ALC-Executive Subcommittee

The H. S. for DCS F. Emergency rule you'll present please thank you good morning everyone I'm Michelle Martin I'm the Director of the Division of Children and Family Services at DHS this rule revision is necessary to allow the Division of Children and Family Services to provide needed support payments to relatives and fictive kin resource homes that are open on a provisional basis and therefore are not eligible for a board payment and that means as you all are probably aware the division over the last six years has really focused on placing children with relatives or fictive kin even at the time of removal into foster care we have about forty percent of our children who are coming to foster care you are immediately placed with relatives I'm those relatives homes are assessed and they have up to six months to open as a foster home during that period they do not receive what we call a board payment like our traditional foster homes until their fully open and license this emergency rule would allow us to pay support payment similar to a board payment but it was last two hundred forty dollars a month so that the relatives could get immediate assistance for the children that are placed in their home don't worry we currently do support relative foster homes but it's on a lake case by case basis or specific me so right now our staff are required to go out says that home if the family has some needs me a family could take and three four five children right that would be very difficult on emergency basis without some financial support and so right now it might be that we pay gas card we might go out my groceries and we may still have to do some of that but this would allow consistent support payment of two hundred and forty dollars a minute and tell their until they are fully open and licensed as a foster home and then can receive aboard payment currently the law does not allow us to pay a full board payment which is why this emergency. The role and change a problem and promulgate a policy as you will see an appendix sign to got to move forward of the governor is in support of this rule and we will have funding in August to being payments in September for a provisional board payments if the role is a pre today. Thank you my culture center or center represent one lot of one of Senator district no I'm good when you're recognized. Thank you Mr is that supposed to make us feel good when you say the governor's in support of a. I think that the point of the statement whereas that for there is funding to support the role to put this in place thank you. Thank you and representative Dotson your. Recognized thank you Mister chair just looking at the the finances for this it says current fiscal year one point six million next fiscal year three point seven when you start talking about current fiscal year you're talking about the fiscal year that just started in July here and this will start in September so we're talking about ten months out of the year you're out of the next fiscal year. Are you expecting this to ramp up significantly because the next fiscal year only be two additional months but it's. Estimated to be more than double. So M. we are expecting more provisional foster homes and we are planning to ask for the fines in our bi annual budget so the payment would not go yet it is ten months has I was in the math in my head it is ten months and we are expecting more provisional foster homes to be and I'm to be open and approved once we do I support payment. So you're expected to the more than double those in the next fiscal year because it's going from one point six for ten months to three point almost eight million for full fiscal year twelve months. Those are the numbers that we propose I'd like to have pulled that a spreadsheet and get back with this person okay thank you Kristin. Yes thank you. Sorry I got support from M. miss Harper assistant director of policy and had a brain so M. as part of our budget request next year we will be asking for a ten percent increase on Board payments for our foster parents we also budgeted an increase and the support payment from two hundred and forty two an increase so Sorry had a moment and what I what I mean by that is because the law does not currently allow the board payment and we will be moving forward to ask not only in our budget at four at more substantial payment in two hundred and forty dollars of mine closer to what a board payment is for our foster paying a foster family so not only an increase in the amount once the laws change but also will be asking for a ten percent increase for all foster parents which would include these as well so we budgeted the increase monthly payment once the laws change as well as a ten percent increase that would be in line with what we're asking for our foster parents so if I understand you correctly your your. After the hopefully after the January session the ball change to allow these to be regular board pain yes the same as regular for payments which is four hundred and well it depends on the age of the child but it somewhere between four hundred and five hundred there's a graduated sept increase based on age of the child so that that's where the almost doubling comes from yes sorry thank you very much I appreciate and I love this idea this is excellent. Senator Irvin you're recognized thank you good morning and so it is is not increased as a result of just a cost of living inflation can you describe for the relatives in the foster parents so again for foster parents will have to ask for in our budget for the next fiscal year but the increase is because the foster parents have not received a board payment increase since two thousand and nine so and it was it's already at pretty low rate for raising children you know it's between four and five hundred so we will be asking for a ten percent increase in do you you have any estimate as to how much that would be an increase in the budget yes ma'am we do we have a we have already done full projections to make our budget request I don't have that spreadsheet in front of me but I can get it to you within the next thirty forty five minutes note that I appreciate that so much I mean I obviously you know foster children and foster families is such a huge thing And in need in our state and so this increase you know it this is probably a you know I can see that they're gonna be increases all across state budget budgets them because of what we're dealing with right now but obviously this is a huge huge need in a huge thing that we need to step up and and take care of thank you. Thank you Senator Hammer you're recognized. Thank you Mr. Can you tell me how many provisional homes are on the list or what's the number that this is all based on the recreational right so we did the math on we went and looked at over a six month period how many provisional foster homes we have an open and did an average of those of those over a six month period and it was an average of about six hundred and seventy five homes. And as far as and maybe this is in conversation for now but let me ask anyway the. Getting those provisional homes opened in a faster manner what what's holding us up that there remaining in provisional status so provisions have up to six months to open but we did implement a program last year and miss Harper can talk more specific if you want the specifics about that but we actually pull the team together across the state that included relatives. I believe it was one of senator rice's constituents actually got us started on that effort and we did our training module and and it's now we are a we have a goal of forty five days we did it we did a complete training module so that relatives do not have the same requirements as traditional foster homes as far as that initial opening training and it's less less intensive but more specific to relatives and covers information that they need so our goal is to get relatives open in forty five days that is a lofty goal and doesn't always happen but we are significantly reducing from six months okay and one other quick question the up for the for the ones that are not provisional is there any allowance in this rule that is going to increase those that are already up and stand because of the justification is we need to do this for the provisional home because the cost of inflation that logic would carry over to those that are already open or is that coming somewhere else down the line so should we have we have about six hundred and twenty eight relatives that are fully open licenses foster homes they get bored payment just like traditional foster homes and they if approved if if approved by the legislature in our budget for the next year they will receive a ten percent increase just like traditional foster homes thank you. Dotson back you. You Mr chair what will not specifically related to this rule the ten percent increase that you're talking about with over nine percent inflation this year is basically going to be a almost a flat it's not really an increase do you have projections on what if we'd had regular increases your or your since two thousand nine was the last time it the board payment was increased what that would actually look like in today's dollars we when we were doing projections of increases we did do projections at ten twenty and thirty percent and so I have those you know I can provide those numbers for you so that you can see am I just will also remind you that when we increase foster parent board payments that also applies to our adoption and subsidized guardianships and our budget is actually more impacted by adoption guardianship subsidies and it is by Jess traditional foster homes with children in care but I can provide ten twenty and thirty percent increases and what that would look like thank you. You saying no more questions I will say Dr Martin. Okay this meant recognized the director Martin that the I appreciate the this coming the. Ten forty dollars doesn't sound like a lot when when you cost to it the person to call give me information on this to meet with it's an amount that makes the difference when you've got can that would or fictive kin is I I brought that up they didn't tell me that I I brought it up like it's private mark had it related Judiciary but there's so many so many times this amount would make a difference and get to be able to be where they are representative. Hi addition you're right it does man not on this committee yes are they are the provisional not getting the you may have said it are they not getting the money and that that they have to be certified also prepared for the get it now right that's correct they do not receive any type of standard monthly payment the only support that we provide them is on a case by case assessment based on need. Okay member saying no more questions without objection the proposed merger rumors reviewed approved and the review and approval shall be effective upon the German of Legislative Council meeting July twenty first twenty twenty two thank you direct Martin being in the. Next up we have department commerce EDC emergency rule four Arkansas rule connect the. You'll come up. Mistrust and fear recognize your self in your title the. Your good morning Mr chairman. Jim Dotson chief of staff apartment commerce last judge ports to join me at the table as well. Case or any questions Senator I can feel on the proposed emergency rule thank you for taking time to make this today and I know you got a busy week try to make is as brief as possible just a quick note on process we're running this as an emergency rule just to get our next process under way for the next round of grants it is our plan we will be promulgating a permanent role rule you know start a process likely this week and maybe my hope that we finish that promulgation process in the September October time frame can be back to you to have a permanent rule back tail C. yeah that permit rule approved before we award our next round grants which would likely be sometime in November time frame just a quick comment about process there in terms of the the emergency rule itself really that the changes of opposing the program following three different buckets once changes required by the US department treasury in terms of the usage of Arkansans they've made some changes there are changes that are going to be required under the intii ay the national telecommunications and information administration federal agency that is going to be handing out the funding for broadband under the infrastructure bill they've already promulgated the requirements for that funding and then finally most importantly is to incorporate recommendations from the broadband development group in its report that it issued back in April that you all have a chance to go through in summary the changes are as follows projects the broader projects going forward will be awarded on a census block group basis to be part of a competitive application process will define the area will make that area publicly known will publish that I'm providers will be able to look at the areas and then submit to us applications for grants we fully expect. Expect to get multiple applications per project area each project application will be to swill be scored on a competitive basis using a rubric for the score that is set forth in the emergency rule there's also going to be a process for challenging if an incumbent provider objects to new a grant being awarded for an area where that come Brodeur's already providing broadband service and they'll have the ability to submit to us verifiable information that says they're already providing the service at requisite speeds meaning a hundred by twenty megabits per second second change will be a cost sharing that is current presently all grants to be made today than a percent grant we have reimbursed are reimbursing on after the fact basis they send their invoices to us and we pay off those paid invoices with a twenty percent withholding till the very end we're gonna continue that process but now they'll be a cost sharing component so for the total project cost we will fund seventy five percent the ISP will fund twenty five percent this is a requirement under the federal infrastructure bill you'll also benefit us and help us to be able to stretch our dollars a little bit further there also be a guarantee of service that will run for a ten year period and then the build out has to be completed within three years following the grant award we are also instituting a letter of credit on the letter of credit will be an amount equal to the award from the state and so as they submit invoices that were prepared to reimburse off of we require the president a letter of credit in an equal amount and that will continue until the project is completed we've done the acceptance testing we make sure that the network function. Is as it should and once everything appears as it should be we will remove that letter of credit obligation. I do wanna let you know that because it is an emergency rule it's it's out of a you know ordinary way we do these things we haven't had yet opportunity do public hearings and notice of public comments we have been very proactive in reaching out to various stakeholders including various providers shared the rules with them gotten feedback from them we try to incorporate as many of those we could we could incorporate everything but you know I'm not really aware of any you know strong opposition to what we were presently proposing to you today. And with that I'm happy take any questions that the committee may have. Representative Wardlaw you're recognized. Thank you Mr are there any concerns on the twenty five percent match in rule areas where the mailbox distance is great and the or I wouldn't be as good that those guys would not be in it as an incentive to go to those areas now when having to put up twenty five percent. It is concerned I think we have to see how you know unfolds if we don't get a sufficient number of applications that we may need to explore alternatives there is a provision under the the federal infrastructure bill that allows for a waiver of the cost sharing in a high cost area which means an area that has low density by high cost of installation the feds have not yet published the rules on that so we're going to wait and see what that guidance looks like. So. In reading the rules I didn't see where you had room for that waiver are you allowing for that same waiver or that same conversation to take place in those areas I happen to represent one of those high cost areas and what I'm finding happening in my area today and I know everybody talks about their own area but I had a grant given in a particular area in the county and I have a constituent on the west side and it it absolutely is worked out this way in a constituent on the east side and both exactly one drive way off from the broadband and they're not able to have access one paid an excessive amount of money of forty nine hundred dollars to the provider to run that fiber one more drive way over to connect is house the other guys not able to do that financially so if we have those exceptions in there are we can have that conversation I think I'd feel more comfortable for those areas and in absolutely talk about those borders arms and make sure we're connecting every house in those areas so that we don't have this happen like it did in Bradley County yes Sir and I think that you cut to two things or both in a related but one of the issues we've had to date with the project carries being largely defined by the providers is is created this occurrence of donut holes her bicycle make the best decisions they can to benefit economically their businesses I think with the state coming and now in defining the project area we can mitigate some of that stuff on the front. The second thing would be I don't expect in the round that we're going to be doing this fall that we're gonna have those low density areas will start with the most dense areas as we move into next year and we start getting into the last in series or pull on that federal money we will have to incorporate that provision of high cost waiver we need to get more guidance from federal government how they want to do that okay thank you thank you Sir. Senator Irvin you're recognized. Thank you appreciate the conversation so process wise this is an emergency rule and just so everyone is clear about how that process works you have an emergency rule but the rule still has to go through the regular promulgation process which gives public hearings public comment so if you do go ahead and open up these grant applications will you have some sort of like disclaimer or something that these rules potentially may change or I just think that we probably should do that just so that everybody knows will you're going into this grand or your plan for this but this rule may be tweaked it somewhere somehow I mean I would just be is that something were hopefully planning to do very easy to do at the at the provider communities pretty dialed in on the process they're expecting it but will certainly make sure they're aware that we're going to that there's a shelf life on the merger oldest by by statute ninety days so we have to do this process yeah yeah I just think it's important just so that we're crossing teasing dot eyes and and then secondly we talked about this but you know to to send a representative for lost points you know you do have this very sporadic you know hit and miss where there is fiber and rulers not fiber in. The decision making is I can't really put my finger on how these decisions are being made I guess with the providers so my big concern is cost particularly for rule Arkansas you know in bundling you know there are some areas where you have to have still a land mine in order to get wifi and so that's problematic and it's almost you know more of a it is a more burdensome financial situation for some people pertinent perhaps in rule Arkansas weather actually having pain something that they don't actually need for something that they do need so if you'll just talk about you know that in this because you know as we are as all of this money is flowing out to the providers the cost is still very very high in a lot of areas and I'm very concerned about that because you have people making choices and decisions and they may have fiber run into their home but if they can't afford a hundred dollars a month then there's no that that is just a waste of you know the effort and the money that we're putting in as taxpayers to get that fibers. So a couple of great question couple couple things there one in order to participate in the program every single provider must sign up for the federal ACP program which provides a monthly subsidy to the subscriber to help reduce that cost so does that based on anything I mean is that income and come back yes yes that's right but then second thing is this more the market principles at work we will require in the application going forward detailed information about the pricing structure the cost to the subscriber and so to the extent that there is bundling to the extent that there are data caps to the extent that there's problem down of speeds you know what we want all that disclosed we want to have a narrative from the providers explain why it is that they believe their pricing structure is affordable for the project area and the applications that provide the most cost effective proposal for the subscriber will get the highest score on that component of the the scoring process so if it's cheaper to the subscriber you get high school if it's more expensive to the subscriber take into account all those factors like bundling you'll get a low score okay so if you want to win the application process make it make a formal to subscribe and then in the rules for the application grant you you absolutely have reserve your right or make sure that there's language in the rule to where you can negotiate yeah I have the yes ma'am if you know we determines our all optional grants you know they're they're not obligatory grants and so to the extent that as we go through a process we have not gotten a sufficient number of applications and it doesn't appear to be most advantageous to the taxpayer subscribers then we will rebuild it okay I really appreciate it and and last question it does follow the report these recommendations to follow report it is not to kind of go through doctors just to exceptions and. Fact check me on this subject portrait one in terms of the cost here the BG folks gave us a couple of options one option was to do the split seventy five twenty five which is the option we took the other option was to measure against internal rate of return we felt like that that was a little more cumbersome process has intruding into the operation of business school too much it's also a consistent with the federal security as well so we opted for seventy five twenty five the other thing that was recommended that we did not put in the proposed emergency rule is a multi around bid process they recommend I believe three rounds that's correct in the in the report. That to us look like a reverse auction we don't think at the federal level the reverse auction has been successful the feedback from the provider community was such that you go to multi rounds years encouraging people to give you their best offer later and we just sent give us your best offer up front will sport will make a decision but other than those two exceptions for small exceptions what he recommended we adopt that that's important that we have that consistency because of all that we went through on that thank you so much yes ma'am. Senator Hammer you're recognized. Thank you share just a couple quick questions on page seven of the handout it says for wireless providers heatmaps indicating the RSS I is in the challenge area who's the guardian of the heatmaps and who's going to be the determining entity that's going to say that those heatmaps meet the obligations preserving a lot of discussion about maps. That's going to be are you a mess there are technical reviewers are monitors and we're going to have them take over that responsibility okay thank you and the second one is we talked about jim about protection for subject go out buildings towers and do work in you know that maybe their general contractor working with we're we're in all of this would be the protection for the subject work for anyone that would get a grant award at wal Jett porch looks for specific reference to give the the narrative on that we have put in the rules that if you're not paying your subs we reserve the right to terminate the contract into the call back on that but I think an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and so part of this competitive scoring process is we really have to understand House financially strong these companies are in they do they have a good reputation the community of paying her sons in a don't have a reputation then you know we're not gonna score them very high other application or and that I mean that would have some bearing on whether or not they could get the forgot which called I call a bond or the letter of credit I think you used that's correct if they can't get a letter credit then likelihood is you're not gonna be doing business with them anyway that's right a fair statement so if you have the banks are kind of serving as another credit reference there by being on offer letter credit okay and then I noticed also on the one of the pages three year bill that must be completed within three years what's justification for three years is it is it just labor market issues is that the supply chain or what why three years out that they've got that was an outside day so you know as that that three years is our per required it's going to be done within three years under the federal statute but when we get the application or during the technical review they sentenced or Gantt charts for project plan UAMS looks at that and if the they conclude that they're drawing out unnecessarily UAMS will televise that. To an appropriate length of time would that have determination as to who would get a ward or what's the scoring factor yes somebody that says it's going to take me yeah two and a half years somebody else is where we get it done in a year with the one that does it in a year get a higher score factor quicker cheaper more reliable those will be very strong apt applicants are thank you thank Mr. Representative hope you're recognized for a question. Thank you good morning my question follows US senator hammers on the process for identification of those broadband areas This or process that will be a part of any kind of discussion with the user should they challenge the fact I live in an area that says we have it but we really don't and so I know this this study has really gone very deep into identifying those areas but there might be occasion where there would be some disagreement as to if that area is actually in need of this additional build out and is there will there be a process for the public to challenge UAMS in determining those areas. Yes ma'am there is a process for it in our challenge of process you're going to have to go through these to the rations of the one we're looking at the DG's Matt we're trying to cover those areas in the DG's map it in those red areas if it's if someone says Hey that area is actually served and it's not then they can submit information according to the list that we print provided for them and then with that we'll have it re scoped we're having BDG assist us and drafting the areas of concern that we want to focus on for projects so there's their steady involved in that and when we get information of the challenges and area is whether it's served or not Sir we will give that a would be the G. to do a follow up review on that to make sure that everybody. Get served so that's our process in how we're going to do. Real quickly just to follow up on that too yesterday and review we have proved your proved adding some funds to the BDG contract to allow for this consulting so they're defining the areas that will be awarding the grants to. Senator Hickey here okay yes thank you Mr president. Senator hammers questions just to spark something I want to make sure that we're we're covering so if there is a time involved we're gonna score someone higher this is it what they can do it in the year as compared to million three we have a penalty in there if they do not comply with that so in other words I don't want these people to just be bidding saying we can do it in the year so that they get a higher score on or if the without some type of day penalty in there and I assume would have to look at. Rain days and all that type of stuff so what we consider to. Senator Hickey and are granted remains we have a a penalty up to five percent for each month for the total amount of the grant of for each month that you are dealing with. And if you want us to ask if you want to ask for the extension you have to give us a letter on letterhead of really explaining out the reason why you're not finishing your project on time if we of take a look at that and we see that it has merit such as supply chain issues which we know is a concern them will forbear for a little while but we closely watch that to try to make sure that everybody does that and it's very clear that penalty of up to five percent of the total amount of the grant it's it's it's a pretty high penalty for those who don't make it okay and that's that's not a cumulative deal that that is monthly so you've got you can charge them if they get behind your you can charge them five percent in January five percent February another five percent of the total in March that's correct great thank you it just real quickly following up on that too if somebody tries to buy the business that way you know by this low blow betting it we're gonna need to understand that they have the supplies ready on hand to commence work that's coming party valuation process you know there is a concern about supply chain constraints particularly on five and so some of the smaller companies may struggle getting access to that so if if somebody's coming in with an unusually quick deployment will understand you have it on the dock ready to go. Senator Hammer back to you. Thank you thank you Mr represent Wardlaw not share common a problem with some friends and constituents of ours and that is that their current provider did not adequately of. Provide services to them and and there's been a lot of talk in the discussions about customer satisfaction where does it play in who gets an award where in the rule are you taking into consideration. Current of ability to provide service by providers it may want grants especially if they've got a bad customer satisfaction rating yes Sir you can include means a third in that concern okay particular situation which we're all familiar with and and it's unacceptable unacceptable I think going forward you know the it is a part of the scoring rubric in terms of someone's history of having verified complaints everybody gets complaints we want to know that there is some evidence to back that complaint up in so it will factor into the decision of what that's what the war the second thing is that the technology issue and the way we have to find going for really required by the federal rules have that hundred by twenty speed is going to in most cases I think almost all cases require the deployment of fiber in this issue of an tension Wallace to plummet and tree cover get in the way and other reasons you know we just can't have that going for it so we got to know that if we give the grant that the technology is going to work consistently. What's the percentage of scoring factor that you have built into the. Ross says. Forty four. Customer satisfaction or problematic history of not delivering on previous jobs and yada yada. There. Senator Hammer on page three of our rules next to last paragraph the last two sentences in here it's a note in there it says please keep in mind that verified customer complaints depending on nature or frequency from prior or present our projects could result in the application not being awarded an ARC grant no matter the project score. All right then the goes on says this is also true if the eight U. D. C. broadband office learns of verify complaints from customers from an ISP pre existing network. All projects for application submissions will be subject of course to the to the challenge process but the point of it is this that if you're offering bad customer service during our with our grants for even with your pre existing that works that's going to be a red flag for us and we do not have to award you a grant depending no matter what your score is and also to to answer your other question we have the eight requirements as well as the percentage scores also in that same paragraph several lines up there are speed a service which we give ten percent of total score future proof ten percent score quality of coverage ID reliability and scalability of service fifteen percent of total score time of time to deploy fifteen percent of our total score and qualifications experience financial strength of applicants to present a score applicants contribution toward project costs ten percent risk for cost of project fifteen percent score and of affordability of service to consumer fifteen percent of score which which the total comes to a hundred percent we're also having DDG assist us in developing that rubric our thank you for that thank you Mr. Representative Wardlaw. Thank you Mr I think part of what Senator Hammer se in is is what's going to be done about provided it did not provide service to a person in a catchment area that they got a grant for that's where we're at yes and frankly this been going on for almost eight months and they were supposed to complete the project eight months ago correct and what they've established is they need another tower and my understanding is now they're using the excuse of an environmental study has to take place in there saying that's another sixty days well frankly that's that's eleven ten to eleven months down the road. When do we go get our taxpayer money back and get a provider that can provide adequate internet in the area that they said they would cover and there's people sitting over there right now that can't work can't get anything and we've already paid for by the way yes taxpayers the state have paid for Mr so when do we say enough is enough and when we recall that money and start looking for provider to confide internet yeah I think we were at the notice enough okay and so to the extent that we don't get information like in coming days they got a truck heading out there and put the stuff of the committee to put up we'll start clawback process on that one thank you. Senator Reid your last one I have a. Thank you and just a follow up on that. If you do not have the ability to do that right now I expect that you bring us legislation. That allows us to do that immediately this man. I think we have sufficient okay we'll be expecting that right for the twenty twenty three session I believe we have sufficient authorities contractually in by rule to do this okay if we finally got some sort a holder we have to address we will make you aware of that and and seek your assistance in running a bill we went legislation languished I know that this is not a procurement process and you and I discussed that however I need to make sure that in the scoring process that there are going to be no conflicts of interest can you give me that assurance. Yes ma'am you know. We have a good statutory processes in place we make sure that they're followed okay and so you know if somebody has an interest that needs to get this close and we bring that to you all these are grants process are identified for that thank you just make sure that was clear. Two hundred years of the. This this is my fault for missing whatever your whatever your telling us the percentage on the scoring what representative did used for pricing how much is that fifteen percent fifteen percent okay our normal procurement statutes on the books and I just heard what Senator Irvin says is says it will use a minimum of thirty percent. So I don't know if that's going to conflict with this statute or not but we did we did put that in whatever we did that you're really study on our procurement that all pricing would to. Within that would be a minimum of of thirty yes Sir this is not subject to state procurement or. You know as to what not that's a better practice different different conversation yes it would conflict create a conflict we may just I don't do we need to review that the. And whatever I'm saying part of procurement law I don't I don't remember how we wrote that that's been a few years ago I'm just not sure of that will apply in this in this case or not. We to look at that but I'm not sure I can we can get with jim as to why it doesn't fall under procurement laws. Again I I'd say we're not procuring for the state new product or service. Okay I guess I guess we can look at sent this is going to have to come back to more for us to approve in there I guess if we if we were to find something that it won't come the more will it. So you're here here's what may be a suggestion you know we are going to be running your the permanent rule before you appropriate any money and for you make any awarded terminations in the next round so there would be opportunity if we have missed something here to address it during that part of promulgation process okay. We may be staff has something to say I just wanna make sure cover distance there awarding grants are not procuring service service is different okay thank you. Okay members not seeing anymore questions without objection of the proposed emergency room reviewed approved in the review and approval shall be effective upon a germ of Legislative Council meeting July twenty first twenty twenty two thank you gentlemen for being here thank you Sir thank you Committee. Next up we have the D. F. and I Office intergovernmental intergovernmental Services mercy rule regarding pregnancy resource centers grant program. I will come forward. Please recognize yourself in your title. Good morning I'm Doris Smith I'm the administrator with the office of intergovernmental Services and the FAA. Good morning Mister chair Paul hearing system revenue commissioner Revenue Division welcome and you're recognized president. So we have before you today a request for emergency promulgation of the pregnancy resource grants rules these rules the reason for emergency all promulgation will allow us to begin the administrative components of issuing these grants there is appropriate at one million dollars to eligible centers to assess pregnant women to give birth to the unborn children and in order for us to effectively move forward to get this program under way according to act one eighty seventy A proposed order or do they just made it start date was July first I'm going to get under way as soon as possible so once we have the immerse rules promulgated we would be able to issue the actual application and begin accepting applications and a grant plan from eligible organizations for their wards we do we will proceed with permanent promulgation during the process but this will at least allow us to get the process underway. A little more about the pregnancy resource grant program it is established against to provide resources to organizations to assist individuals face an unintended pregnancy with the intention of encouraging pregnant women to give birth to the unborn children in due to the nature of this program we just see a purpose for it to get under way as soon as possible that's the for emergency approval. And I'll answer any questions that that you all have thank you Mister you have anything before we take questions no Mr thank you thank you. Senator Irvin you're recognized hi thank you I'm right here thank you so much appreciate you bringing this forward sometime very support of five and create the work that you're doing on this and have any of the resource centers reached out to you. And to see if however these are available. A few have we've had a few questions that I hear through the alarm is some other representatives they've had questions also about when a program would begin essentially the questions or relating to when will the money be made available and what can be funded but until we have rules in place where we were limited in what information we can provide so at this point we have seen interest from centers was seeking funding from their directors right okay and then is there just an easy way for them to contact you or for this program or how are we going to conduct communicate that it's available. For them or is there just in a you know a direct way to contact you all or what how is that gonna work there is a direct way for them to contact us we have posted information online as a matter of fact we essentially posted a brief survey online just to get the information out there and to give information on who they can contact and and generally when we it's not we end but that we do expect that program to be up and running very soon that has germinated a lot of attention and we also have other stakeholders that we can reach out to to get the word out so we have a good roadmap for getting information out to the public and potential of eligible organizations to respond back to us in a lot will be through our website to be electronic application forms that will be on the website for them to complete and submit back so we have the procedures in place which is waiting federal can you just take that website for us just the Office of into is DFA office of any governmental services I mean is that going. I can forward that to you also yeah that's a great thank you appreciate it very much. Representative Dotson you're recognized. Is thank you Mr chair So. I guess the going through this I'm just curious what the what the parameters for the grants are actually going to be with regards to the amount of I mean you have a set amount obviously million dollars is the maximum amount is it all going to be awarded at one time for a million dollars to one grantee or will there be I don't know if there's. Forty centers around the state are you gonna divide the grants out to being smaller grant amounts and how will that funding flow to them over the course of the fiscal year so typically a process we use the a million dollars is the maximum amount depending on a number of applications we getting in and as we review does application is there a B. a allocation procedure as to how much funding goes toward each applicant application so we essentially do a calculation where back normally each. Of each eligible organization we get some level of funding so there is appropriation of that that to me is is that most fires approach to making sure that everybody has a part I don't think meet the application requirements and are eligible and have components in their plan of how to use the moneys that meets the requirements we're going to make those determinations to app how to pro rate the funding in a way to where they would be able to participate in a program so someone comes in and has an application for the full million dollars. you're going to look at that application and what is the set parameters to say okay the Max amount we're going to do is up to hundred thousand or or three hundred or five hundred thousand of this so we haven't. Or or are you going to look at the size and scope of that applicants a proposal because there might be a I read that a resource center that that only serves you know of a county of ten thousand people in another one that serves a county of two hundred fifty thousand people They're not gonna be serving the same amount of people in those areas right so one of the things that we will do is within the application form is they are within that communication document will describe pretty much how we going to pro rate funding and we will established in that some bribery images little hearts this is deb is exact dollar amounts on the front and we'll established in property damages alone how mine is application will be reviewed and might as well be on pro rated R. Platt depending on you know eligibility disco and the ex expectation set a program so we have a little bit of flexibility in how we could number one how we communicate that out and do we we received those applications that are mindful of the fact that based on the number of people that I say I'm going to starve in my air or anticipates serving that you know they will be pro rated a certain amount of funding so a lot of it will be scoped out in the the presentation of the application itself prior to making a war we anticipate having at least one works out we're back I'll I'll applicants will attend that workshop for discussion and Q. NA and be able to ask questions will provide even more additional information on how the evaluation in the determination process what are grants all would go forward so we do anticipate an interaction with the applicant's in the interim in the in the awards will be set based on artist you know our parameters that are established during that process I'm very interested in seeing if possible what that communication is as you're putting out Putting it out there for everybody to start submitting their applications if you've not got that fully developed yet but if you do have that I'd like to see what that is okay before before they go out okay we can do that thank you. Senator Hickey you're recognized. Just saying I'm over here to your left ma'am just the same line so if you're going to do a pro rated amount are you gonna have a deadline for these applications is that what you're going to do it you're what you're going to put in a deadline yes what you received. And then base that on on just those numbers that came in yes there will be a on deadline for when applications are due to be received into our office and are the will begin at evaluation period depend upon the criteria that is listed in the application on documents in that procedure as well as whether they are eligible this the first male over the weather organization is eligible and did the evaluation will proceed from there based on the scope of who is the service area E. as in sort of certain criteria that they have to meet and what they're seeking in there just just one more than that so are you are you are you going to wait before you disburse the first calendar you're going to wait till the deadline before you disburse the first calendar of the money. I'm sorry you are if you're gonna have a deadline to pro rate this million dollars are you going to are you going to wait until that deadline comes in before you disperse the first calendar so in other words everybody sitting out here sending an application sitting applications. You're not going to start disbursing money before that deadline ends are you right they they won't get it is referred senate to get an actual war Neil Warnock NO no. My my question simple man. Are you going to disbursed one dollar before the deadline now that's on the thank you. You will representative Crawford you're recognized for a question. Thank you Hi miss Smith I talked to a couple of nice nice to meet you I think my concern is as we've talked. Is the training that these pregnancy centers will. Have through the department because most of these have never written a state grant so that is part of my concern I know you're gonna have you set a time where you're going to speak to them to resume call will what about the grant management will that come easy and with that as well as how to apply in those things how they need to manage those grants a few things that we do and we will include in that workshop virtual we anticipated bills on call is introduced in who we are the Department being able to lease meet virtually with the people who have a pack happenin understand what they're on with evaluation process would be and from there when they can anticipate their grant award document which they will be assigned before any disbursement is made and then having them to understand how we will manage the program through its completion so all that would be a part of the workshop okay and it is the federal government in their grants has the proselyte Clause but there is not that in this state is that correct. To my knowledge that is correct okay I don't want them to get in trouble with that. So can we go past your knowledge how would we how would we make sure that the centers don't get in trouble. What is statements that. I think it's it is helpful in I communicated with some who have asked questions on the program is that the the program is designed for services directly to pregnant women and those services need to support the pregnant woman toward given birth to a unborn child. And. The the fact that if there is other services that they have in their organization they need to be able to. Verbally describe and they will enter application how their proposed. Find it services will effectively meet the purpose of direct service to to pregnant women so. In that discussion at the the goal is to get them to identify the on sales in their own language those services and for the most part I think they understand Services are separate from you know have an. You know proselytize and you know females but the goal is to just help them to understand that their their description of their services have to present clearly and focus on how they get the pregnant woman sorry okay I'd like to talk to you about that online one more question please. On on the budget where you say other do you have boundaries and parameters with that are you just going to wait and see what comes in will make recommendations about what. We see S. some items that would be problematic in finding of but just for found hordes corps Ballinger is we won't have and we will see what comes in and make decisions based on it but we will have recommendations about what we consider reasonable request for five okay thank you okay. Send a representative Dotson you're the last one I have a right now thank you Mr So I guess the. Is your intent to award this full million dollars for the full fiscal year all during the emergency rule promulgation period time in this first round like allocate all the funds during that period of time before there's any other public comment on this for the permanent rules. The timing and the nature of the program itself. Is such that once we we fully anticipate an application review period. I. I believe that after the application of the previous completed. It is needful to move forward in a warning those funds absolutely. So to that extent. Okay we we will have we will do the emergency I'll with the permit rule promulgation. Timing wise I do believe that the finding the center will go for before the Department eight room portion is completed and we can conduct questions and answers at that time with the understanding that these would be quarterly incremental payments but the program would be under way so. So basically the first first year of this program if this continues and there's additional funds appropriate and in subsequent years we'll all be done during this emergency rule program rule the ward's will be made during the emergency rule period of time I mean I don't know what the public comment could potentially be because the rule the emergency rule I see here complies with the law. I mean it it's basically re writing all of verbatim almost so but if there is public comment we just haven't heard back from it. Yet before you'll make all the awards for this amount. Right the award be made it that would be quality incremental payments If there is a need to address through the award process that. Question like if the if there is a need to break the award to to count for this state you know the first half of your what would be made you know in the interim and then have a second point with the full award document I think it has needs to be made because you're re introducing this process which a college companion I don't have applications for a hundred thousand dollars you can only ward up to under that right but if that if you have a applications for ten million dollars you're gonna have to. Try to decide which ones get prior pro ratted out exactly that amount okay thank you. Thank you not saying any more questions thank you all for being here today and answer questions without objection to proposed mercy rules reviewed and approved in the review and approval shall be affected both upon adjournment of the Legislative Council meeting July twenty first twenty twenty two. Thank you your. Thank you Mr. Our next is the single group if you will screaming deals on commercial star. It's there if you will recognize yourself you're ready for president. Thank you Mr chair Jill there be of Legislative Research. So I'm just going to give you a little bit of an overview before Siegel comes out to talk about their proposal and you all have all the members of the subcommittee have a binder in front of you. And just a reminder that the General Assembly passed act one twelve during the fiscal session this year and in that act it requires that any and bill that file that will impose a new or increased cost obligation on health benefit plans for the state we have to have a fiscal impact statement with that so in response to that the subcommittee decided to put out an RFP to hire an actuarial consultant that will assist the General Assembly in creating those fiscal impact statements the scope of work of the R. F. P. will also and ask that consultant to provide you all with recommendations and research on this topic and they will also work with your education I committees to look at the PSC a public school employee health benefit plans and provide actuarial information for the adequacy study and so. What you are going to do today is here from Segal and we put out an RFP on may thirteenth under your authority it was released on the S. P. website we only received one proposal in response to that or if the and it was the Siegel group. And so you have that in front of you. Just also let you know you have a copy of the R. F. P. in your binder and I went through Siegel's proposal just to check to make sure they complied with all of the requirements that we have so that their bid is acceptable for you to consider and they did you have that here in your binder and Lori Ballen with our office is back here and check their references for us and you have a table here that summarizes the responses we got from all the references and Laurie can answer any questions if you have any questions about that and that your task today is just to determine whether or not you are going to award a contract under this RFP and if so to authorize the bureau then to move forward with negotiating that contract and if you decide to do that the policy making subcommittee will meet in August to approve the contract to make a recommendation the Legislative Council and the timing of that is important because it would allow the consultant to go ahead and begin working with your education committees and who are going to be looking at the PS the portion and September so and the timing is is crucial I am I'll answer any questions if not S. singles here to make their presentation there any questions for Mr. Sini thank you now we're are ready for the legal group shall come on a. Welcome Pritchett you being here today if you will recognize yourself and then we'll let you present. Patrick lamisil. A can Verreaux's eagle. Matt Kersting zero. In person chatting with single. Go ahead. Sir Patrick Klein I'll be the account manager in the dated a contacts similar in my role with the last project that we did last year. And I've also is the lead actuary matters thing fourteen maybe one thousand. Same similar all around can verify the account executive for the project. In person shall be the strategic consultant. So besides the four of us we have a broader team that we staffs we know that these fiscal notes they can be really actuarial nature so Matt and I would work with our actuaries to come up with the numbers and percent the note but typically there's a clinical spend or there's a pharmacy components so we do have a broader team that is in here but we will tap into Joanne on the clinical we've got Scott for pharmacy and we typically use our compliance practice quite a bit as well we're doing these fiscal notes. Clause The Patrick you're. So just a brief overview Siegel and are you guys probably already know we've been in consulting for about eighty years we are a hundred percent employee owned under president independent privately held so in everything we do comes back to us and shareholders which are self we do specialize in with three main market segments we work in this group here works under president public sector women the. Tension public sector we you know across county city state school districts University systems all kinds of different public sector organizations. and we do a cross section of services related to benefits designs communications we also have people to technology consulting for the benefit systems things like that so there's a broad range of expertise that we drawn from these as at six a. Source the map right now so we approximately of twenty four active health state client client right now so roughly about half of the states we work as the health consultant on their plans. And then this great shows. Pensions and like other groups like that I mean the map shows various other ones defined contributions and retirement but in general related health plan which is what we're working with you guys we have about half the states that we work with we put you in red because we're going to do the consulting project right now and highlighted that. So on this one this is the mission twenty four states these are the twenty four states actually see see the broad range of services we highlight in this one legislative support which is kind of. The main point is a lot of the other pieces would be utilized projections things like that but in general the legislative request we do that for virtually all the states and even a couple that are checked we you could probably say that we do that too because it would be something related to legislation budgeting allocations of like that is not directly with the legislature from. In the state we highlighted on the list is the state of Arkansas over the past year and a half we've been working working with the state with your to provide recommendations for the program as part of that we did some benchmarking of the fines against number states surrounding states are provided some recommendations on your retiree programs related to Medicare advantage prescription drug programs Rebate pricing of budgeting process and overall there to provide a longer term view from a budgeting perspective on how you budget for the for the program and and for C. things down the line we we did an analysis from a more clinical perspective looking at the health status of the population provided some clinical recommendation as it relates to diabetic programs bariatric programs no like and one of the things we advocated for as part of the process was to have a a process for actuarial notes for legislative changes which we're talking about here overall as as we went through that process with the state we estimate are the recommended savings of upwards of seventy million dollars annually and some of those changes starting to be potentially implemented in the in the coming year. The getting into the scope are on actuarial statements most states that we work with have these in place to provide an actuarial Notre fiscal impact statement for any changes that are going to impact program incorporating this process we feel is important because it allows legislators to fully understand what's going to be impacted the the plan from of a financial impact to avoid any unintended consequences from some of the the bills that maybe passes as part of the program we work as a set with many of our state's most of our states really to help them through this and one of the ways that the benefit is that we have we seen a lot of different things and a lot of the changes that come in states are going to happen if they haven't happened here yet they come down the line so we can anticipate some of the changes we have some experience with some of those those changes that may be coming down the line we can provide some of that that insight as it relates to that and we've also dealt with this work needs to be done in a day's time two days time or no longer time frame so we we are comfortable working with any level of time frame depending on the needs of of the state. That's right here I will going to detail but just give you an example of some of the the fiscal statements that we've provided for many of the states that we work with related to bariatric coverage telehealth stepped therapy pharmacy programs and changes so it runs the gamut of different changes that will need to to work through and and provide some analysis from an actual or prospective for you but we've seen we've seen just about all of that would be able to help you as it relates to that. So I think Matt covered the fiscal impact statements as Joe highlighted there's also a desire for us that work with the PSC in the funding so you know that was part of our scope of work in our last project so we're very familiar with how the funding works and we're happy to jump in and help as we can similar items of the scope of work the third and fourth bullet attend meetings appear at committee meetings we were getting the what no our way around Little Rock so we have no problem attending meetings and coming whenever you need us to present. So the last couple boards on scope work developing trends presenting trends and health benefits such as part of our core work so as new ideas new trends come along we'll be sharing that with you guys Our recommendations. We helped convert those into bills back in December and January so we have some. Experience working with you on that so we're we're happy to continue to assist their And then the other last couple billboards Be accessible committee members coming for educational discussions with committees and staff you know we're here for whatever you need outside of the fiscal notes. These last two sizes come cover some of the core actual or wireless services alone for you with all of this but a lot of as we work through as part of the process that we we work through for the recommendation process so multi year budget development expenses revenue fund balance models sound rate development contribution development a lot of that may come up with the the yes he program as we work with them risk modeling trend analysis no like We also work with I've been our valuation of changes so really runs runs the gamut of all of the the services that we provide where we're a full service actuarial firm and and really can can move in any way they need to to provide the services that you need related to your program. And lastly now that we've gone through the scope of services we just want to talk about what's that Seagal apart from some of our competitors. First of all we're independent so we're not affiliated with any insurance companies brokerage firms or health care providers that's really important we're a hundred percent employee I. and that gives us the ability to be very objective very independent so we can give unbiased opinions. experience as you saw on our chart we work with a lot of different states we do actuarial notes and and these types of Legislative in in all areas so we have deep knowledge and we have the expertise necessary to bring in as we talked about in all areas for anything this requested. because we've done so much of it we have a very developed and validated proven actuarial methodology and so we're used to working in the sector. all of these things together give us the credibility that we need so we also understand there are multiple stakeholders multiple constituents we were used to working in that environment as well. And most of all as we stated we specialize in public sector all of this work specifically in public sector and exclusively public sector and so we understand different government structure structures everything there so that's why we think. We would be very good for this job. Then we'll take any questions that you have. Thank you for presentation any questions from members. Senator Irvin you're recognized. Thank you I move that we award the contract from fully health benefits actuarial consulting services to the Siegel group and authorize a pure of Legislative Research to enter contract negotiations with the eagle with the approval of the draft contract for the A. L. C. co chair so that a final contract may be brought before the policy making subcommittee and the A. L. C. at their August meeting. I have a motion and a second any discussion on the motion. If not all of those. In favor say aye aye opposed. those plastic graduation we appreciate your working with us and look forward to our next meeting. Thank you appreciate the business you. I'm not saying any more business. We are adjourned.