ALC - Review [ASR Test]
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0:00
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Speaker 2
4:30
members if everybody will take your seat we're gonna go ahead and get this meeting started so we've got a fairly lengthy agenda today so we're not going to waste any time and with that Ms. Kathy, if you'd get us started.
Speaker 5
5:02
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On your agenda, the first item, B, has been pulled from the agenda today from DHS. They are going to make some changes to that, and we'll probably see that at a later date on an agenda. So the next thing on your agenda will be item C, which are our methods of finance. on the first page of the c packet is the letter from office of accounting dfa they have three methods of finance that they've sent over for today's agenda on page two you'll see the first
one is ualr this is a revised method of finance going to 509 797 and this is for the collaborative Learning Center for minor renovations to the library, updates to the student computer lab. They note that they have cash funds and foundation funds to cover this cost. The next two are going to be for UAMS. The first one is for $853,143 for the second floor internal medicine space.
They're consolidating internal medicine into the second floor of the outpatient clinic and moving cardiovascular to the first floor of the outpatient clinic. They note that they have clinical reserves and revenues to cover this expense. The next one that you have for UAMS is for their campus energy performance contract for implementing recommendations of investment-grade audit created in consultation with the Arkansas Energy Office. and this is going to be for a hundred million dollars uh you'll note that the total uh projected
cost is 149 million uh so we'll see a an amendment later on a revision of this updating this but this will be covered through bond proceeds and those are the methods of finance on today's agenda all right members and representative dotson you
Chair
Unverified
6:58
were recognized for a question sir Thank you Mr. Chair This is I guess is
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
7:04
somebody from UAMS here Yeah we do I saw Maurice was here just earlier And Dr. Patterson Maurice
are you around Yep there they are Yeah I will Yep right around there
Speaker 18
7:24
There you go They did Yeah, and we need an extra chair. Maurice or Dr. Pat, if y'all just want to pull one of those chairs up.
Cam Patterson
Unverified
7:40
Henry's got one. Great. If y'all just go ahead and give us your
Speaker 22
7:47
names and positions for the record. My name is Cam Patterson. I'm the Chancellor of the
Speaker 23
7:52
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I'm Christina Clark, Vice Chancellor for Institutional Support Services.
Speaker 24
7:56
Brian Cotton, Associate Vice Chancellor of Campus Operations. Maurice Rigsby, Vice Chancellor of Institutional Relations. Great. Welcome. Happy to
Speaker 28
8:03
have you all here. Representative Dotson, recognize the procedure of your question. Thank you,
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
8:09
Mr. Chair. This is really, I saw that you have $100 million bond proceeds, and I mean, I don't know how much of that goes, how much you're going to have to pay on an annual basis and that sort of thing, but I know a year or two ago, the UAMS was in some financial troubles.
You're cutting staff, reducing different things. Can you kind of give us an update on where you're at with that and how
you're going to afford to pay back a $100 million bond? Sure,
Speaker 22
8:44
I'm delighted to. So when I was being recruited here about two years ago, that was the middle of fiscal year 2018. We run a July to June fiscal year, and you read in the Democrat Gazette that UAMS was going to lose $70 million in that year. We finished up fiscal year 2018 on January 30, 2018, last year, losing less than $15 million.
And we presented to the University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees for fiscal year 2019 the first balanced budget that had been submitted to the Board of Trustees in at least five or six years. We closed out our books, we did our final audit for fiscal year 2019, a couple of weeks ago, and we finished about $44 million ahead of budget. And we have submitted the second in a row balanced budget to the Board of Trustees
to the University of Arkansas system, which was accepted. We are determined to be good stewards of the generous resources that are provided to us by the legislature here in the state of Arkansas. And we are confident that we are gonna be able to cover the costs of this bond issue. We went to the bond market at an extremely opportune time with a sound financial balance sheet and we're able to get less than 3% rate on our loans.
So this will allow us to implement a project that will accomplish three things. One is it will allow us to build a second energy plant, which we desperately need in a hospital that needs energy 24 hours a day, seven days a week for people who are near death. It will allow us to revise the Pine Cedar Corridor on the eastern part of our campus to make it easier for patients to access our campus. And it will generate about $100 million that we can use for badly needed deferred maintenance
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
10:45
on our campuses. So if I heard you correctly, in two years you went from a $70 million
Speaker 32
10:55
deficit to a $44 million surplus? That's correct. Congratulations. Thank you.
Chair
Unverified
11:05
No further questions. Representative Fortner, you are
Representative Jack Fortner
Unverified
11:08
recognized for a question, sir. Thank you. Could you just real briefly explain where it went from $100 million to $150 million?
Speaker 39
11:15
That's a pretty good chunk. So we've got $54 million for the actual energy plant, $45 million in critical deferred maintenance, and I'm running all the numbers, $12 million for the Pine Cedar Corridor, and I'm missing one. $59 million for other deferred maintenance, so roughly $100 million in deferred maintenance. Part of the energy efficiencies are also lighting, replacing generators.
We've got 20 generators that will be replaced with this energy plant. They're at or beyond their lifespan. Other HVAC mechanical that is original to some of our 1950s buildings will be in this. We've also received a generous amount from the city on the Pine Cedar Corridor. They gave us $4.6 million to assist in that project. Representative Fortner, I want to
Speaker 41
12:17
mention this part of maybe a part of your question is related to the Appropriation Authority.
So for this year, the part of it, and I think Kathy mentioned that in her opening, that the $100 million portion of it is within the appropriation authority that you all have approved for us. And so we will come back, because this is a three-year project, we'll come back to get the remaining $50 million to add that to the project as well. That was my question. Thank
Cam Patterson
Unverified
12:50
you. All right, members, seeing no further questions and without objection, these items will stand as reviewed.
Speaker 5
12:55
Mr. Chairman the next item on our agenda that's item D. These are our discretionary grants and on D1 the first one is for Arkansas Department of Health. Their first one there is state funded and it is for funding for the Northwest Arkansas Center Springdale for burn care education and burn education and burn training supplies dealing for local emergency medical communities. The next one also for the health department and this one's federally funded is for working
with emergency departments to gain access to overdose patients in crisis and support them throughout their treatment the third one on that page also federally funded is for financing and operational improvements to Arkansas's critical access hospitals and then on the next page Department of Health 100% federally funded this was an amendment to an existing grant that they have to reduce the new HIV infections in Arkansas, and they'll provide voluntary testing, counseling, outreach,
education, and link to high-risk populations. So number four, number five, and number seven, those are all amendments to grants doing that. Number six and number eight are grants amendments that provide statewide hepatitis intervention services, including outreach, education, testing and detection. And then those are the grants for the health department. That takes us over to Department of Human Services grants and that's on page four of this packet. The first one
is with their aging adults and behavioral health services and this is for an amendment for $106,544 to provide medication assisted treatment to uninsured and underinsured diagnosed with opioid use disorder. Grants numbers 2, 3, and 4 are all for homeless individuals who have serious mental illness to help them find and obtain adequate housing. And I received a message from the agency. They pulled grant number 5 from the agenda, so you won't be reviewing it today.
The final group of grants on today's agenda come to us from the Arkansas Beef Council. On page six of that D package, you have one for the Four States Fair. These are funded by their agency special revenues. This one is to provide programming and to conduct the Agricultural Learning Center, which is operated by the Four States Fair. They conduct year-round events and special programs related to both the beef industry and the beef product nutrition. That learning center has over 40,000 people per year that visit it,
and it's mainly youth-oriented audiences. The next one from the Beef Council is also funded by their special revenues to the Arkansas Cattle Women's Association, and this is to conduct several special products related to beef promotion. And those are
Speaker 8
15:57
the grants on today's agenda. All right. Seat
Speaker 44
16:02
80. Is that you, Senator Hammer? Okay. Yes, sir. Senator Hammer. I'll get you.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
16:13
There we go. Thank you. Could I ask DHS a question about 2, 3, and 4? Sure. Kelly, you
Speaker 50
16:31
want to come sit on this one? i guess not mark welcome to welcome to review subcommittee thank
Speaker 54
16:37
you mr chairman uh mark white uh chief legislative affairs with dhs uh and i tried to get kelly up here but he just wouldn't come ah dadgum him we'll figure out a way
Chair
Unverified
16:46
jay hill with aging adult behavior health
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
16:52
great all right senator hammer you recognize procedure question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know this is 100% federally funded, but when it comes to assisting the homeless individuals, they all have been identified as serious mental illness. Is this after they have received their treatment and they have been deemed to be able to live independently, and these are funds to help them with
Speaker 56
17:14
independent living? Yes, sir, it is, and these
are these are for individuals that are all being served by the community mental health centers the three community health centers that you see listed okay and these individuals no way shape or
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:25
form are involved in the passes then or they are involved in the passes I don't ordinarily not if
Speaker 54
17:33
they're being served by the community mental health centers then that means they are not Medicaid recipients and so they would not be part of the past okay and
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
17:41
so this is going to be for actual brick-and-mortar housing facilities for them is that is that right yes it would be for
Speaker 56
17:47
a structural facility could be an apartment it could be a home
Speaker 62
17:50
yes sir okay thank you thank you mr. chair thank you all right you guys are excused thank you all right
Speaker 64
17:57
members seeing no further questions and without objections
Speaker 5
18:01
these items will stand as reviewed mr chairman the next item that we look at is our e-packet these will be our services contracts and on page one of the e-packet is the letter from department of transformation and shared Services, the Office of State Procurement, Mr. Ed Armstrong, and in this letter he notes that there is one contract, we'll see it on page 12, that is being asked to ratify for the Arkansas
Department of Community Corrections. All other contracts that we'll be seeing today appear to be legal contracts and are submitted for your review. On page two of this packet you have your construction related contracts the first grouping we look at numbers one through eight these are all going to be for ASU Jonesboro and these are all on-call contracts for landscaping surveys surveying services and architectural services then on page three you have contract number nine
for Henderson State University this is an amendment to an existing contract that they've had for architectural services, and they're adding an additional $200,000 to this contract to cover any unforeseen needed repairs during renovation work that they're doing. Number 10 is the military department. This is an original contract for $152,300 for design professional services, architectural and engineer services. This is for their resource management training center
for the design of that and that is located on Camp Robinson. Next, number 11, is Parks and Tourism and this is a contract for projects that are working at Lake Fort Smith and Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Number 12, Rich Mountain Community College is an on-call architectural contract original. Number 13 is State Police. This is an amendment to the contract that they have for their architectural services finishing up Troop L Headquarters facility located in Lowell Arkansas those are the construction related contracts on today's agenda all right members
Speaker 42
20:06
are there any questions all right seeing now without objection these items
Speaker 5
20:12
will stand as reviewed the next group of contracts begin on page six of the e-packet these are intergovernmental contracts the first one is DHS with the Department of Community Corrections this is for a contract for providing a medication assisted treatment services using state opioid response funds The second one is DHS with University UAMS. This is to design and evaluate all programs in their prevention plan for eligible services under the Family First Services and Prevention Act.
And number three is DHS with UALR, and this is to contract to perform data collection and reporting in compliance with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquents Prevention Act. Those are the intergovernmental contracts on today's agenda. all right members any questions all right
Speaker 42
20:59
seeing none and without objection these items will stand as reviewed the next group of
Speaker 5
21:05
contracts begin on page eight of the e-packet these are our out-of-state contracts the first one is for arkansas tech this is an original contract for
three hundred thousand dollars for with re-up education this is a kind of company that will provide an educational technology solution including student database proprietary coaching models for re-entry marketing. And this is done as a sole source contract. So in your green packet of letters, letters beginning on page one and going through three is the sole source justification for this contract. And this is, they have identified this group as the only one who provides the services they're looking for to re-enroll stopped out students. That would be
former students who are not re-enrolled elsewhere. And the vendor will pursue these former students at no upfront cost with a tuition share due only if the students enroll at Tech. Number two is the Crime Information Center, and this is for storing and distributing criminal justice data to criminal justice agencies in Arkansas. Number three, Crime Information Center, this is for arrest disposition recovery services. Number four, DHS, this is for consulting and
system integration services. Number five, DHS computer aid. This is for lead developer services for database upgrade support and application development and testing. Number six, DHS. This one is an original contract for jump technology services for adult protective services. Number seven is an amendment for emergency shelter services for DCFS clients. Number eight is a DHS contract amendment for data mining and medicaid finance operational support number nine is a dhs
contract with cognizante this is for project management office the arkansas integrated eligibility system and staffing and resources and number 10 at the bottom of page 10 in the section of e this is dhs with eq health solutions this one is to administer prior authorization and retrospective review services for their behavioral health, developments, disabilities, and aging and adult Medicaid population statewide. Number 11 is state police. This is for implementation of
IntelliGrants, an electronic grants management system for the Highway Safety Office. And number 12 is UALR. This one is for a consultant to work with them. This is also a sole source justified contract. It's in your green packet on pages four through six. Their sole source justification states that UALR has received research funding from the U.S. Department of Defense for four-year program to continue development of nanotechnology-based product for bone regeneration. The FDA recommended
that they now begin FDA-compliant data collection for inclusion in future applications for bringing this to the human market and this vendor will carry out those processes required for commercialization and manufacturing of bone scaffolds. Those are the out-of-state contracts on today's agenda. All right, let's see here. Representative Sullivan,
Chair
Unverified
24:22
are you in 43? Yes. All right, you are recognized
Speaker 62
24:27
for a question, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could
Representative Dan Sullivan
Unverified
24:30
we have someone from the agency come
up to talk about item 10 with the eq health solutions okay so someone from DHS get ready for it mark
Speaker 50
24:44
does a salary view so committee rolls man Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mark White, DHS.
Speaker 72
25:04
Paula Stone, Division of Medical Services. Mary Catherine Williams, Chief
Speaker 71
25:10
Procurement Officer. Great. All right, Representative Sullivan, you are recognized. Proceed. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Dan Sullivan
Unverified
25:17
Chair. I understand that EQ has several deficiencies and a corrective action plan, and that their task is prior authorization, and that there are sometimes quite lengthy delays in prior authorization processes, and yet we're extending or adding to that contract.
can you tell me why we're giving them more responsibility and paying them more money when they're underperforming and under a corrective action plan and maybe where we are in that corrective action process have we collected any you know compensation from them as a result of that can you kind of update me on why we're
Speaker 79
26:03
so we have been reviewing the eq health contract and in their deliverables and they have been behind in one key area and that is the prior authorizations for speech therapy there have
been some consistent struggles with OT and PT as well but speech therapy has been the main concern we have they have submitted a corrective action plan we've reviewed that but we are also going to go further with that they have not been sanctioned at this point but we are looking at their most current report to determine if that needs to happen, if that, if the issues around, particularly around speech therapy, have been corrected.
So this contract is more than just the OTPT and speech therapy. They have identified an issue around being able to hire speech therapists in the state of Arkansas and keep those individuals hired. And so their corrective action plan is looking at a process for hiring and maintaining speech therapists. are required to do those speech therapy reviews
Representative Dan Sullivan
Unverified
27:09
yeah i think you know we visited about this a while back and one of the potential solutions is actually a licensing option that we as a as
the agency or maybe the legislature by expediting licensures in other states might be able to resolve this have you have we moved forward on that or is that
Speaker 79
27:34
forward on that as it relates to this contract, and that would be more of a policy change that would not be done. Any licensure, the Department of Human Services is not over a licensure for speech therapists, so we have not moved forward with anything on speech
Representative Dan Sullivan
Unverified
27:53
therapy licensure. Mr. Chair, may I
Speaker 85
27:58
continue? Give you two more follow-ups, Representative Sullivan. so if we
Representative Dan Sullivan
Unverified
28:03
because we've had a few providers who have actually had their business at risk because of the lack of cash flow because eq is not providing that service that they're contracted to do and i understand why so i'm concerned that if we have solutions that are out there that would benefit our business and the consumer why we
Speaker 79
28:26
haven't moved so any solution around
On the licensure requirement for speech therapists is not something DHS has control of. We do not do licensure for speech therapists. What we can do in this contract and what EQHealth has asked us to do is to waive the Arkansas licensure requirement for those individuals for a short amount of time, enabling them to then hire additional therapists here in the state of Arkansas. So the contract has an Arkansas licensed speech therapist that is a requirement in the current contract.
Chair
Unverified
29:01
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
29:09
you. All right. Senator Hammer, you're recognized for a question, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Do you see in the foreseeable future with the corrective action
plan that you would have to assess any penalties
Speaker 79
29:22
against that company? That is within our contract that for lack of meeting those parameters or those contract performance indicators that sanctions can be applied.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
29:33
And then I want to back up to number nine. Is that going
to be all area to answer questions on on the PSC contract or on number nine? I believe there will be some different individuals who
Speaker 54
29:48
would need to answer those questions regarding cognizante yes mr chair could i get a question can we get them up here and if you'll give
Speaker 64
30:12
us your name and position for the record
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
30:14
you bet good afternoon my name is kevin grace i'm the
Chair
Unverified
30:20
deputy ceo all right senator hammer you recognize proceed
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
30:23
sir thank you i'm sorry i don't know this but ceo cognizante or formally or or with who i'm sorry with dhs all right sorry sorry so i know i probably ought to know the answer to this question but i'll answer it anyway i noticed on the history amendment number four that part of the justification for the increase is projecting staffing and resources and additional resources do to continued growth resulting in the need for new and expanded services specifically
what services is it what areas are we
growing um yes sir so it is for um ivnv which is independent verification services so we we are actually about to let a new contract for those services that had been previously being performed by cognizante and this was at a request from the fed so cms asked us to increase this staffing they were worried about our eligibility project and just wanted to make sure we had a we we've got a certain number of individuals there and so this was a request directly from cms to uh to address that gap until that new procurement can
be let all right and again i kind of mr chair may i have one more one more follow up thanks so i'm sitting up here trying to remember because when we had the ef thing several years ago i can't remember if cognosanti was one of the good players or one of the difficult players in that whole scenario and they changed their name to NTT Data State Health Consulting, you know what the purpose of changing the name was and was there any weighted value to the history of that company's involvement with this project way back when? So yes
sir, they were one of the good players so
they helped steer this project in the right way and again what the IABM project is replacing those legacy systems and the name change was due to an acquisition. all right thank you thank you mr. chair thank you thank you all
Speaker 42
32:14
right seeing no further questions and without objection these items will stand
Speaker 5
32:21
as reviewed mr. chair in the next group of contracts are in-state contracts and they begin on page 12 of section e the first one is for community
correction with the renew life center this is for re-entry housing number two is community correction and this is with Restore Hope. This is to provide ex-offenders, help them identify education and training opportunities. This is the contract that is requesting ratification and it's the letter requesting ratification is on page seven in your green packet. The request is that the amount of $450,000 was done under an MOU by community correction
And during transformation, it was found that this contract had not been sent for legislative review. So they are working to correct that and prevent that type of thing to happen in the future. Then number three is the correction department for waste. And I do want to note on that number two, they have not paid any funds out on that. Number three is the correction department with waste disposal services. number four is health department with stroke registry medical record abstraction services number five on page 13 this is with the boys shelter this is for qualified
residential treatment program services for dcfs clients statewide number six is emergency shelter services as well as number seven number eight on page 14 is for adding certified nurse assistants to the contract for nursing services to residents of the five human development centers. Number nine is for residential sex offender treatment for juveniles. Number 10 is for community-based services, sanctioned programs, diversion programs, transformation services, etc. for one of the
judicial districts. On page 15, contracts number 11 through 17, these are all going to be contract amendments for the insurance department with various area agencies on aging, and they help work with Arkansas Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers to navigate and compare options for Medicare services and systems. That takes us over to page 19, and then we have contracts number 18 and number 19 are both for the nursing department, nursing board. One is, they're both
for nurse investigators and reporting of those investigations. Number 20 is UALR. This is for alcohol and other drug abuse prevention services. Number 21, this is Veterans Fairs with Pharmacy Care of Arkansas. This is for pharmacy services for their Fayetteville and North Little Rock VA homes. Number 22, workforce services. This is to assist families in reaching self-sufficiency. this is part of what is offered through the TANF program. Those are the in-state contracts on
Speaker 42
35:19
today's agenda. All right members are there any questions? All right seeing none and
Speaker 5
35:26
without objection these items will stand as reviewed. Mr. Chairman the next group of things that we have today are reports and communications. The first one F1 this is a report that is provided by Office of State Procurement and per Act 417 of 2019 that we passed recently is service contracts amendments without a material change. The subcommittees will receive a report of that and may request a contract be included in another part of the agenda for discussion
at the meeting. I do want to report that I did receive a call from a member of the subcommittee who requested these contracts be provided to the committee. So in item G, we will see these contracts in the form that you're used to seeing them in and look at them that way. Moving on, though, F2 is the report beginning on page 8 of this F section for the Medicaid Non-Emergency Transportation Report.
This is the August report. And last month, the committee requested some changes to that report, which should be reflected on that new report. F3 is, excuse me, F3 begins on page 21. This is going to be the contracts, executed contracts under the thresholds for both the, all the services contracts. F4 is a report also that we received from the Office
of State Procurement. This is an emergency procurement report. There's only one item on this. It's for ADEQ, where they had to purchase temporary flood barrier installation when they had the recent flooding on the Arkansas River for $27,404.41. And then F5, another report begins on page 26. This is the report on the Optum assessments that are being done by DHS. So those are the
reports on today's agenda and the only other item we have is the listing of the contracts which is in item
Speaker 100
37:42
G that from our original F1 report. All right members see no questions
Speaker 42
37:48
and Without objection, those items will stand as reviewed. So moving over. Item G is,
Speaker 5
38:05
as I said, we received a request from a legislator
to take a look at the contracts that were listed in F1. So item G is those contracts. Most of these contracts that are being reported by D of IOSP are contracts where there's zero dollars being added to the contract, but the way the contract provided by OSP looked, it was kind of confusing. We had some questions. Also, the terms of the contracts were not updated on the report that we were seeing, but those are the contracts
Speaker 100
38:42
that have been provided meeting that new criteria for no material change.
Speaker 42
38:49
All right, members. Any questions? All right. Seeing none, those items will stand as reviewed. And Kathy, where were we at with the
Speaker 90
38:56
meeting? Is that it? That's it. All right, members. We are adjourned.
Agenda
No agenda available.
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Speaker 2
Speaker 5
Chair
Unverified
Representative Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 18
Cam Patterson
Unverified
Speaker 22
Speaker 23
Speaker 24
Speaker 28
Speaker 32
Representative Jack Fortner
Unverified
Speaker 39
Speaker 41
Speaker 8
Speaker 44
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 54
Speaker 56
Speaker 62
Speaker 64
Speaker 42
Representative Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Speaker 72
Speaker 71
Speaker 77
Speaker 79
Speaker 82
Speaker 85
Speaker 100
Speaker 90