Public Health Welfare and Labor Committee - Senate and House
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- October 2, 2026
Members of you would grab your seats Senator Crowellelle will you open us with prayer if you would
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
3:23
hit your mic I'll turn you on there you go dear lord we come before you today in humble just to serve the people pleaselord be with us whom we're serving and beha your hand in our brains and our thought
processes when thank you for all your blessings and forgiveness of our sins in your name we all pray amen. thanks senator with that I need a
motion for the January7th meeting minutes a motion a second of a second all those in favor sayy ahah all opposed ayes have it
meetings are minutes are adopted itemtem C on the agenda, Misselizabeth pittman, Paula Stone,
we have a rule for DHS
you guys would introduce yourself for the record and you're recognized
Speaker 28
4:26
to present your role. Hollestone director office of substance abuse and
Speaker 30
4:30
mental healthalth Department of Human Services and elizabeth pittman director for division
Speaker 28
4:39
of medicalical Services, Department of Human Services. This rule allows rehabilitative hospitals to open psychiatric units provide psychiatric acute services and be reimbursed
by medicaid so we did not have that ability prior to this rule so we have one rehabilitative hospital that's opened in Jefferson County that is providing that psychiatric service medicaid was unable to pay for it and this is a needed service across the state particularly in that area of the state. So this allows us to be able to reimburse for those services that's a proper explanation seeing no questions without objection this rule stands
reviewed. So if we would, I think you guys have the next rule and the next rule so if you would carry on Miss Pittman. Yes
Speaker 36
5:28
thank you. The next rule is for to allow the department of humanman Services to participate in the cell and gene therapy model which is a center for medical services model that allows us to enter into valuebased payment agreements to treat patient with patients with sickle cell disorder with CGT therapy and happy to take any questions regarding that.
seeing no questions this rule also stands reviewed without objection Next rule please and the
Speaker 36
6:02
last role we have on the agenda today is a rule to allow us to be exempt from the recovery audit contractor requirement of CmS we believe that this is unnecessary.cms has agreed and approved this exemption because we have four other layers of program integrity in place both internal and external including the office of Medicaid inspector general and the attorney general medicaid fraudtrol unit. this has no cost
because it is simply just allowing us to be exempt from that requirement and again happy to
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
6:38
take any questions Representative ladyman you recognize. thank you chairman I don't have a problem with this rule but can can you expand a little bit on what a recovery audit contractor
Speaker 36
6:48
is what do they do now sir so they usually on a contingency basis will go and look for roadwayster abuse of medicaid providers and then
do recoveries of those providers who have committed that fraud waste abuse or overpayment. they get a percentage of that as a contingency for anything that they recover. There's a state law that we are not allowed to enter into contingency arrange ment s for those types of agreements so we were not able to secure a recovery audit contractor using a traditional form of payment and so we look to other ways of doing the same function program and integrity function to ensure that we're not overpaying or paying out claims that are fraudulent or wasteful.
yes sir we have internally we have our team that does retrospective reviews to look for medical necessity and appropriate billing we have a program integrity or payment integrity office that's external to the DMS team that also looks postpayment to see patterns of waste fraud or abuse. They also look for things we could do in our payment policy to make things a little more efficient and transparent then we have external to us the officef of Medicaid inspector general. they're looking for fraud waste and abuse and make credible allegations of fraud that they
then turn over to the attorney general's office for the medicaid fraud control unit and they prosecute civil and criminal fraud. seeing no further questions this rule also
stands reviewed without objection. Members there was a computer left on
the table in the back it's an iPad issued by the House Representatives so if somebody's missing their iPad you're welcome to pick it up up here at the chairman's desk seeing no other business yeah representilton who who you need
Speaker 45
8:31
that's just a quick it's under new business
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
8:36
so it's just figure we're all here anyways you
know we've only been here se minutes so you're doing
good Miss Pidmann you're a recognized answer Representative Pilkins's questions. good
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
8:51
evening Representative Pittman and I'm sorry to put you on the spot here because I'm sure you weren't prepared to talk about this but I got the postpartum report the DHS does every quarter and we saw an
increase in uninsured do you guys have any kind of explanation for that spike in uninsured you're right I was not prepared to
Speaker 51
9:09
talk about that today so if you don't that's
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
9:12
just figure while we had you we could have
Speaker 51
9:15
that discussion meanriri's coming I would would defer to Mary orlori on that one solori Hi,
Speaker 52
9:24
good morning.lourri Mcdonald DHS uhpresentative Pilkington. I I did send you those sorry, I did send you those reports yesterday. I I don't
have answers to those questions but I will certainly get with Director Franklin and get back with you that's fine we just while
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
9:38
we're here in the room I just wanted to just get some information but we can we can have that discussion offline I'm not trying to get you or anything just wanted to kind of see what was going on if y'all had some any reasoning behind it but we can we can talk offline thank you'll get
Speaker 55
9:58
that for you Representative Johnson, yeah, Mr Chairman, we have
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
10:00
a handout here I'm trying to figure out what it applies to with regard
to the gender around ensuring program integrity and Arkansas Medicaid is that something it was the handout associated with sorry ok sorry I missed that one thank you. Yes, sir. seeing no other business we stand adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration to Approve the January 7, 2026, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit B]
C. Department of Human Services (DHS), Division of Medical Services (DMS), Review of Rule, Rehabilitative Hospital Provider Manual [Exhibit C]
D. DHS, DMS, Review of Rule, Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Model [Exhibit D]
E. DHS, DMS, Review of Rule, Recovery Audit Contractor Exemption SPA [Exhibit E]
F. Other Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Representative Jeff Wardlaw Chair
Unverified
Senator Steve Crowell
Unverified
Speaker 28
Speaker 30
Speaker 36
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 45
Representative Aaron Pilkington
Unverified
Speaker 51
Speaker 52
Speaker 55
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified