House Insurance & Commerce Committee
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Transcript
Bills discussed (4)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
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SB208
· 5 mentions in transcript, chapter
Matched: “…Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next item on the agenda is Senate Bill 208.”
|
Pre-2017 bill | ||
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SB168
· 3 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB168”
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Pre-2017 bill | ||
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SB53
· 3 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “SB53”
|
Pre-2017 bill | ||
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HB1267
· 2 mentions in transcript
Matched: “…for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd move that we put House Bill 1267, Representative Kerr, on special order for March”
|
Pre-2017 bill |
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Speaker 1
0:00
Okay, first item on the agenda is I'd like to recognize Representative
Representative Terry Rice
Unverified
0:09
Rice for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd move that we put House Bill 1267, Representative Kerr, on special order for March
Chair
Unverified
0:22
1st. Okay, thank you for that motion. Let me
start by asking the committee, all of those in favor?
Aye. Aye. Those opposed? Okay, motion passes. We've got a special order for House Bill 1267 on March the 1st, Friday. Now I'd like to represent Representative Hank Wilkins IV. Mr. Wilkins, you are recognized. Thank you,
Speaker 7
0:47
Mr. Chairman and committee. I appreciate this
Speaker 6
0:51
opportunity for a personal privilege, Mr. Chairman and committee. I have a good friend here with us, and I want to introduce him to the committee and let you all know
so that if you see him around the state of Arkansas doing various things, you'll know who he is. And I want him to have the opportunity to meet all of you individually at some point. His name is Gerald Alley. He grew up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in a church called St. James United Methodist Church. And he was one pew behind me, several years older than me, of course, as is everyone. But he is a business owner and does work here in Arkansas,
and he's a product of Arkansas and of U of A Fayetteville. And I just wanted him to have an opportunity to bring greetings to our committee. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Wilkins.
Chair
Unverified
1:48
Mr. Alley, you are recognized, and we certainly appreciate you being here. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
Speaker 10
1:55
the committee. Thank you for allowing me this time to just say hello. As Hank said, he didn't really clarify. We're still debating who's the youngest, but by the length of our hair, I think I got him by a notch.
Yes, sir. As our Senator said, I grew up in Time Bluff, and my father had a service station across from UAPB. At that time it was Arkansas, Elman Inn, in which I pumped gas. And after pumping gas for about 15 years growing up, I decided I didn't want to pump gas and went to Fayetteville. And actually from there I went to Dallas, but have come back here to Arkansas to open up our office about two years. And we're proud to be the contractors of the STEM project at UAPB.
and just received an award from the University of Arkansas at the chiller plant facility. So we've been in the state looking to do business in the state, looking to employ in the state, looking to utilize people that have not been utilized in the past. And we're just proud to be here and spend the time with you, and thank you for your time. Absolutely. And Mr.
Speaker 9
2:56
Alley, thank you for coming back to the state of Arkansas and bringing that business with you. Thank you,
Speaker 14
3:02
Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Alley, for being here. Sir.
Chair
Unverified
3:09
Okay, committee, the next item on
our agenda is Senate Bill 53. And at this time, I would like to recognize Representative Ferguson. And Representative Ferguson, you are recognized to
present Senate Bill 53, if you would recognize yourself for
Representative Deborah Ferguson
Unverified
3:31
the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is actually Senator Hutchison's bill, And he's an attorney, and I am not.
I'm a dentist. So when he sent me this, and we were trying to get this problem resolved with some doctors in our county, and it said Foreign Medical Corporation, I thought he had sent me the wrong bill. I didn't realize that meant just out of state. So don't ask me a lot of legal questions. I can't answer them. But the problem is in a lot of counties near Memphis is specifically what this addresses. We have specialty medical groups, like we have Sims Murphy as a neurosurgery group.
We have orthopedic surgeons, and they're these big, now big corporate groups in Memphis because a lot of them are owned by hospitals and other things, of maybe 50 to 75 doctors. And only two may come to West Memphis and do surgery. And those two that come to our, any doctor that practices in Arkansas, they have to go to the medical board and get an Arkansas license. But the statute says, and we've tried every way to figure it out without coming and changing the statute. The statute says, let me read you.
I brought Bill Trice. Bill Trice is the attorney for the medical board. And I brought his opinion that he wrote to them. The foreign Tennessee corporation will not be able to register with the Arkansas State Medical Board because all of the individual stockholders and officers are not licensed in the state of Arkansas. So all this does is say that the doctors who practice in the state from the corporation have to have a medical license in Arkansas, but all those doctors that are practicing in Memphis that are also part of the corporation but don't practice in Arkansas, they don't have to have a medical license.
So it's just sort of clean-up language for the
Chair
Unverified
5:25
medical board. Committee, if I may, Mr. Trice is not here. He couldn't make it. I had told Representative Ferguson to, you know, it was okay to bring that in, so I hope that's okay with the committee. Is there anyone, committee, is there any questions of the committee? Okay, Representative Collins, you're recognized for a question. Mr.
Representative Charlie Collins
Unverified
5:47
Chairman, motion at the proper time. Okay.
Chair
Unverified
5:51
Are there any other questions by the committee? Is there anyone
in the audience that would like to speak for or against the bill? Representative Collins, you are recognized for your motion. I move. Do pass. It's a proper motion. All those in favor, say aye. All those opposed, congratulations, Representative Ferguson. You
passed your bill. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next item on the agenda is Senate Bill 208.
Representative Viviano, you are recognized to present Senate Bill 208. Please recognize yourself for the committee. Thank you,
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
6:33
Mr. Chairman. I've also asked Mr. Isom
Chair
Unverified
6:36
from the Arkansas Real Estate Commission in the morning. Excuse me, Mr. Viviano. Okay. We've got
technical difficulties. The bill's not pulling up on our tablets. The new latest and greatest.
Chair
Unverified
7:30
Thank you. Do you have the bill presently on your tablet?
Okay. Mr. Biviano, I apologize if you would recognize yourself and any guests that
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
8:10
you have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm representing Mark Biviano. I also have Gary Ison with the Arkansas Real Estate Commission here. Senate Bill 208 is Senator Files' bill. Basically what this bill does, it creates an alternative disciplinary procedure for real estate licensees. In this situation where there perhaps is a minor infraction of things like if they're late on taking their CE course,
this will allow a disciplinary procedure of offering or issuing a citation, sort of a formal hearing, which is more costly, which is probably not really just in many situations. So this bill will allow us to have a little bit different procedure to handle that And if you streamline the process, it costs less to the state. I'll let Mr. Isom add anything to that explanation. Mr. Isom, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee.
Speaker 33
9:11
The other, one other element of this is that it's a friendlier, less formidable action for the real estate practitioner. Currently, all our actions are considered a formal administrative action, even a consent order. And any time a licensee needs a complaint history, a disciplinary action history, anything that we have done shows up on that history. If they want to get a real estate license in another state or an insurance license, it would show up on their history.
These citations, we would not consider a formal administrative action that we would have to publish and or put on the history, license history of an agent. So the industry does support this legislation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ison. Are there any
Chair
Unverified
10:02
questions to the committee? Representative Williams, you are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Representative Darrin Williams
Unverified
10:13
Mr. Biviano, Mr. Ison, I'm looking at page 2, line 32, which authorizes the filing of some type of lawsuit. Its current law is the Commission can file it. You're now adding the Commission or the Executive Director. So does that mean the Executive Director can initiate action without the authority of or permission of its Commission, and if not, what's the purpose of adding that language or Executive Director? That was BLR. This was not part of the bill. It's not BLR cleanup.
Speaker 33
10:49
Representative Williams, that was actually a cleanup by the Bureau of Legislative Research. That was not necessarily part of our original language that we submitted to BLR. That is something that they added. And as far as the executive director, I would never feel like the executive director could proceed with a suit on my own without the blessing of the commission. Well, would you agree that this language is more than a technical change, it's substantive, this would allow, maybe not
Representative Darrin Williams
Unverified
11:18
you, because you're a good executive director, but some executive director who may be in conflict with the board, don't you agree that this language would allow you to do that, or are my readings more than it's here?
Speaker 33
11:34
Well, actually, reading that, I think the action by the Executive Director, would that not apply to the penalty itself as opposed to the authorization to file suit? If the penalty is not paid as ordered by the commission or the executive director,
but the commission is the only one authorized to file suit, is
Representative Darrin Williams
Unverified
12:11
that not correct? That may be right. I just wanted to. It's new language, and it looked like it was given the executive director more authority. I'm sure BLR is probably correct, and I may not be reading correct. I
Speaker 44
12:21
just wanted to know your opinion. It looks like
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
12:24
your reading may be right as I'm getting it. I believe it says the commission
Chair
Unverified
12:43
is authorized, only the commission. Representative Williams, are you finished?
Representative Darrin Williams
Unverified
12:45
MR. I'm finished. I don't know that's a very good technical cleanup because it says the commission is
authorized, but it says the penalty is not paid as ordered by the commission. It would be the commission that would be ordering the payment, not the executive director. So, you know, nobody is from BLR here. I don't want to hold them up, but it seems to me that that's more than just a technical change. It is a substantive change,
Chair
Unverified
13:12
but. Do we have anybody from BLR in the audience?
No? Okay. Well, are there any other questions of the committee? Okay.
Representative Reginald Murdock
Unverified
13:29
Representative Murdock, you were recognized. Thank you, Chairman. Biviano, does this represent what you wanted to represent? It seems like I don't think anyone is against it, but it seems like something has been brought out that may not have been you guys' intent. Specifically where it says the or. But is this what you want?
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
13:47
The way it's written? No, I would need to go back and talk to B.L.R. Okay.
Representative Darrin Williams
Unverified
13:55
Representative Williams, you were recognized? Mr. Chair, I'm perfectly happy passing it out and having him if there needs to be a change, bring it back to us. I don't want to hold him up. I don't think it's that big of a deal, but I'm perfectly happily making the motion to pass it and let him have a
Speaker 38
14:08
chance to talk to Bill already in between times so we don't
Chair
Unverified
14:12
hold his bill up. Okay. Well, I appreciate that, Representative Williams, and I recognize your motion. Is there anybody in the audience that would like to speak for or against this bill?
Representative Bibiano, are you closed for your bill? I'm closed. Representative Williams, you are recognized for a motion. Motion do pass. Okay, we have a motion to do pass on Senate Bill 208. All those in favor, say aye.
Aye. Those opposed? Okay, congratulations, Mr. Viviano. You
passed your bill. Okay, the next bill on our, we've got one more bill on our agenda. It's Senate Bill 168. And Representative Perry, you are recognized to present Senate Bill 168.
If you would recognize yourself for
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
15:06
the committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Representative Mark Perry. I've got Senate
Bill 168, which is a little cleanup bill of Act 89 of 2011. This bill was passed two years ago, and it was discovered that it was worded where there There was not a mechanism for payment if the collaborating dentist was not in the provider's
network. This simply gives the needed mechanism for that payment. To the best of my knowledge, there's not any opposition, and it was passed out of the Senate last week. Mr. Chairman, I'd move to pass. Are there any
Chair
Unverified
15:45
questions of the committee? Is there any more from the audience that would like to speak for or against the bill? Okay. Seeing Representative Barnett, you are recognized.
If you would, speak into your mic so we can hear you, Representative Barnett. I have a motion to do pass at the proper time. Okay, that is a proper motion. Representative Barnett has got a motion to do pass on Senate Bill 168. All those in favor by saying aye. Those opposed? Congratulations, Mr. Perry. Your bill has passed. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Seeing no other anything on our agenda today, I hope we've got a motion to adjourn.
Agenda
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Speaker 1
Representative Terry Rice
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Speaker 7
Speaker 6
Speaker 10
Speaker 9
Speaker 14
Representative Deborah Ferguson
Unverified
Representative Charlie Collins
Unverified
Representative Mark Biviano
Unverified
Speaker 33
Representative Darrin Williams
Unverified
Speaker 44
Representative Reginald Murdock
Unverified
Speaker 38
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified