenever DHS comes before us in any of our committees and they say that CMS said I don't think it too much to ask that you bring the accompanying paperwork that shows that CMS actually required that so that we know it's coming down no disrespect we know that it's coming from CMS and it's not just something that's DHS is saying that CMS has said you know this is trust and verify I trust you but I want to verify it and so mr. chair I I'm gonna put that before you put it before the other committee i don't think we got it i'm going to put it before you and ask that the chairs require dhs that when they come in here with rule change that we have the accompanying paperwork uh and if it's a sears and roebuck catalog put it on a paper clip and let us look it up on the on the laptops but something that shows that cms has actually required a rule change i'd like to i'll put that in the form of a motion if you want us to get vote on it as a committee and have discussion about it but however the chair chooses to handle i'm willing to offer that motion if
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Speaker 25 42:51
required thank you i'd like to trust that cms would follow that without us having to pass a motion if you don't then we'll pass a motion it sounds like but if you could i think that's an excellent idea so that we have a doc corresponding document to any changes how do we know if our regs are more strict than cms regs that our requirements see if we're making requirements that cms is not
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified 43:24
making how would one know that well i our state plan is is very long we you know we would go go through we would need to go through and probably do a you know a line by line comparison if that's something that the committee would like us to do we can
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Speaker 25 43:43
work on that let's talk afterwards and see because i think i know i would i don't know if the committee would but we'll not take that
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Speaker 3 43:50
up during this time i don't see any other questions and then without objection this rule is reviewed and approved and you have an
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Representative Roger D. Lynch Unverified 43:58
item c i think yes sir uh this uh relates to the a the domiciliary care service
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified 44:03
that had been offered by Medicaid we ran reports and we hadn't we went back at least three years and we hadn't had any claims on this service we don't have any providers that are enrolled for this service and as a result of that we are just removing it from our state plan and our Medicaid manuals we had no public comments thank
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Speaker 15 44:31
you members any questions if there are no questions and without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank
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Speaker 5 44:40
you thank you item 7 the Department of Human Services Division of Provider Services and Quality
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Speaker 137 44:58
Assurance. Gerald Sherrum, Director for the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance. Sure, go ahead and present your rule. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This rule is a amendment to the rules and regulations for conducting criminal record checks for employees of long-term care facilities. It makes three changes though none of the changes impact the requirements on employees of long-term care facilities to have background checks. Just these relate to the use of envelopes and then some language on the form for submitting a national criminal background check as well as adding a privacy statement that sort of describes the limitations on what information can be shared related to criminal background checks happy to answer any questions members anyone have any
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Speaker 14 45:45
questions and then seeing no questions without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you
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Speaker 15 45:53
thank you and we'll jump down to item 9 Arkansas State Medical Board someone please come to the table and introduce yourself and you may present your rule
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Speaker 140 46:12
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, committee members, Kevin O'Dwyer represent the Arkansas State Medical Board here on Rule 34, which was pursuant to Act 975, requirements of death certificate and filing of death certificates, and I'm happy to entertain any questions. Members, anyone have any questions?
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Speaker 14 46:33
Senator Hammer? Can you refresh
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 46:41
my memory how this applies to a hospice nurse who pronounces a death under their authority and how all that fits into this? Is this just applying to physicians? I can't remember. This, our rule only applies to physicians and how the physicians are to report.
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Speaker 140 47:01
And it essentially extends the time for filing to three days, and then it also deals with how to file electronically but as far as how the hospice APRN would file it I'm not aware
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified 47:13
okay so this doesn't get in their business at all this deals no I stay out of their business yeah okay all right
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Speaker 15 47:22
thank you thank you any other questions members and seeing no questions without objection this rule is reviewed and
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Speaker 140 47:36
approved thank you Chairman the second rule is our rule 44 which is for genetic counseling establishes the licensure procedure for genetic counseling and the requirements it's pursuant to Act 686 and this is a new rule. Members anyone have any
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Speaker 14 47:55
questions? Seeing no questions without objection this rule is reviewed and
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Speaker 15 47:59
approved. Thank you. Thank you. Item 10, the Department of Military, that you would please come forward, introduce yourself, and you may present your rule.
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Speaker 108 48:26
Scott Stanger, Chief of Staff, Department of
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Nick Fuller Unverified 48:37
the Military. Colonel Jeff Wood Arkansas National Guard Nick
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Speaker 150 48:43
Fuller I'm the deputy director at the division of higher education good morning uh this rule change would allow the department of the military department of higher ed to be able to expend any unexpended money in the National Guard tuition assistant program to go to mandatory student fees for guardsmen airmen and soldiers members anyone have
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Speaker 15 49:03
any questions and seeing no questions without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you gentlemen thank you and item 11 the Department of Corrections someone would come forward and introduce
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Speaker 4 49:20
yourself and you may present your rule okay good
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Speaker 152 49:36
morning mr. chair committee members my name is Lindsay Wallace I'm the director
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Lindsay Wallace Unverified 49:41
for the Arkansas sentencing Commission which is now a division of the Department of Corrections what you have before you is the Arkansas sentencing standards seriousness reference table. This table contains criminal offenses, felony offenses, that have been ranked by the Arkansas Sentencing Commission. After each legislative session, the commission gets together and looks at any new felony offenses or offenses that have been modified during the legislative session. And what you see in this rule incorporates offenses that have been created or amended during the last legislative session. It was non-controversial and there were no public comments so with that i'll take any questions members any
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Speaker 15 50:25
questions and seeing no questions without objection this rule is reviewed and approved thank you very much thank you members that concludes our agenda without further business we are adjourned
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Unknown speaker 50:47
You
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Agenda

A. Call to Order.

2:31

B. Reports of the Executive Subcommittee.

3:32

C. Reports on Administrative Directives Pursuant to Act 1258 of 2015, for the quarter ending September 30, 2019.

3:40

D. Rules Filed Pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 10-3-309.

13:18

E. Adjournment.

50:39

Documents

TitleTypePagesSource
Agenda — ALC - ADMINISTRATIVE RULES, Nov 13, 2019 Agenda 2 Official source ↗
A. Summary Agenda Exhibit 33 Official source ↗
C.01 Quarterly Report, Division of Community Correction Exhibit 75 Official source ↗
C.02 Quarterly Report, Division of Correction Exhibit 252 Official source ↗
C.03 Quarterly Report, Parole Board Exhibit 1 Official source ↗
D.01a DPHT Capitol Zoning Dist. Commission 2019 Transformation Act Language Exhibit 1 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.02a ADE DESE Sch Worker Defense Program and Advisory Bd and Act 557 of 2019 Exhibit 15 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.03a DEQ Repeal of Reg No 14 Exhibit 48 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.04a DHS DAABHS Repeal of Stds for CMH Centers and Clinics and the Accreditation Policy Exhibit 39 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.05a DHS DCO Sections E600 and E630 ABLE Program and Act 59 of 2019 Exhibit 4 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.06a DHS DMS ARKids-3-18.06a DHS DMS ARKids-3-18.06a DHS DMS ARKids-3-18 Exhibit 16 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.06b DHS DMS Primary Care Case Manager SPA 18-0013 Exhibit 32 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.06c DHS DMS ARKids-4-18, Dom. Care-1-18 Exhibit 27 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.07a DHS DPSQA OLTC Rules for Conducting Crim Record Checks Exhibit 5 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.08a AID Multiple Employer Welfare Benefit Plans and Act 919 of 2019 Exhibit 21 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.09a ASMB Rule 34 Requirements of Licensed Physicians in Completing Death Certificates and Act 975 of 2019 Exhibit 10 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.09b ASMB Rule 43 Genetic Counselor Licensure and Act 686 of 2019 Exhibit 15 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.10a DOM Ark Natl Guard Tuition Waiver Program and Act 535 of 2019 Exhibit 10 needs OCR Official source ↗
D.11a ASC Arkansas Sentencing Standards Seriousness Reference Table Exhibit 32 needs OCR Official source ↗

Speakers

Speaker 2
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Speaker 3
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Solomon Graves Unverified
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Speaker 14
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Speaker 15
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Speaker 25
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Speaker 28
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Speaker 30
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Speaker 32
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Speaker 33
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Speaker 39
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Speaker 45
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Senator Kim Hammer Unverified
19 segments
Ryan James Unverified
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Speaker 56
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Speaker 44
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Senator Lance Eads Unverified
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Senator Terry Rice Unverified
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Representative Roger D. Lynch Unverified
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Lee Watson Unverified
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Speaker 124
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Elizabeth Pittman Unverified
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Speaker 140
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Nick Fuller Unverified
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Speaker 150
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Speaker 152
1 segment
Lindsay Wallace Unverified
2 segments