Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee- House
Video
Transcript
1 document
Bills discussed (49)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1079
Act 860
· 10 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1079 F. Allen TO MANDATE COVERAGE FOR GENETIC TESTING FOR AN INH…”
|
TO MANDATE COVERAGE FOR GENETIC TESTING FOR AN INHERITED GENE MUTATION FOR CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS; AND … | F. Allen | Notification that HB1079 is now Act 860 |
|
HB1712
Act 639
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “prepared to present House Bill 1712? You will go to”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE. | Joey Carr | Notification that HB1712 is now Act 639 |
|
HB1004
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1004 Pilkington TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTH…”
|
TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTHERS FOR ONE YEAR AFTER GIVING BIRTH. | Pilkington | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1164
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1164 J. Mayberry TO ALLOW A PHYSICIAN OR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER TO…”
|
TO ALLOW A PHYSICIAN OR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER TO OFFER COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS FOR CERTAIN PATIENTS; AND … | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1241
Act 568
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1241 J. Mayberry TO ENSURE THAT THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM RE…”
|
TO ENSURE THAT THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM REIMBURSES FOR DENTAL AND ANESTHESIA COSTS FOR HIGH … | J. Mayberry | Notification that HB1241 is now Act 568 |
|
HB1252
Act 965
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1252 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA CERTIFICATION ACT; AND TO CERTIFY BIRTH AND POSTPARTUM DOULAS … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1252 is now Act 965 |
|
HB1332
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 3/12/25 @ 4:14PM) Moved HB1332 to Regular Agenda House Committee on Public Health, Welfare…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO EVALUATE CLAIMS FOR DIAGNOSES FREQUENCY OF OBESITY-RELATED CONDITIONS … | Pilkington | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1468
Act 558
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…llen Rep. Wayne Long REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1468 Cozart TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING CLAIMS AGAINST CONT…”
|
TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING CLAIMS AGAINST HOME IMPROVEMENT CONTRACTORS, RESIDENTIAL BUILDING CONTRACTORS, AND SUPPLIERS. | Cozart | Notification that HB1468 is now Act 558 |
|
HB1530
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…T CONTRACTORS AND SUPPLIERS TO REMEDY CONSTRUCTION DEFECTS. HB1530 Achor TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "SPECIALTY HOSPITAL" RELAT…”
|
TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "SPECIALTY HOSPITAL" RELATING TO THE ASSESSMENT FEE ON HOSPITALS UNDER … | Achor | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1543
Act 631
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…SMENT FEE ON HOSPITALS UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM. HB1543 Underwood TO ESTABLISH THE WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITI…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES ACT OF 2025. | Underwood | Notification that HB1543 is now Act 631 |
|
HB1582
Act 708
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…TABLISH THE WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES ACT OF 2025. HB1582 McAlindon TO REQUIRE AN INDIVIDUAL TO TAKE CERTAIN ACTIONS…”
|
TO REQUIRE CERTAIN ACTIONS AND ENCOURAGE CERTAIN ACTIONS FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR … | McAlindon | Notification that HB1582 is now Act 708 |
|
HB1585
Act 849
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…FOR BENEFITS UNDER THE DIVISION OF WORKFORCE SERVICES LAW. HB1585 L. Johnson TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME…”
|
TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME HEALTHCARE SERVICE TO AN ENTITY THAT … | L. Johnson | Notification that HB1585 is now Act 849 |
|
HB1592
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1592 J. Mayberry TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS ALZHEIMER'S AND DEMENTIA…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS ALZHEIMER'S AND DEMENTIA PUBLIC HEALTH ACT. | J. Mayberry | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1619
Act 634
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1619 Gramlich TO SET ADMINISTRATION FEES UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDI…”
|
TO SET ADMINISTRATION FEES UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR IMMUNIZATIONS AND MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES FOR … | Gramlich | Notification that HB1619 is now Act 634 |
|
HB1622
Act 635
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION IN NOTICES OF ADVERSE DECISIONS. HB1622 Gramlich TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO MODIFY THE…”
|
TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO MODIFY THE DEFINITION OF "ADVERSE DECISION" UNDER THE … | Gramlich | Notification that HB1622 is now Act 635 |
|
HB1653
Act 636
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1653 Cavenaugh TO SET STANDARDS FOR THE LICENSING AND REGULATION…”
|
TO SET STANDARDS FOR LICENSING AND REGULATION OF PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITIES; AND TO DECLARE … | Cavenaugh | Notification that HB1653 is now Act 636 |
|
HB1677
Act 637
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ULAS IN THIS STATE TO IMPROVE MATERNAL AND INFANT OUTCOMES. HB1677 Bentley TO AUTHORIZE ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT PROGR…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT PROGRAMS TO MAINTAIN EMERGENCY MEDICATION KITS. | Bentley | Notification that HB1677 is now Act 637 |
|
HB1679
Act 861
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1679 M. Brown TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT;…”
|
TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT; TO ALLOW CERTAIN CLASSES OF PERSONS TO … | M. Brown | Notification that HB1679 is now Act 861 |
|
HB1718
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE. HB1718 Gramlich TO ESTABLISH STANDARDS FOR SURGICAL SMOKE EVACUATI…”
|
TO ESTABLISH STANDARDS FOR SURGICAL SMOKE EVACUATION IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES LICENSED IN THIS STATE. | Gramlich | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1723
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…EVACUATION IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES LICENSED IN THIS STATE. HB1723 Pilkington TO AMEND INITIATED ACT 1 OF 2000, ALSO KNOWN AS…”
|
TO AMEND INITIATED ACT 1 OF 2000, ALSO KNOWN AS THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT PROCEEDS ACT; … | Pilkington | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1731
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ADMINISTER A GRANT PROGRAM FOR SCHOOL-BASED HEALTH CENTERS. HB1731 Vaught TO STRENGTHEN CHILD LABOR LAWS THROUGH THE REINSTATE…”
|
TO STRENGTHEN CHILD LABOR LAWS THROUGH THE REINSTATEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES. | Vaught | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1734
Act 862
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…LAWS THROUGH THE REINSTATEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES. HB1734 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DEATH CERTIFICATES; A…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DEATH CERTIFICATES; AND TO CLARIFY THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS WHO MAY … | Childress | Notification that HB1734 is now Act 862 |
|
SB118
Act 517
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…AUTHORIZE A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT TO DELEGATE CERTAIN TASKS. SB118 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "AUDIOLOGY" RELATING TO…”
|
TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "AUDIOLOGY" RELATING TO THE PRACTICE OF AUDIOLOGISTS. | C. Penzo | Notification that SB118 is now Act 517 |
|
SB189
Act 396
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB189 A. Clark TO AUTHORIZE IVERMECTIN FOR HUMAN USE TO BE SOLD W…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE IVERMECTIN FOR HUMAN USE TO BE SOLD WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION OR CONSULTATION WITH … | A. Clark | Notification that SB189 is now Act 396 |
|
HB1008
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NG ACT. Page 2 of 4 DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1008 A. Collins TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTH…”
|
TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTHERS FOR ONE YEAR AFTER GIVING BIRTH. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1010
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTHERS FOR ONE YEAR AFTER GIVING BIRTH. HB1010 A. Collins TO SET THE REIMBURSEMENT RATE IN THE ARKANSAS ME…”
|
TO SET THE REIMBURSEMENT RATE IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1011
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES. HB1011 A. Collins TO CREATE THE RESTORE ROE ACT; AND TO RESTORE A…”
|
TO CREATE THE RESTORE ROE ACT; AND TO RESTORE A WOMAN'S ACCESS TO ABORTION SERVICES. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1012
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ACT; AND TO RESTORE A WOMAN'S ACCESS TO ABORTION SERVICES. HB1012 A. Collins TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO EXTE…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO EXTEND ELIGIBILITY TO CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS FOR FAMILY PLANNING … | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1013
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…BILITY TO CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS FOR FAMILY PLANNING SERVICES. HB1013 Hudson TO PROTECT FERTILITY TREATMENT RIGHTS IN THIS STATE.…”
|
TO PROTECT FERTILITY TREATMENT RIGHTS IN THIS STATE. | Hudson | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1029
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Hudson TO PROTECT FERTILITY TREATMENT RIGHTS IN THIS STATE. HB1029 D. Garner TO SET THE REIMBURSEMENT RATE IN THE ARKANSAS MED…”
|
TO SET THE REIMBURSEMENT RATE IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AND … | D. Garner | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1032
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…R MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES AND SERVICES RELATED TO ADDICTION. HB1032 A. Collins TO BAN CONVERSION THERAPY. HB1132 Pilkington TO…”
|
TO BAN CONVERSION THERAPY. | A. Collins | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1132
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TO ADDICTION. HB1032 A. Collins TO BAN CONVERSION THERAPY. HB1132 Pilkington TO INCREASE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE SERVICES PROVID…”
|
TO INCREASE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE SERVICES PROVIDED BY ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSES; AND TO AMEND … | Pilkington | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1140
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RIPTIVE AUTHORITY OF AN ADVANCED PRACTICE REGISTERED NURSE. HB1140 Gramlich TO DEFINE HEALTHCARE PROVIDER REGARDING STUDENT AT…”
|
TO DEFINE HEALTHCARE PROVIDER REGARDING STUDENT ATHLETE CONCUSSION EDUCATION. | Gramlich | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1142
Act 859
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…WEIGHT LOSS. PENDING FISCAL IMPACT Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1142 A. Brown TO CREATE THE REPRODUCTIVE EMPOWERMENT AND SUPPORT…”
|
TO CREATE THE REPRODUCTIVE EMPOWERMENT AND SUPPORT THROUGH OPTIMAL RESTORATION (RESTORE) ACT. | A. Brown | Notification that HB1142 is now Act 859 |
|
HB1165
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RE PROVIDER REGARDING STUDENT ATHLETE CONCUSSION EDUCATION. HB1165 L. Johnson TO PROHIBIT DIFFERENT REIMBURSEMENT RATES FOR SE…”
|
TO PROHIBIT DIFFERENT REIMBURSEMENT RATES FOR SERVICES PERFORMED BY THE SAME TYPE OF PROVIDER IN … | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1224
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…IN DIFFERENT SETTINGS WITHIN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM. HB1224 Nazarenko TO AMEND THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE FOR…”
|
TO AMEND THE AUTOMATIC OCCUPATIONAL LICENSURE FOR OUT-OF-STATE LICENSURE ACT; AND TO APPLY THE AUTOMATIC … | Nazarenko | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1244
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NSURE FOR OUT-OF-STATE LICENSURE ACT TO MASSAGE THERAPISTS. HB1244 K. Brown TO AMEND THE REQUIREMENTS TO OBTAIN A CERTIFICATE…”
|
TO AMEND THE REQUIREMENTS TO OBTAIN A CERTIFICATE OF FULL INDEPENDENT PRACTICE AUTHORITY BY A … | K. Brown | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1270
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CERTIFIED NURSE PRACTITIONER OR CLINICAL NURSE SPECIALIST. HB1270 Pilkington TO ESTABLISH LICENSURE FOR PRESCRIBED PEDIATRIC…”
|
TO ESTABLISH A PRESCRIBED PEDIATRIC EXTENDED CARE PILOT PROGRAM THROUGH A SECTION 1115 MEDICAID DEMONSTRATION … | Pilkington | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1277
Act 706
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AM TO REIMBURSE PRESCRIBED PEDIATRIC EXTENDED CARE CENTERS. HB1277 Gramlich TO AMEND PAYMENTS FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION REGARDING…”
|
TO AMEND PAYMENTS FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION REGARDING PETROLEUM STORAGE TANKS. | J. Boyd | Notification that HB1277 is now Act 706 |
|
HB1302
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CENSURE OF MASSAGE THERAPISTS; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1302 L. Johnson TO ADD DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY TO THE UNIVER…”
|
TO ADD DUCHENNE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY TO THE UNIVERSAL NEWBORN SCREENING ACT. | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1506
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…PSYCHOLOGICAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL TEST MATERIALS OR TEST DATA. HB1506 Andrews TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMP…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; AND TO PROHIBIT A PUBLIC EMPLOYER … | Andrews | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1532
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…MEMBERSHIP DUES FROM THE COMPENSATION OF A PUBLIC EMPLOYEE. HB1532 L. Johnson TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS RARE DISEASE ADVISORY COU…”
|
TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS RARE DISEASE ADVISORY COUNCIL. | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1566
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TE THE ARKANSAS RARE DISEASE ADVISORY COUNCIL. Page 3 of 4 HB1566 McClure TO REQUIRE ADOPTION OF A STATEWIDE PRACTICAL NURSIN…”
|
TO REQUIRE ADOPTION OF A STATEWIDE PRACTICAL NURSING PROGRAM CORE CURRICULUM TO INCREASE CONSISTENCY IN … | McClure | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1584
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LUM TO INCREASE CONSISTENCY IN PRACTICAL NURSING EDUCATION. HB1584 L. Johnson TO REQUIRE INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENTS OF A BENEFICI…”
|
TO REQUIRE INDEPENDENT ASSESSMENTS OF A BENEFICIARY IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR HOME- AND … | L. Johnson | WITHDRAWN BY AUTHOR |
|
HB1588
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…OMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES BE COMPLETED WITHIN A CERTAIN TIME. HB1588 McAlindon TO REQUIRE APPROVAL OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY BEFOR…”
|
TO REQUIRE APPROVAL OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES SEEKS OR … | McAlindon | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB168
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…G UTILIZATION REVIEW BOARD TO INCLUDE PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS. SB168 Rice TO ESTABLISH A STATE EXAMINATION FOR LICENSURE OF MASS…”
|
TO ESTABLISH A STATE EXAMINATION FOR LICENSURE OF MASSAGE THERAPISTS. | Rice | Died on House Calendar at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB187
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EASES COSTS TO THE STATE FOR THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM. SB187 Irvin TO AMEND THE COMPOSITION OF THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID DRU…”
|
TO AMEND THE COMPOSITION OF THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID DRUG UTILIZATION REVIEW BOARD TO INCLUDE PHYSICIAN … | Irvin | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB257
Act 515
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB257 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO EXTEND THE…”
|
TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO EXTEND THE APPEAL PERIOD FOR PROVIDERS IN THE … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB257 is now Act 515 |
|
SB99
Act 437
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB99 C. Penzo TO AUTHORIZE A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT TO DELEGATE CER…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT TO DELEGATE CERTAIN TASKS. | C. Penzo | Notification that SB99 is now Act 437 |
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Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
0:12
No. If you will go to the end of the table, sir. Committee should
have a fiscal impact statement at your desk and an amendment for House Bill 1079. We also have another handout.
We're going to pass out while we are hearing the amendment. Representative Allen, if you will, recognize your stuff for the record and you
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
0:50
are recognized to present your amendment to House
Bill 1079. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members, the
amendment to House Bill 1079 was simply to remove uh EBD out of it and I
would ask Grant Wallace uh to come to the table this morning and speak to that amendment. Mr. Wallace, if you
will, just identify yourself for the record and you're recognized for your testimony. Grant Wallace, director
Speaker 13
1:37
of the Employee benefits division. So what, uh, just to kind of clarify a little bit of the
amendment, uh, we are only getting removed from the prohibition on cost sharing. It would still allow EBD to have copays count towards deductibles, co-insurance, all of those normal things, uh, we would still be able to have that as part of the design. We do some genetic testing so we don't have any concerns on that. I know there is a, uh, fiscal impact that Siegel did on this in talking with them that the driver of that impact really is the
prohibition or removal of our ability to have the cost sharing since this amendment is then it's my uh assumption and opinion that that does get resolved and that there would be no impact to the plan, um, with that. Any questions on the amendment? See no Representative Allen, you're
reckon that's close for your amendment. Move for adoption. That's a proper motion to adopt the amendment. All those any discussion on the motion,
see none all those in favor, say I.
opposed. Congratulations, your amendment has been adopted.
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
2:49
You are now recognized to present House Bill 1079 as amended. Thank, thank you, Mr.
Chairman. I'd like to call, uh, Doctor McCo to come to the table. If
you will, sir, identify yourself for the record, anyone you represent and you're recognized.
Uh Sam
Unverified
3:11
My name is uh Sam Mao. I am a hematologist, oncologist, and I represent the patients.
Currently I work at Karta as the director of the Clinical Research department and the genetic and genomic high risk program. OK
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
3:31
Uh, colleagues, House Bill 1079 is personal to me. As you all know that I am uh 18 year cancer survivor. And it's about uh people, it's about your daughter, uh, that you want to see grow up with her kids. It's about your brother
who he wants to be there with, with his family. Early the texting gives people a fighting chance, but not every Arkansan has that access. This bill ensures that those at the highest risk do. Let, let's talk about the truth about the cost of this bill. Opponents will say that this bill is too expensive. The truth feels that we can't afford not to do this. The real cost is the lives of people that we know in the lives of people
that we love. So when it comes to. Fighting cancer, any catastrophic disease is so important. Uh, that patients have the insurance and the resources they need to fight it. I have walked the halls of Saint Jude Hospital when I was in pharmaceutical sales. I had an opportunity to meet Danny Thomas, who started at Saint Jude Hospital. I met many of the parents over there who were there with their kids fighting cancer. I've been to Lavana Hospital in Memphis. I
have also been in the Anderson Hospital, uh, down in Houston, Texas. So Kettering in New York. I have spoken to uh people all around the country and, and many physicians also. I appeared on panels and Washington DC where I was the only patient on the panel and everybody else on the panel had MD, a PhD by their name. And The only thing that I could talk about.
What's my in the bed experience with cancer. Many of the doctors and many of the uh um medical officials that help us fight cancer has never had an in the bed experience. So I was on the panel in Washington DC and after I got through speaking, there were a lot of people lined up and I thought they wanted to talk to the doctor. But they want to talk to me about my experience with cancer because many of them were patients and this bill is the
American Cancer Society and what it does is save lives, and I'm going to let Doctor McCu talk about the technical part of the bill. Thank
Uh Sam
Unverified
6:05
you, Representative Allen, and thank you, Chairman and the members of the committee for giving me the opportunity to speak to you on behalf of all our patients and on behalf of Arkansas, uh, I would like to start first with some reminder to most of you probably you did not follow the history of genetic testing in cancer in
general, but let me take the case of breast cancer in 1996, Myriad, which is a company that was able to capitalize on the discovery of the bracket. gene put together something that they could offer to the patients, and they would test the BRCA1 and BRCA2. Testing was offered to women younger than 40 only. Why? Because we thought that this is the only population at risk, and it was expensive and to add insult to injury, they placed a patent on their
discovery in a way that nobody else can perform the test, but their company in 2003, I would like to tell you the story of a patient of mine. who is sitting here, Miss Linda Hendrickson. Uh, I have seen her, please come here, Linda. I have seen her in 2003 when she was presented with triple negative stage one breast cancer. We go ahead and we did the appropriate treatment and she after that followed, you know,
the usual pattern. We did not do the genetic testing at the time. She was 48. It wasn't indicated in her case, based on the guidelines then. Now fast forward in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the patent of myriad and that opened the way for many other companies and laboratories to perform the testing. Now, Linda was still cancer-free 2015, she had symptoms and she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
At that time, the pancreatic cancer was more advanced. It was stage 2A. Had we had the possibility to screen her earlier, we would have probably diagnosed it much earlier. Luckily, she was able to undergo the whipple's procedure and get rid of the cancer. She was on treatment for a short period of time. However, she had some side effects we had to stop the treatment. And then in 2018, at that time, because of the opening of the possibility of doing testing, we
performed the testing on her, and she turned out to have two genetic mutations, the BRCA2 and the ATM BRCA stands for breast cancer 2, an ATM, a tax mutated gene. She had these two, and both of them predisposed patients to multiple cancers, so she wasn't rolled uh in uh very intensive surveillance program and that program as a result of that program, we were able to do the imaging to detect some spot on her lung, and this spot was so
small that in different circumstances would not have given her any symptoms until it had advanced to a point that it would be untreatable. However, thanks to the surveillance program, we were able to detected early, it was removed. It turned out to be a lung cancer. Thanks to the advancement of the genetic testing, we were also at that moment in the possibility to give her a drug that would protect her from having further cancers, and this drug is called
Olaparib, and she has been on it since then. Now, if I look at the entire journey that Linda has traveled throughout these many, many years. Without the genetic testing, honestly, we would have missed her lung cancer, perhaps we would not have given her the drug that helped her, uh, prevent any further cancer from happening and also Linda probably would share with you, she became a mom again. How did this happen, Linda? When identify yourself. For
Ma'am, if you will identify yourself for the record and any organization you represent
Linda Hendrickson
Unverified
10:09
and you're recognized to testify. Thank you. My name is Linda Hendrickson, and I'm just representing the patients at this point in my life, um, I am a retired speech pathologist, uh, I retired from UAMS early because of pancreatic cancer, um. My granddaughter was diagnosed
with cancer in 2003, uh, 1 week later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, um, and then my mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. My granddaughter passed away in 2008 from cancer. My mother passed away in 2000. 7 from cancer and then um I continued with treatments for
my cancer and then um in 2017, my father was diagnosed with cancer, um, and. 2023, my brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, uh, unfortunately, my father passed away and my brother passed away, um, in 20018 and 20,020, I believe. Anyway, in Because I was diagnosed early enough to receive treatments for
my lung cancer, um. My, um, All of a sudden I had the opportunity to adopt two of my grandchildren, um, One was a newborn premature micro preemie 1 pound 8 ounce baby boy. He's at school right now. Because I'm alive and I'm able to take care of him and he's in my care, um, I'm able to provide any
testing that they need, uh, which all of my grandchildren will be tested if we can get payment through the government to help with the genetic testing. In the meantime, my niece, who was my brother's daughter, remember my brother passed away from pancreatic cancer. She got genetic testing. Thank God to Doctor McCool and And um She holds one of those genetic markers where
She is prone to have cancer also. And then her daughter got tested. She had 2 daughters. One, they both got tested one was positive for the gene and one was negative for the gene. So now they are able to get early treatment if we can uh start getting more people tested earlier than I know it's life saving, I'm proof. I would just really appreciate it if you would help us in getting this
spill pass to get earlier detection. It works. Thank you, ma'am, for
your testimony. Representative Allen, are you ready for questions? Yes. Any
questions by the committee? Representative Moore, you recognized?
Representative Kendra Moore
Unverified
13:25
Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you, Representative Allen, for bringing this. This is, uh, amazing, Bill. I lost my mother to breast cancer about 30 years ago, and so I understand the need for this genetic testing. What
triggers in this bill, what triggers the patient to be referred for this genetic testing. Um I think One of the
Representative Fred Allen
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13:44
things that that triggers the patient is if they're at high risk, and I think high risk is also important and it's spelled out in the bill. I can find it for you if you want me to. Yeah. I'll let Doctor McCe speak to that
Speaker 28
14:01
office. At this point, actually, we have the NCCN
Uh Sam
Unverified
14:08
guidelines that are accepted universally and the patients who undergo testing, we call it universal testing in certain situations if the patients were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and or ovarian cancer, the patients who are diagnosed with uh uh cancer of the, uh, uh, colon or rectum before the age of 50 and breast cancer patients younger than 50. At this point that triggers automatically testing regardless of any family history or other histories. On the other hand,
the patients who have a family history like Linda's, uh, those patients we take detailed family history and we based on also guidelines, we offer those patients genetic testing. So at this point, the bill is focusing on those patients that would fit the recommendations of the NCCN guidelines, as well as other organizations. that the American Cancer Society and other organizations, uh, in, in the country. Representative Richardson, you can ask for a question. Thank
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
15:10
you, Mr. Chair. Representative Allen, could you kind of give a walkthrough of what genetic testing, what it is, some people may or may
Uh Sam
Unverified
15:21
not understand what that process looks like. Thank you for this question. Genetic testing is about sequencing the genome of normal cells in our body to see if there are any genes that have uh been changed or mutated, we call it, when you have one only letter of the usually the
sequence goes by kind of like letters in the book. So if you have one letter that has changed, we can detect that and we have defined mutations we call them, or changes that are related, for example, to change of genetic material between chromosomes, we call them translocations, meaning a segment of a chromosome where the genetic material is stored, goes up like if you take one page from a book, you put it in a different book. It doesn't read well, right? So this is the bottom line, we can identify at this
point, the mutations or alterations as we call them, in about 500 to 600 cancer related genes, and those ones. When you have them, they predispose the patients to have More frequency of cancer, not everybody gets it. We call it penetrance. How many, for example, of the BRCA1 patients would get the breast cancer, it varies in the beginning we thought it was 80% or 90%. Now we think it's somewhere around for the BRCA1, up to 60, 70, and
for the bracket to up to 50, 60%. And it's arranged depending on where you live and the other genes that you have in your genome. So genetic alterations would allow us to hone in on those patients who have higher risk to develop the cancer, whether it's in the breast, colon, pancreas, and so on. Thank you. Any additional questions by the committee. All right, seeing them, we do have another
person who has signed up to speak for the bill, Lindsey Penn.
Representative Fred Allen
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17:15
If you will come to the end of the table, identify yourself and anyone that you're representing, you'll be recognized to
Lindsay Penn
Unverified
17:28
testify. Good morning. My name is Lindsay Penn and I volunteer with
Speaker 50
17:31
the American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network. And thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony and support of House Bill 1079. I live in Smithville. That's a little town in western Lawrence County and among many things, I am a loving wife and a proud
mother, a wayward farmhand, uh, a professional student, an eternal optimist and a cancer survivor. In August of 2019 at age 35, I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. I received chemotherapy at MD
Lindsay Penn
Unverified
18:00
Anderson in Houston, Texas, and then transferred here to Little Rock, where under the continued care of Doctor Sam McCool, I've been
Speaker 50
18:07
in remission for almost 5 years. That's why I now volunteer for the American Cancer Society, Cancer Action Network for the nonprofit, the nonprofit non-partisan advocacy affiliate
of the American Cancer Society. We advocate for the evidence-based public policies to reduce the cancer burden for everyone. On behalf of the many Arkansans who have and will be personally affected by cancer. We urge your support of this spill. passage of House Bill 1079 will allow more patients to better understand their lifetime cancer risk and access much needed resources and screenings for risk reduction. Genetic testing for cancer risk identifies gene mutations that might put a person at a higher
risk of certain types of cancers. Most often this type of testing is recommended for individuals who have already had a diagnosis of cancer, those with family members who are known to have gene mutations commonly associated with cancers like Miss Linda and those who have a strong family history of certain cancers. But genetic testing is not only a critical tool to enable early cancer detection. It's also an essential part of precision oncology, allowing care teams to create the best treatment plan for each patient. Early detection and more
detailed information regarding a patient's unique genetic profile can help control costs throughout the cancer experience and may improve outcomes by providing the right treatment at the right time. Early in my cancer journey, I underwent genetic testing to better understand my diagnosis and uncover any additional risk factors. Fortunately, I was not predisposed for any types of cancer, which was an enormous relief for my family to know that heredity was not a factor. Furthermore, knowing the genetic makeup of my cancer cells
enabled my oncology team to recommend a treatment plan, especially for me. As tests such as these become a foundational part of our approach to cancer detection and treatment. Our policies for insurance coverage should evolve to support appropriate access. A common example of genetic testing may be suggested for changes in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are known to increase the risk of breast cancer in those who have several family members with a history of breast cancer diagnosis. The lifetime risk of breast cancer increases 20 to 49% for
women with moderate risk inherited gene mutations and 50% or more for women with high risk inherited gene mutations. Access to clinically appropriate genetic testing can help achieve better health outcomes, improved quality of life and reduce costs by connecting patients to tailored screening strategies and the most effective treatments for their unique profiles. House Bill 1079 would eliminate cost sharing requirements for genetic tests when clinically appropriate, as well as the recommended screenings based on
their results. By doing so, we can provide more Arkansans with the vital information they need for the early detection of cancer, personalized cancer treatments and risk reducing medical treatments. Everyone should be empowered to make informed decisions about their health. The removal of barriers to clinically appropriate genetic testing will ensure that more patients across the state benefit from better care. Thank you so much and please support House Bill 1079. Thank you for your testimony, ma'am. Any questions by the committee?
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
21:24
Seeing none, we don't have anyone else signed up to speak for or against the bill. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to
Uh Sam
Unverified
21:38
speak for or against the bill? See no I would like to add one short comment if you allow me, sir. Yes, sir. This year, 19,700 Arkansans will hear the word you've got cancer. If we look at the current statistics, 10% of those would have some genetic abnormality in their genome, which amounts to
about 2000 and if we look at the family first degree, 2, 3rd degree, we're talking about probably 10 other people that might be carriers. The 2000, we're talking about 20,000 people. And those probably less than 1 to 2% of those is getting genetic testing. This is not right. There is something that we need to change to improve the health of Arkansas, and there are estimates that probably these 10% estimates are only 50% of
what's in reality. So in that regard, allowing patients who meet the criteria for testing would allow us at least to detect the 50% that we can't detect. And that's why as representative of the patients and my colleagues, I strongly support this House bill. then 79 because that would allow us to take care of the patients at the highest level of excellence that we should really aim for here in Arkansas. Thank you, sir. Thank you for being here. Thank you for
your testimony. Representative Allen, you are
recognized to close for your bill as amended closed. Have you got a motion, sir? Oh yeah. Motion do pass motion as amended. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all those in
favor say I opposed. Congratulations, sir, you have passed your bill as amended. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate you
Speaker 66
23:23
the bottom of my heart. I appreciate you so much. Representative Carr, are you
Representative Fred Allen
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23:30
prepared to present House Bill 1712? You will go to
the end of the table, sir, identify yourself for the record. You're recognized to present your bill. With the chair's permission,
could I bring Doctor Long to the table with me as well. You can please identify yourself for the record and any organization you represent.
Speaker 72
23:52
Hi, I'm Dr. Christian Long. I am a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Arkansas, and I work for one of the large universities here, um, and I'm also in private practice. I'm a
representative of National Association of Social Workers Arkansas chapter.
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
24:06
Joey Carr, state representative District 34, uh, thank you, Mr. Chair, here for House Bill 1712. What this does, it seeks to provide social work licensees with opportunities for multi-state practice, this would grant reciprocity and by doing so, that would help for us to uh address our mental health by providing more social work providers uh here in the state
of Arkansas, uh, I have worked on this bill here and been in. contact with a few guys here on the committee. We've made sure that we have ALC oversight, and we've also made sure that ALC will be involved and be able to approve of all promulgated rules. Uh, you know, with the compact here, it will increase license portability for people even when they go on vacation or they're doing temporary moving, for example, with the military for someone that is stationed in California, they get transferred to North Carolina. They can
maintain. The social work person that is the provider for them, they would be able to operate here in Arkansas, uh, otherwise they would not have and it would break service and they would have to find a new provider, uh, so by increasing access to mental health providers, we see this as a key issue facing uh facing our Arkansans, our constituents, and we believe that this would be one solution will help alleviate that problem. And at this time I'll let Doctor Long make a, a short
comment and then We'll be open for questions. Um, I just want to
Speaker 72
25:38
say social workers are one of the largest mental health providers, both federally and in Arkansas. We have one of the largest groups of providers of mental health services. So in doing so we're going to remove barriers um like has already been said to access of care. I'm in Fayetteville and so just for an example, I have students that whenever they go home, I have to help find them another provider when they leave. Um, and that's so you have 3 months of building a
relationship and then saying sorry, you have to go find another provider when you go home. in August. Um, and so this would help with continuity of care as far as providing services. It would also provide an influx of providers into Arkansas and diversify our workforce as far as specialties, um, such as military personnel, you have to have a specialty in education to provide services to military personnel. You have to understand the system and the things that they need, especially with PTSD. So in order, in passing this bill, we're going to actually provide more specialties for social
Speaker 79
26:34
workers in Arkansas and hopefully more workforce. Um, Representative
Cars presented the bill. Representative Richardson, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh,
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
26:43
what, what states will this compact, who are, who, what states are neighboring us that will be impacted with the answer that for you. It's already been enacted and I
Speaker 72
26:52
wish I could show you this map. So the dark blue. Dark blue has already been enacted, dark blue, that's gonna be Kentucky,
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
27:06
Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, uh, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado. OK. And it's up for legislation and majority of the states right now, so it could be
Speaker 72
27:14
federally. Any additional questions by the committee. Representative Bentley, you're recognized for
a question. Representative Carr, I'm trying to look through here and see, do we have an amendment
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
27:26
here to make sure any rules that we need to will go through ALC uh before we approved this compact. Oh well, and that's what I'd mentioned earlier is, uh, we
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
27:37
have already ensured that ALC oversight and that ALC will be able to approve of all promulgated rules. Thank you. I'm sorry I missed that.
Yes, ma'am. Any additional questions by the committee? Seeing none. We don't have anyone time to speak for or against. Is there anyone in the audience that would like to
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
27:56
speak for or against? See none, you're recognized clothes for your bill. All right, again, thank you. Uh, we know that Arkansas is a mental health desert and we want to make sure that we provide for our constituents, and I appreciate your time. Thank you,
uh, Mr. Chair, and would appreciate a motion to pass and a favorable voter is
closed for his bill. What's the will of the committee? Motion do pass by Representative Pilkington. Any discussion on the motion. Seeing
none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed. Congratulations, sir, you've passed your bill. Thank you Representative McAlinden, are you in the room?
OK. Representative Childers, you ready to run your bill,
sir? You will come to the end of the
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
28:39
table. You'll be recognized to present House Bill 1734. If you will identify
yourself for the record. You'll be recognized to present.
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
28:50
Paul Childers, State Rep District 83. Um, Mr. Chair, first I have an amendment to House Bill 1734. I'd like
to run first. OK, if you will, um,
staff will get that amendment passed out. Give the committee a second to review that, and
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
29:05
you'll be recognized to present your amendment. To House Bill 1734.
I should have brought copies for you. I'm sorry. We're gonna ask you to step back and we're gonna let staff make copies of
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
29:31
this. They're gonna have to step out of the room to do that. Representative Gramli, are you prepared to run your bill? If you will go to the end of the table, you'll
be recognized to present House Bill 1622. I understand there's an amendment with that, so we'll pass that out at this time.
Thank you 1622. All right, committee, you have a copy of the amendment. We'll allow you to over allow for some
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
31:03
overview of that for just a second. Representative Gramick, if you will, identify yourself for the record and you'll be recognized to present your amendment on House Bill 1622. Zach, state
Speaker 104
31:11
representative District 50 Central Fortsmouth. Um, you remember the House Bill 16 1622 is some agreed upon language with DHS and the Department of Health, um, that we made in the last few days and so I'm just adding it to the bill to get them in a good spot. Any questions by the committee on the amendment? We have a motion to adopt the
amendment, any discussion on the motion.
See none all those in favor
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
31:40
say aye. Opposed. Congratulations, you've adopted your amendment. You are now recognized to present House Bill
Speaker 104
31:46
1622 as amended. So 1622, um, essentially gives the ability for a variety of different individuals, nursing homes or other places that are audited by DHS, um, to have an opportunity to have an administrative reconsideration upon a decision, an example of where something like this would
be used is if a, uh, let's say someone's coming in to make sure that a nursing home has all the things that they're supposed to have and instead of having a medical medical director, or they don't see there's a medical director, they'd get a knock and then, you know, they would be a process that they go through. Well, in actuality, they had a medical director, they just called it a chief medical officer or something different. Right now there's no way for that nursing home to be like, hey, yeah, no, we are actually compliant. They just kind of get, they just kind of get dinged. And so all this
does, it allows them to ask for administrative reconsideration on a. decision and to give them an opportunity to have uh to change uh corrective action plan to the imposition of corrective action plans so that they can get into alignment with with the policy. Any questions by the committee? Representative Bennett, you're recognized for
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
33:03
a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, Representative Grimlich Grimlich
yes. How does expanding the definition of adverse decisions affect Medicaid providers both financially and operationally. Um, I would say it should uh help them ensure that they're not
Speaker 104
33:19
getting dinged on a reimbursements when the, the, the issue, I could bring someone to the table who might be able to answer that question a little bit more effectively, uh. You will identify yourself for the record and you will be recognized to answer the
Joel Landreneau
Unverified
33:36
question. Certainly, Mr. Chairman. My name is Joel Landreneau. I'm the executive director of the Behavioral Health Council of Arkansas and Representative in answer to your question, this is an expansion of the definition of adverse decision right now in the Medicaid Fairness Act, adverse decision requires that a decision made by the agencies has to have a direct financial impact on that program and the kind of citation that Representative Gramlich is talking. doesn't necessarily fit that description. So you'll have a
situation where DHS will contract with uh a reviewer to do inspections of facilities. They'll write up what they purport to be violations of published standards, but there's no way to appeal or no recourse from that decision in case their citations are in error, and what this does is create an administrative uh uh reconsideration process that would be open to those facilities, which would then if that decision is
not if it's adverse to them, would open up the procedure for the administrative procedure administrative perceive a hearing process that's housed over at the Department of Health. So what this does would give us some recourse when we get a citation that is clearly erroneous, but it stays in the record. It's subject to freedom of Information Act release. So I've had members. Who were in civil litigation where the plaintiffs' attorneys were holding one of these inspection reports and saying,
You're, you're not a real facility. You don't have uh a medical director. You don't have a clinical director and the guy being deposed, my member said, I am the, the, the clinical director. We call it something else, but it's functionally the same. So you had plaintiffs' attorneys going through these reports and using the information against them in civil litigation and there was no recourse, you couldn't, you you you would request reconsideration. You might get a response, you might not. And so what this does is
takes the requirement of a direct financial impact out of the definition and allows for the inclusion of the imposition of a corrective action plan to also be appealable. So that people can correct the record and have erroneous citations and if the citation is valid, then it can go to appeal and get affirmed. But this would give an avenue of appeal for people to clear the record in their name. Any additional questions by the committee, and, and I was like we're trying to, we're trying to help people who are trying to
Speaker 107
36:12
trying to do the right thing and a mistake was made.
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
36:21
See no additional Representative Ladyman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to clarify what you said. Uh, so, If there's an inspection at a site and they find a violation. That may not be correct or it may be easily fixed. This bill would give you the opportunity to do that before you pay a fine and go on the record as being a bad facility. Is that correct? That's correct. It would allow
Joel Landreneau
Unverified
36:43
us to request them to reconsider their citation, maybe even with supporting evidence that would, you know, fortify that position and then DHS is going to have an internal process where they have administrative law judges that they hire review those requests, and that's what's new about this and this I've that's not in the bill, but it's very positive from our point of view because it allows for a third party to look at that citation with clean eyes. It isn't the person whose cited it that's looking at it. It's not the person who approved it.
These, it's a clear set of eyes looking at a citation deciding, is this a correct application of regulation, or is it not? And if they say that it is, then it's subject to appeal at the Department of Health, and if they say that it's not, then it gets reversed. So one more question if it goes through that new process
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
37:27
and it is found to be a violation. Then there could be a fine assessed. There could be. Is that correct? It could be. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. We're not, we're not like if, if people
Speaker 122
37:38
are in the wrong and are doing wrong, they're still going to get in trouble. We're not trying to protect bad actors.
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
37:44
Any additional questions by the committee. Seeing them, we have, we do not have anyone signed up to speak for or against the bills or anyone in the audience that would like to speak for against the bill. See nonpresentative, you're recognized clothes for your
Speaker 104
37:58
bill is amended. Uh, committee, I appreciate your time and your questions and with that, I would motion
to pass. We have a motion to pass as amended. That's proper motion. Any discussion on the motion? So no, all those in favor say aye. I opposed. Congratulations, sir, you've passed your bill. Thank you, chair. Thank you.
Chair
Unverified
38:32
She's Representative McLynon, you're recognized to run the bill. I don't know which one. get movement on it. 1582, is that correct?
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
38:54
That's correct. And you have an amendment. I do. So let's hold on a second, we'll pass amendment out, take the amendment up first. It's not gonna be. It
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
39:52
I have a copy. All right, if you would explain your amendment. Sure. So this amendment, um, adjusts some of the words in the original bill to make sure that we're able to DWS is able to do the things that we're asking. We've changed some words from shall apply to encourage apply, um, because of some of the limitations currently within the launch program that we're not able to uh verify that they have indeed applied to the certain number that we've requested. So I think
this fits better with what DWS is able to do within the current
system. Much pleasure committee on amendment. I got a motion to pass. Any discussion? Hold us a favor. Say ah. All opposed. I have it if you would, you can now explain your
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
40:43
bill as amended. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so this is House Bill 1582. It strengthens our workforce service system, and if it's hand in glove with the newly introduced launch online program
which ensures that ouransans are seeking employment that they're connected with real jobs and opportunities quickly and efficiently. Um, some of the key points of the bill is that it does strengthen the work search requirement trying to match people with the best jobs for their. skills. It also puts the onus on the claimant to report their 5 work searches for that week. Which is a benefit to our Department of Workforce Services. Excuse me, and it provides a modern efficient way to match employers with job seekers, uh, making the process faster and
more efficient. This will be implemented by DWS, and there is no fiscal impact, uh, DWS is supportive and we have worked together to create a bill that is implementable but also works well within the system that they currently have. And with that, I'll be happy to take any questions. Um So the amendment, is that the amendment
that came from discussions with you in the department. Thank you. Uh, Representative Enne, you're recognized.
Uh, Representative Richardson, you recognize. Representative Bennett, again, you are recognized. Thank you,
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
42:02
Mr. Chair and um representative, I know you, you reached out to me last week and I didn't get a chance to get back with you and I have a question um. Let's see How will the division of workforce Services determine whether a job is suit is a suitable match for an individual. So that term has
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
42:22
been removed from the bill as part of this amendment.
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
42:34
um, Let's see. Does the State Job Board have the infrastructure to accurately match individuals with suitable jobs and process a high volume of applications. So I'm gonna
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
42:46
ask workforce Services maybe to come confirm that. Thank you.
Speaker 154
42:56
right Good morning, Christian Rosberg with the division of Workforce Services, the director of the unemployment program. I'm sorry, could, could you repeat your question? It
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
43:10
was kind of hard to hear back there. Does the state job board have the infrastructure to accurately match individuals with suitable jobs and process a high volume of applications. Yes, so that
Speaker 158
43:20
the launch system is is actually rather unique in that it takes their experience. From their multitude of jobs. So
you notice on page one of the, um, new bill, it talks about um that claim it would have to um update their experience in that bill. Part of that is so we can adequately match them with that system. So it's really in kind of ingenious and then it takes that bigger um experience and splits that down to it's small experience items. Um, I use the example of a server, um, where a server does customer service, financial transactions, uh, multitasking, etc. so it breaks into those individual. skills and then combines that
with other skills they've had in the past with other experiences, so it can actually suggest things that they may not even realize they may be eligible for, which is exciting, um, and then in future iterations, it's going to be able to um expand some training opportunities to help them be able to bridge those gaps and move on to even better higher paid
Speaker 154
44:16
employment in the future. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Representative Richardson, you recognize. Thank you. Uh,
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
44:29
representative McAlin, I got to give you credit. You did, you did some, you really made some good changes
on here, so I have to give you credit for that. My, my question is, from the business perspective, right? So businesses who are in this, is this going to add any burden to them
to manage this process and how would they go about it because I'm really not familiar with how the system operates. Yes, it is new. It was
Speaker 158
44:51
just launched two weeks ago. Launch was launched, but um, yes, it's, it's actually very exciting for employers. Because again, they can list those individual, those smaller
skills, and instead of having to go through, you know, 500 resumes, they'll be able to actually input those skills that they want in the system will be able to go find those people and then through that system to to protect privacy, um, they can actually reach out to those individuals, those job seekers, not just claimants, um, to be able to help them, that the hope is that be able to help them um fill those positions more, more quickly. So um there's been some, some big organization. Walmart and Tyson, of course, um, but then also UAMS is now
posting their items on on launch as well, so they're, they're they're very excited for that. So
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
45:34
does a small business have the opportunity to be involved with this and is there a, I'm asking, I'm sorry, OK, does, does a small business, they, so they can be involved with this, but is there a cap on how large or small the business is, so if I own a business with 5 or 6
employees, I can still go to this and be involved,
Speaker 158
45:51
and it's actually a much more secure system, um, for, so for smaller employer um they have to be an employer in the state or they have to go through a separate screening process and
how we do that as an employer has to provide their federal ID number and their DWS account number that they use for their pseudota, and that way we're um able to show that it is in fact a real employer and not a scam like some of the other job sites do have. OK, great. Thank you. Yes, sir. Representative Barnes, you recognize. Thank
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
46:27
you, Chair. Uh, I have a couple of questions. Number one is that if
you, if they met someone with a job and it's less than the services they've already been receiving will there be some, uh, services given to them to match what they were. Although they're getting a job or do they lose all services once they get the job. And I don't know that I'm following, so I'm gonna ask a couple
Speaker 158
46:51
of questions or if you wanna, OK, um, so are you saying when you say services do you mean unemployment insurance benefits specifically, OK, so if they are matched with the job
and they do not apply right now that's why we're using that word encourage in the in the in the new bill because um currently launch does not have the ability for DWS to go in and actually find the job that they did not apply for, that they were matched with, um, which is one of the things that the representative uh met with us on, and that we would not have been able to hold people accountable if it had said shall. Um, so we're encouraging launch. Now, um, later on down in the bill, it talks about they'll be required to tell us who they did apply for work for, so and then
we audit 100 of those per week of our paid claims. So if it's found that they were not honest with who they applied for work for, even if it's not one of the ones they're matched for, then yes, their benefits could be withheld a decision would have to be made on that. Does that make sense? I follow. Don't quite
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
47:49
think you understand what I'm saying. I'm asking. If a person is receiving benefits. Yes sir. They take a job. Yes,
sir, before, uh, but say for instance they said Taco Bell.
They don't have insurance. They're gonna lose that that they had. By taking a job. There are services to kind of subsidize them until they may be able to get insurance or something. Yeah, it sounds like you're
Speaker 158
48:20
talking about benefit cliffs. Does that sound right? OK, so, um, so Arkansas has a 40% rule, OK? So, um, let's just for for round number's sake, OK? Let's say that a claimant was receiving $100 of benefits a week in unemployment insurance
benefits so that employee that that claimant can earn up to 100. $39 just under 100 40% of their weekly benefit amount and still receive a payment, so we do encourage claimants to work while they're claiming for that point. Now that does not decrease their total funding bucket, as I call it, um, but it does allow them to draw for a longer period of time, and that's to um prevent those benefit cliffs. Uh, one more question, chair.
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
49:06
Great. All right. Uh, second question. What's the long term action of the punitive. Um Procedures in place of a person
does not follow this plan. There there already, there are
Speaker 158
49:23
already punitive processes. So if an individual, um, like I stated earlier, submits information to us that is not accurate in the audit process, and then they can have a week of benefits withheld for failing to
look for work, um, if they do not accept work that is deemed suitable by staff, I mean suitable is a real specific UI definition. There's a lot of factors that go into that. And if they um do not apply for. suitable work, then they could receive a 30 day disqualification, which means they'd have to have 30 days of covered work before they could refile for benefits. But again, that, that is already existing and is not changed with with this particular legislation. Thank you. Yes, sir. Representative Perry, you
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
50:09
recognize this chair. So I'm looking at on page 2, line 8 says an individual submitting a claim for benefits shall report to the division the 5 work search contacts made in the week. If they don't report that, do they lose benefits if they don't report
Speaker 158
50:24
that we're, um, so we have to, we we are required by the Department of Labor to ask. Question about work search. That is a deal requirement. Um, we, what we are doing is enhancing that requirement so we can get additional information so we can
do further data analysis to make sure that they're applying for work that is within their ability, um, so if they do not report that work, it would be set for a decision, as I mentioned a minute ago, and so if it's deemed that they did not meet the requirements of able and available for work and doing their work search requirements, then yes, they would be eligible to have a week of benefits withheld. OK. And also,
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
51:00
do they have to do this online? No, that,
Speaker 158
51:03
that, that's one of the wonderful things with, with, with this new amendment, um, right now the UI cert hub is still in its infancy
stage within sight of launch, um, so claimants will be able to file online through that system. We also have a phone system called Arcline where it's press one for yes, press press 2 for no, and they'll be able to actually speak that job contact into it and then through, um, the voice analysis, it'll create a data file that we'll use and then there's always the up of a paper um application for their week at any of our workforce service centers. When you
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
51:35
call that number, how long is the wait? That one
Speaker 158
51:38
there's no way because it is an automated system on our 844 number, which
is what we use for claimants that have questions. Unfortunately, our weight is, um, it can be as high as 40 minutes on a Monday. Uh, we never encourage people to call on a Monday, uh, because everybody that had problems over the weekend calls on Monday morning, um, but on Fridays our wait times are usually less than 5 minutes.
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
52:01
I understand that my, my office in Jacksonville is the former unemployment office. Oh, lucky you. Yes, sir. Uh, yeah,
Speaker 191
52:12
yeah, all right, thank you. Thank you.
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
52:24
education Yes. Representative Ferguson, you recognize. Thank you, thank you. Uh, representative uh Paris as one of my questions, but going back to its already in the bill that they have to do at least 5 work searches a week. Is that match with what the division does in terms of providing uh what if
They go to the employment security Services division and they recommended for 3 particular jobs, not 5. Well, so they've got to find 2 on their own. Yeah, well, I'm sorry. I apologize. She's the
Speaker 158
52:56
I'm, I'm kind of a loud mouth. I apologize. I, I, I get excited. Um, so if the job service, which is what's what's provided in our, in our local offices. We have that those centers all have access to launch as well as a multitude of other ways to look for work, including jobs that
are posted with that office. So to a quick answer to your question is yes, they would be required to report 5 work search contacts each week, but that is. not new that was added in the
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
53:27
2023 session. You had mentioned that it also includes like if
Speaker 158
53:30
they do training, I apologize, I didn't go into that. So there's, there's 4 items that are counted as searching for work, effective in 2024. So that's um submitting a resume or an application with an employer that's completing an interview, um, that's attending a job fair or that's completing
an approved training, which would be through the workforce
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
53:51
Center. So, uh, any of those four categories would compensate for them doing 5 work searches a week. Yes. Uh, I know there's no way in the bill that would address in our smaller rural communities where you don't have a lot of job opportunities and when you deal with single mothers who may not have a lot of transportation opportunities. Is there some
flexibility that the division can give individual with those kinds of restraints. I wish that we could, um, because A and available.
Speaker 158
54:25
and childcare are two of our largest issues in the state of Arkansas with our able and available decisions. But unfortunately that particular situation is out of our control and that you have to be able and available for work and that's the Department of Labor requirement and so we are unfortunately unable to provide flexibility in that. If a claimant told us that they were
not able to look for work for those reasons, we would have to count them unallowable for benefits becau because of the DOL requirement. So if they didn't have transportation and didn't have child care that
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
54:57
would actually count against them. Yes, sir, and they could lose their benefits. That is correct. But again, that is how it
Speaker 158
55:04
has been, and that is a US Department of Labor requirement. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, can I add one more thing? I, I can say that when, when we do have those issues, we do re uh refer them
to supportive services to try to fix those problems for them so they can be eligible in the future once we get that taking when, once we're, they're able to get assistance for those things. Any further questions from the committee?
Seeing none, or is there anyone in the audience speak for or against the bill? Seeing no, I take it that you are closed for your bill. I'm closed for my bill. I have a motion due passed as amended, correct? In discussion on emotion.
Seeing on all those in favor, say ah. I opposed. I have it. Congratulations, your bill is passed. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, committee.
Representative Childers, are you ready? I was. Just keep things moving. And you have an amendment, correct? I got
you. Paul Childers, state representative District 83. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee.
Yeah I sure can. You can go ahead and explain the amendment as
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
56:48
it's being passed out. OK, Mr. Chair, what, what my amendment does is it deletes
paragraph B completely. The only thing it does is just delete everything in paragraph B. We just felt like that was redundant and it's kind of answered in paragraph A and we were just trying to simplify this bill and make it just easier to read and
easier to understand. So that's all we're doing is just deleting everything in lines 33 to 36. Which is paragraph all of paragraph B that's underlined. What's the pleasure committee. I got a motion to
pass on the amendment. All those in favor say aye. I posed
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
57:24
I have it, so you are welcome to present your bill as amended, OK, with permission from the chair, I would like to have two witnesses join me at the table, if that's OK with you. Yeah, I guess it's
OK. I learn and care. I had to think about it. OK. If you would have them introduce theirself for the committee and you're reckon I'd start. You both will introduce yourself. Thank you, Chair. Kevin
Speaker 213
57:48
Cleghorn. I'm the president of the Arkansas Coronerers Association.
Taylor Hanford
Unverified
57:55
My name is Taylor Hanford. I'm legal counsel to the coroner's Association.
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
58:03
OK, Mr. Chair, um, this bill 1734 was brought to me, brought to me by Kevin
Cleghorn, who is my corner in Saline County, but he's also the corner of the state association president and uh him and Taylor have worked on this bill and pretty much the gist of it, I'm gonna let Kevin explain it a little bit better for you, but it's allowing nurse
practitioners, APRNs to pronounce, uh, people dead and signed death certificates in a hospital environment as long as the medical director of that fac facility says it's OK. So Kevin can explain some examples that he's had that has came forth, that's brought it to his attention that he feels like this is a a good bill to to to work on. So Kevin.
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
58:50
Thank you, Representative children um So what, what brought this into play, nurse practitioners already have the authority based
on a statute that was passed and I believe in 2017 that it's a signature law that allows them to certify death certificates already, um, working with these physicians in lieu of the physician. So, uh, the problem is that has arisen over the years, over the last few years, um, especially with the trauma system when when a hospitalist leaves the hospital at the end of the day, uh. There's no, there're the only physicians that are that are in a hospital is typically those emergency room physicians, um.
Where that has caused a problem is they're pulling the, the emergency room physicians to the floor to pronounce death, taking them away from the emergency department. this became this become a problem initially with um Life Point Health, that's the one agency that that begun the the problem, um, recognizing the issue with the state trauma system. Every time that physician leaves that emergency department, they have to document and log that time where they're out of the
floor, off of the floor and, and that's a very small percentage of time that uh is allotted through the trauma system. So that begins if if they breach that, if they go over that a lot of time frame, it, it puts their trauma designation in in jeopardy and trauma funding in jeopardy, um, so, you know, we're, we're trying to work with that, with our hospitals to allow the nurse practitioners on the floor, doesn't, doesn't give the hospital, it doesn't mandate or anything, but it gives the
opportunity for the hospitalist programs within our rural. Hospitals in Arkansas, the ability to have someone other than that ER physician be able to pronounce that death. Most of the time in our larger communities, Little Rock, Bendon County, Washington County, our major hospitals, it's really not an issue because they typically have physicians around the clock in the facilities. Um, that's not the case in our in rural Arkansas. So this is not, it's not restricting the, the previous law that that allows
the, the nurse practitioners to certify the death. It doesn't restrict them um in any other way. It actually gives them the authority to pronounce the death. Because as of right now, uh, Arkansas law does not give the authority to a to a nurse practitioner to pronounce the death only to certify the death, um, the only RN that is legally allowed by state law to pronounce a death as a hospice death, and that law is very specific. It gives them very straightforward guidelines. So
we're we're trying to, to, to help our hospital systems as well as, uh, you know, give the nurse practitioners, they, they're educated, they, you know. They, they are They are well aware of what a dead person looks like and I know that sounds blunt just to say it like that, but it gives they, they can already certify the death. Why not allow them to Allow them to pronounce the death as well in a hospital setting. So that is the gist of that law, and we, we've talked to multiple agencies including
the um the hospital association we're, we've talked with the uh the Medical Association we're working on making sure
all the language is perfect for everyone involved. So, um, That that is the the bulk of what this law is going to do, so Representative Childers. Any questions, members? Seeing no questions. I,
oh, do you have a question, Representative Henley, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so am
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
1:02:29
I reading this right that the a registered nurse.
As well as the APRN will be allowed to cer.
Speaker 224
1:02:39
No, ma'am, those lines were stricken with the amendment, correct? The registered nurse, the
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
1:02:46
only registered nurse that will be allowed to pronounce death as as is, is, is the hospice nurse, not a registered nurse on the floor. So can you help me
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
1:02:58
to see that in the amendment or wherever that is. Um Representative Henley and
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
1:03:08
Section 3, line 27, 3A. That is the current Arkansas code. And it is defining what Kevin Gleghorn just explained that a registered nurse employed by attending hospice and I tried to look at a language to put something after hospice because it just kind of stops there, but when we did the research, we couldn't find an appropriate term to go that, that's how it's defined in code is just hospice. Uh, but it says to continue on hospice made complete and sign the medical certification of death and pronounced death for a patient who is terminally ill,
whose death is anticipated and is receiving services from the hospital program under section 2. 77117 and who dies in a hospice inpatient program or as a hospice patient in a nursing home or a hospital, so that's where our ends currently can pronounce deaths and signed death certificates only, only in that environment. This is going to expand it, not for our ends, but for APRNs to give them the authority to do it in a hospital setting if. Uh, the medical director signs
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:04:12
off on it right, thank you, thank you. Yes, ma'am. Representative Pilkington, did you have a question? I had
a comment, but Representative Johnson, yeah, I was just clarifying in the question, would you agree that in the current in the original draft before the amendment, lines 33 to 36, where it said before the amendment, except as provided and reference is just a registered nurse in that section. Those lines have now been deleted from the bill, correct? And we substituted B for C. and so now the only thing
the bill reads is just that bottom section on page two. Would you agree? Yes, sir. OK, I, I have. No of course have a
motion at the proper time. Is anyone in the audience speak? Oh, Representative Richardson, you
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
1:04:55
recognized. Do you know, is this the, I, I stepped out for a minute, so you may have said this. Representative Chillers, is this something that happens across the country right now that we're coming
Speaker 44
1:05:03
in line with. I'm just curious. I'm over defer to Kevin Cleghorn because he has the answer.
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
1:05:09
It is national standards representative. I mean, that is the national standards across the country. Thank you.
Seeing no other questions. Are there anyone in the audience speak for or against the bill?
I take it your clothes for your bill. I have a motion for Representative Johnson as amended. Do pass in discussion on the
motion. So you know all those afavor. Say ah. I posed. I have it. Thank you and congratulations, your bill is passed. Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee. OK. Um, Representative Johnson, are you, are you ready?
Which one you gonna start with? 1585. Is it a got amendment? OK.
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:06:24
members of Representative Lee Johnson, District 47, House Bill 1585. If you look at
the bill, it's the list of exemptions of people who are not required to get a license for home health services. It's a little hard to read because you've got to know which sections of code are referenced, uh, on the first page where it says 20-10-807. That's a section of code around home health services, and then as you as you read below that, it lists the groups of people who are exempt from getting a license for those services. We're just clarifying in the in line 6 through 8.
All those little sections of code there, 17-93-101, that uh that section of code is in 93 is referring to physical therapist, the next section of code is referring to occupational and the speech therapist, so you can see in the list that a physical therapist occupational therapist, a speech therapist individually they're exempt from getting a license. This is clarifying that an entity. That utilizes these individuals would also be exempt from
getting a license. It may be sort of a belts and suspenders type situation, but there are entities out there that would like to come to Arkansas and provide these services that are wanting clarification that I don't need to get an additional license to provide them legally, and I'd be happy to try to answer any questions on
what we're trying to do with this bill. Any questions from committee? Anyone in the audience speak for or against the bill. Representative Richard, do
you have a question? Seeing no, are you closed for the bill? I'm closed for a bill
pass. That's proper motions discussion on the motion. Seeing no discussion, all those in favor say aye, uh, all opposed. I just have
it. So Representative Johnson, you're recognized to present your other bill, and it does have an amendment, correct? Yes, I think I'm adding a
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:08:16
co-sponsor to that. It's with them in it, yes, so if you could pass that out. And if I could have some a couple of, uh, someone come to the
table. I have someone here in the audience. I'd like to come and
Speaker 250
1:08:30
introduce the House Bill 1252. members, the amendment they're passing out is just adding Senator
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:08:40
Ervin as a co-sponsor. And I may need to sign those. Oh, she's here. It's OK. It's OK. I got to sign an amendment anyway.
Members, I apologize. There's no amendment on that. There is a fiscal impact, and we were waiting on that fiscal impact for we ran this bill. This bill was meant to be originally a companion bill along with the Community Health Workers bill, you know, as part of the healthy moms Act that we passed to try to support maternal health, one of the, uh, workforce services we wanted to recognize and make sure we endorsed was the doulas that work in our state. We've had dualists work in our state for many years now. We want to make sure there's a process for them to get certified here in the state and then also make sure they're reimbursed.
For their services and I have someone here with me with the DAR, which I like to say a lot, like a pirate Dar. This is the uh Doula Association of Arkansas, and I'd love for you to introduce yourself if you could for the committee
Speaker 255
1:10:13
and make a few comments. I it's work? OK. Hello, yeah, yeah. I'm Nicole Fletcher. I'm president and co-founder of the Doula Alliance of Arkansas, an organization created as a part of a larger effort to address the maternal healthcare
crisis here in Arkansas. We are working to advance the profession of community-based doulas through advocacy, education and improved access to Doula services and ensure the consistency and quality of those services. We aim to be. The Chick fil A of Doula Services. You know exactly what that means when I said that, right? So it's really important, um, To support these efforts. We are thrilled and as a doula of 16 years, I can say this is a
beautiful day. Doulas have been providing emotional informational support and advocacy, um, through the childbearing years like pregnancy, birth and postpartum for many years and it's an honor at this point to be recognized as a part of the care team because because we do provide that ancillary support that makes the difference that the providers really don't have. Time or capacity to meet the needs and that is where our efforts and our support really does make a difference and an
impact positively on maternal health care outcomes and Arkansas, we all know the statistics, right? And, and they're not great. However, it is time for women to not only survive the childbearing years, but in 2025 we're here to thrive and we're really excited of your efforts to support that. Thank you. Yeah, and thank you, you know, this, this bill is a result of a lot of hard work behind the
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:11:52
scenes. We started working on this in the fall and a lot of good collaboration and I'm really glad to be able to bring this forward at this time.
Proud of the work we've done and proud of the dealers of Arkansas, and we'd be happy to answer any questions on the bill.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:12:13
Any questions from committee? Representative Bentley, you recognize. Thank you, Ms. Fletcher for being with us here today, so we know that, um, unfortunately our black women here in Arkansas really are outpaced when it comes to the maternal death. So you think that what you guys are doing will really help that population to do better in maternal health there across the state. Yes. Was that a question? OK.
Speaker 255
1:12:31
I was like, was that a question? It felt like a statement. So I just want it because it's true, um, it will um impact and improve maternal health care outcomes for the black community specifically, um, I also represent another organization called Ujima Maternity Network, where we do focus specifically on black families and improving maternal health care outcomes for them by training black doulas, uh, bipo doulas to really meet the community and serve them where they are. Yes.
And I'll just say this too, if I may. Currently Doula's support and services isn't out of pocket expense and 2/3 of Arkansans are using pregnancy Medicaid, and so that's for the community that needs it the most, they're not unable to attain that. So moving this bill forward will allow those families to receive the support that they desperately need and deserve and will improve maternal health care outcomes for the state of Arkansas. We like this. This is an opportunity to really
be on the map and change the trajectory for maternal health care and I'm excited like I'm excited. OK, I'll calm down, but I'm excited. Seeing no further questions or anyone in the
audience speak for or against the bill? You close for your bill for your bill. Make
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:13:52
a motion to pass. That's proper motion. Any discussion? All
those in favor, say ah. I post. Congratulations, your bill is passed. Thank you.
Speaker 260
1:14:04
Do we do a happy dance? Thank you. Representative Bentley, are you ready to run? Senate bill. 189,
correct? OK. OK, let's do 118. And it has an amendment.
Speaker 266
1:14:36
So on the building. You would just give them a second
to get it passed out and you can and you're recognized
to present the amendment, and you can go ahead and have your witnesses join you at the table. You want to come? I'll
Speaker 85
1:14:56
let her introduce herself while we're waiting on it to be
Speaker 271
1:15:00
passed out. Hello, I'm Doctor Mary Chatelaine, and I am the president-elect of the Arkansas Academy of Audiology and state representative Mary Bentley District 54.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:15:09
Like cause if you remember, this is the bill that we brought forth before, um, Senate Bill 118, and I just want to again thank thank our colleagues in this committee for working together. Senator Lee Johnson spent I'm Senator, yeah, Representative Lee Johnson has been a great help. I don't want to insult you like that. Anyway, so yeah, Representative Lee Johnson has been a great help for us to get this work forward and get everybody on the same page. I'm just really about making sure we have as much patient care as we can and approve. We want to leave that 48 number, uh, across the nation to get better healthcare to our kids and so this is really about improving healthcare and Improving patient care, so.
Uh, in this agreed language upon here with the hospital association the medical association and the audiologist to make sure that we are very narrow and fine tuning this to dealing with things with the ear and we're presenting the amendment first. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. If you look at there, that's what we've done with the amendment just narrows and fine tunes what we're doing with the ordering and with the imaging and just limiting it to the ear. So you guys are read the read the amendment there. The first part just includes they wanted to remove without limitation. would include so we know that we
were narily just doing dealing with audiology and not something else, and they were not, were not interpreting or we're not diagnosing. We're ordering things that have to do with the ear auditory vestibular conditions in the human ear. So just narrowing it and fine tuning it as the committee has requested and with that, I'd make a motion to pass on the amendment. That's proper motion. All those
in favor, say ah. All opposed, I have it. So now you recognize I present your bill as amended. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you committee. Um,
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:16:44
OK, so again, uh, we had a great lengthy discussion on SB 118. We're allowing audiologists to do some health screening and to improve patient care and allowing them to ordering testing so that when they get to the specialist, they already have the necessary results and the necessary tests to avoid an extra visit and to get better care. So again, I will show remind you guys of the heat map. We have 449 Audiologists and only 41 ENT docs, so we're really improving patient care, especially across rural Arkansas, and with that I'll make. motion to pass. Yeah.
Any questions from the committee? That's when you got a great amendment. Anyone in the audience speak for or against the bill?
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:17:27
You close for your bill. I'm close to the bill and
make a motion do pass as amended as amended. That's proper motion and discussion on motion. All those in favor say aye I post. I have it. Your bill has passed as amendment. Congratulations. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, you ready to do 189? Yes, please.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:17:47
If it's OK, Chairman, I have to bring uh some expert testimony with me here to present this bill. That's fine. We're going
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
1:17:53
to pass out the amendment first. OK, thanks. I'll let him
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:17:55
introduce himself and save some time while we're passing out them in. Good morning. My name is Brock Thompson.
Brock Thompson
Unverified
1:18:03
I represent myself. And committee all the amendment does is add co-sponsors to the
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:18:07
bill. We had some folks that want to get on the bill from the Senate and, and I promised we'd add him on here and Represent Cooper, I did not. I thought I had you on here. I don't. I'm sorry.
From my list. So anyway, the amendment is just adding co-sponsors from the House and the Senate. I think we've got those about passed out, so. And uh OK, I'll,
again we're just adding co-sponsors the amendment on members. Please disregard the letter that's being passed out by House rules, we cannot accept any letters as testimony because the
person that authored the letter is not here to answer any questions, so I didn't catch that, but the second part of the handout is valid, so just disregard the
letter on top, please. Representative Bentley, you're recognized. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you committee, and it says OK, I'd like to
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:19:02
make a motion to pass on the amendment. The amendment is just simply adding co-sponsors from the House and the Senate. All those in favor say aye.
post I have it, so you reckon I to present your bill as amended. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you committee. This is allowing Irma
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:19:20
to be sold over the counter, um, really very simple thing does not mandate anything. It doesn't require anybody to purchase this medication doesn't require anybody to sell this medication, simply will allow it to be purchased over the counter. Um, I know that many of your constituents, maybe you don't know about it, but I bet many of your constituents are going to the co op or they're getting it online to use Iber matching because it's been found to be useful for so many things, uh, for, uh, inflammation in the joints for a host of things people have used Ivermin and And they're getting on to the co op to get it. I can promise you have people going to the co op
in your district to get it, so we would like it to be over the counter. We'd like to be in human, uh, Doses so that people can accurately get the amount that they're needing. So again, this is uh over the counter and nations around the world use I Nobel Peace Prize winning medication. I know that many of you probably heard, heard it for the first time during um COVID. I'm gonna give you a personal testimony that Mr. Thompson talk a little bit about this, but when, when COVID hit, I have my, my grand, my mom living with me and my pop, well there was taking care of both of them they were in their 90s. Um, mom had
uh Afib and she's on oxygen and when she, all three of us get diagnosed at the same time, OK? So my mom, who again is on oxygen and has, has Afib and has probably heart function of about 30%, uh, immediately call one of one of my physicians who got a prescription for ivermectin for her and for myself and uh Pop had diabetes and some other things, and so we had to put him in the hospital and he came to the VA and I begged for them to give him ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies, which he received none on again, unfortunately get dissevere and he died two days later, but Mom,
who was on oxygen and had 30% heart function. I treated her at home with my and monoclonal antibodies and she just came through fine. So again, there's just so many positive things about this medication. It was given around the world during COVID with great results and so again we're not mandating anybody to do this. We're not forcing anybody to sell it. We're just allowing our constituents to get human dosages in a safe manner and so they can get the doses they need if they choose to, and if we look at Tylenol, we can get Tylenol anywhere and there's much more uh risk of somebody doing overdosing and getting
toxic effects from Tylenol versus ivermectin. So This was passed overwhelming in the Senate, and that will take some more testimony from Mr. Thompson. Thank you. Good
Brock Thompson
Unverified
1:21:31
morning. Um, thank you. I, I apologize about the, the rules. I didn't realize about the letter, um, I did have multiple conversations with the doctor
Speaker 287
1:21:39
that's the doctor that's listed in the letter and I can speak to that personally, um, also you'll receive an email of the documents that we just submitted, um, that I sent out last night as well.
Um, a couple of things about me. I spent 1416 years in the medical field and so I'm used to looking at studies and I'm used to, you know, understanding a little bit about um diagnosis as well as, you know, pharmacy stuff, um, I, I left that industry, but when COVID happened, um, a couple of things that I was watching was what other global companies were other global countries were doing, um, and so when we got sick, my family, you know, took the horse. murmur that you hear about on
the news and hear about on TV and unfortunately that was all that was available, um, throughout this journey over the last couple of months of, of working with different physicians. The reason we don't have a physician here to speak about it is that they will lose their their malpractice insurance. And I, and I think that's alarming because nobody in Arkansas wants to lose their malpractice insurance so they can't testify about ivermectin. So I had a conversation with Doctor Bowden and she spoke to
me about her 6000 patients that, that she had administered ivermectin 2 and and all had cured their illness, um. A couple of things about um Ivermectinus um representative Bentley said is there's over 25,000 people that were surveyed on Doctor Bowden's, uh, X file and 52% are getting it from tractor supply, um, so we looked at what, what are the other options and the options are that we can have it over the counter.
Tennessee had a bill that was out that passed in 2022 to allow it to be over the counter because of the need. One of the things that I looked at as far as in rural counties it's hard to access in the multiple conversations that I had with physicians, at least upwards of 25 that couldn't testify. They told me that they were administering ivermectin for multiple reasons, mainly through COVID though. One of the challenges that they were having
during these last 5 years and still currently to this day is that pharmacies are not filling prescriptions. So you have a physician that writes a prescription for a medication and the pharmacy's blocking it. There's a whole host of things of why that's happening, but in terms of the doctor and patient relationship, that, that's kind of been concerning for these physicians throughout the state of Arkansas and so this allows this drug that has been given 4 billion times around the
country. It's been out for 25 years and is is proven to be safe. It is listed as on the World Health Organization. essential medicines, if you Google Wonder Drug, you can see it, it pops up as ivermectin. It's been mentioned in 2015 won the Nobel Peace Prize. So, um, Not to, not to read all this information, you guys have it in front of you as well as on your email, um, there have been 105 studies that were done on COVID
and Ivermectin and those studies that you can see, uh, that are before you. It's very, very favorable, but I'm not here to necessarily talk about COVID specifically. I think it needs to be available to people that, you know, want it uh and need it instead of going to tractor supply or having to have the expense. Of going to their physician, getting the prescription filled. My experience with getting prescription filled, it's in the upwards of $140 for, you know,
24 pills. Um, so if it's, if it's over the counter and readily available, um, I think it'll be better for all the communities in Arkansas, so I'm happy to answer any questions. And thank you for your time. Representative McGee, you recognize? But
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
1:25:49
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I may have a couple of questions, but the first one is you mentioned Tennessee. I read about it in Tennessee. It, it's, it's, it's not completely over the counter, is it? I mean, I think a pharmacist can dispense it if he
has an agreement with the physician to allow it, so they can't just go in and Next to the Tylenol and the aspirin and just pick it up. Is that, is that not true? And it's still, yeah it's still being over the
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:26:14
it's still uh being uh. It's still being prescribed by physicians,
still being given out by the pharmacists. This will allow other people other than a pharmacy that want to have it over the counter, so it's not stopping anything that's currently going on between a physician and a pharmacy. It's just adding other avenues for it to be available to our patients so they can go
right now to the to the co op and pick it up. So
Speaker 290
1:26:35
yeah, well, that that's the point I want to make though is when you
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
1:26:39
make testimony and you and you reference another state and you say it's over the counter, it's not over the counter in Tennessee. They changed the law. You can still go get it. You can. walk to your pharmacist and say, I want to buy some ivermectin. And if that pharmacist has an agreement with the physician on the other end that says, yeah, I'll, I'll cover you for it or whatever. Then they'll give it to the patient. So it's not that it's not as open as what this
law is. I'm not arguing. I just, my argument is that if you're going to make a comparison, you know, you gotta know what you're talking about and, and, and that was misinformation for me. And, and I don't, I don't want anybody to go out and say that they think it's the same in Tennessee as it is here, because it's not.
Speaker 287
1:27:19
So, so if I can speak to that. Yes, thank you so much. Thank you for your question and, and part of the understanding of the Tennessee law, yes, there it is considered over the counter and that's kind of a little squishy when it comes to terminology.
Um, I looked at that and uh just as a regular guy, there's about 8 different pieces to that legislation that had to amend and change the current law. So to your point, it is correct that anybody from any state can go to Tennessee, go to a pharmacy. and that they do have an open prescription agreement and they can get it. Um, the, the, the challenge that we had that we, you know, considered about it is that we're still having pharmacies block.
That they, they, they be able to the ability to get the medication and so, um, so with a, with a prescription or even, you know, going to the pharmacy itself. So that's, that, that's true that is true. We looked at that and saw the challenges that we met and looked at the uh Tylenol and everything else that's over the counter, so that's what that is and Doctor McGee, I mean, McG
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:28:27
Ele follow up with that too. I understand that there are is this not fed uh FDA approved yet for over the counter. I understand that. What we're trying to do is get as many
states as we can to push the the federal dialogue to go, to move forward, correct? I mean, if you go through
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
1:28:45
FDA. Approval process, right? That's what I'm saying Ivermectin will never be approved by the FDA because they're not gonna put it through any clinical trials. I mean, it, you know, it has to go through multiple clinical to get FDA approval to put something over the counter. It's billions of dollars to get something done and, and if they can, you know, if it goes over the counter, the FDA is not ever gonna look at it again, you know, that it's it's going to be the same as aspirin and Tylenol.
Uh, but anyway, the other the other question, can I continue one more question? Thank you, Mr. Chair. The other comment you made was malpractice. I'm a physician. I can prescribe anything and no one's ever told me that that I'm gonna lose my malpractice because I prescribe a drug in any way that I want to use it, and I use drugs off label. All the time, every day, and you know, it's there. My insurance has never called me and said we're going to take,
Speaker 287
1:29:41
not insure you anymore. The, the, the question was to come testify, um, sorry, the, the, the physicians that I talked to in the upwards of 25, said that they could not come testify on ivermectin and specifically that they had had conversations with their insurance company and they said no and that's, that's that's what that's what's reported to me. I've spoke to about 25 and they want to because they're currently prescribing it, but because of the heat of the battle with COVID, uh, when the bill was ran
by um Alan Clark, Senator Clark, the first thing on the news was horse dewormer. Uh, Doctor Bowden here sued the FDA because there is human use, so that's where um that's where the challenge is. OK, thank you. No, no further questions, Mr. Chair. Thank
Speaker 290
1:30:27
you. Representative Ferguson, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
1:30:34
to be clear, this bill passes, we'll be able to buy this medication at Walmart or at Walgreens, OK, you're shaking your head, OK.
Speaker 294
1:30:44
Yeah, there's, there's, there's gonna be a process,
Speaker 287
1:30:47
obviously because they're gonna need to have dosing, labeling, and and all those things that, that'll comply to comply right now there's 11 states that are in this process of trying to get ahead, um, Senator Clark was one of the one statement on the, on his floor was that you know, the, the federal government's been lax and this is uh representative said it. It takes a lot of money, there's no money in ivermectin. But right now people are going to get at the farm store so there
Speaker 294
1:31:15
this will be part of the process to to to get that
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
1:31:25
put in place. Two more questions, Mr. Chair. So, As it stands now, the only way to get this drug is through a physician prescription. Human
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:31:32
form, but many of our many of your constituents are going to the co op to pick it up, uh, to get or, and others are
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
1:31:39
ordering it online. So, But OK, so what does this bill do? We're trying to get the, uh,
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:31:45
again, we want to move the federal dialogue to get it to where we can purchase over the counter just like you do Tylenol, so it's part of
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
1:31:58
the process to make that happen. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Barne. Do you recognize? Thank you, Chair. question, is this album me I notice you said the dosage is gonna be for human consumption, but I've never taken this drug lightly. I use it with, uh, it's for heartworms, for um dogs and also to use it for horses and it's taken by weight.
If there's an overdose, you could kill that animal if you give him an overdose, so my question is if people are buying it from um say farmer supply or some feeding store and they're going home without any direction. They take that too. I mean, you're only talking about just a click, you're talking about a 100 pound dog or you know exactly what I'm talking about. 1200 pounds exactly. OK, that's been there, done it, and we took it. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So, it, would that be? And you know, a lot of
instruction and information given because it could be dangerous on one side for the unlearned, but assuming it's been proven to be really good for people in human dosage, so would there be
a lot of instructions. Yeah, that's exactly what this is for, to get in human consumption form to make it to where, yeah,
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:33:01
exactly right, we don't want somebody taking more than they need to, so exactly the purpose of the bill. Thank you for your question. Representative Johnson, you recognize us? Yeah, I just want to clarify what, what I was hearing
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:33:16
on your testimony around the 25 physicians you spoke to
were those Arkansas physicians, and I mean, is that information you could share at some point with who those were individually because if there are insurance companies out there intimidating our physicians in Arkansas or they're in some way the medical board feels like they're threatening these phys. Well, I would be interested to talk to them personally and hear more details about who their insurance company is and what we're doing, I'd be happy to share my number with you, and I would love to hear from them directly and if there's a way for me to intervene with that, I'd be happy to because I concur with Dr. McGee. I have malpractice insurance and I've never had any issue. So, if I want to prescribe ivermectin I prescribe
it. If I want to stand up and testify about it. I've got nobody leaning over my shoulder telling me I can't do that from a malpractice standpoint. So if that's a factual thing that's occurring today in 2025, not during the pandemic. I'd like to hear about that directly. I would be more than happy to,
Speaker 287
1:34:04
if, if it's up to them or not, you know, obviously my number's out there, it's on the website. That's my cell phone. I'll be happy to hear from him for sure. In this conversation, I, I had a conversation with uh Representative Rapert, and he got sick and he was in the hospital and, and he was told he
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
1:34:22
could not have it, I understand. I'm, I'm asking for specific doctors to call me if
you're having issues let me know if you're Arkansas doctors, and I'll try to help, you know, try to help intervene with that. So whoever they were. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank
Brock Thompson
Unverified
1:34:36
you. I guess I'm confused. Can you introduce yourself again? My name is Brock Thompson. I'm a regular guy. So you're, you're not a doctor, you're
not a nurse. Yes, sir. I, I was in the medical field for 16 years as I, I was in the medical field
Speaker 287
1:34:52
for 16 years, um, I, I was a medical device rep. I went in the OR for 16 years, helped support and assist doctors. I didn't ever touch any patients, um, through my training and understanding, I was able to do that, but I don't speak in that capacity here. I just have an understanding of, you know, some studies, and that's what I started looking at and that's how I kind of went down this rabbit hole, um, I, I can, I can get ivermectin. There's a lot of people in Arkansas. in rural Arkansas that are taking it and, and the 25
doctors that I talked to mostly are saying it's being given through the horse the armor, um, when I took it personally speaking, he's right because, you know, the dosing is for, you know, 20 2500 pounds or 1200 pounds and you got to figure that part out. Um. So this, this bill allows it to be human use and we looked at, you know, what's the toxicity, what's, what's the death dose and, and it's so, it's so wide, but to answer your question is I, I'm not a physician, I'm not
a doctor, not. Any of that. It's just based on my research and understanding. I, I did send in the email, there's a whole lot of references, um, if you go to C19 IBM.org. It's got all the current studies over 105 in the last 5 years, um, so that. Any further questions from Chairman, I just had him here to help answer some questions I have was not on top of
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:36:17
the bill as much as I should have been, so I want him to answer
questions, so thank you. Any further questions for committee? Seeing on anyone speak for or against the bill. We've got some people signed up, yes. Just The So this is
your call as a sponsored bill. Uh, they're all for the bill. Would you rather them be in the record or would you rather speak in favor of the bill.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:36:53
I believe we have Uh, Chairman, I believe we have a good consensus. We have two people here that came quite a ways who would just like to talk briefly, so we'd give them a 3 minutes. People that showed up here, I'd like to have them
heard real quick. Thank you. So Bill Wingfield. John We sit too long. If
Speaker 321
1:37:17
you would introduce yourself for the record and you're recognized to speak for the bill. That's my name is Bill Wingfield. I'm retired pharmacist from
Baptist Health. I was there for about 40 years. For 26 years I taught, uh, pharmacology and College of Health-related professions at UAMS. Uh, which if you're familiar with health related, if you're not familiar with health-related professions, we have a college of pharmacy, College of Medicine, College of Nursing, and everything else is health-related professions, which include a paramedics, dental hygienists, medical technologists, et etc.
Uh, I was also medication advisor. For Baptist hospital hospice before I, uh, retired for about 10 years, so, um. My felt philosophical right brain. An intuitive right brain has questions about this bill. However, my pragmatic, logical left brain tells me since this is available over the counter.
From, uh, feed stores, it would better serve the public. Assuming a proper labeling that A human dose be available rather than depending upon a feed store supplying the medication. Um, there are some side effects to every drug. Um A lot of these side effects are annoying. And occasionally we uh, we'll come up one that requires
medical attention. So it assuming that this product would be properly labeled. I would think that it would better again better serve the public to have it available in a human dose. Uh, that human dose is a in Arkansas primarily is used to treat scabies, uh, which is, uh, you. And a dog you call it mange, so it's uh actually a parasitic uh
arthropod that buries up under the skin and feeds on, on the blood so dermatologists prescribed this frequently and at Baptist Hospital, we had no problem with it whatsoever, uh, at the. Scabies dose and I'm assuming that is what the dose will be on the, uh, box that would, that's my only question about what, what the dosage would be on this uh particular uh uh product. And that
Uh, first my, my, uh, this morning I weigh every morning, I weigh 155 pounds was approximately 70 kg, the dosage of ivermectin for scabies is 0.2 mg per kg, so I, my dose would be about 14 mg. The doses available is a 3 mg tablet, so I would take probably for myself if I bought it over the counter, I'd take 5. And that can be repeated in about 2 weeks. And some of these parasitic
diseases, the therapeutic dose is, uh, prescribed every 6 months. So some of these round worms and I'm sure you all who have animals, uh, the heart guard used for prophylactic, uh, treatment for heart uh heartworms and a dog, that's Ivermectin, so, uh, Ivermectin is uh ready uh readily available, right, uh, right now, So if properly labeled, I would think it would be uh.
proper for the drug to be over the counter. Are you here today representing Baptists? I'm representing myself. I'm retired. OK, so you don't work at Baptist anymore. I, I play pickleball 7 days a week. That's my job. All right, any questions for the witness? See you no, thank you for your
testimony. Thank you. We have a David Smith signed up to speak for the bill.
Speaker 324
1:41:40
Right. I'm not a very polished speaker, so y'all get ready. My name's David Smith. I'm 73 years old, worked for Caterpillar for around 50 years, 3 dealers and Caterpillar. So I spent a few years back in my day when my parents were around. If something worked, They did it If you could fix it doing this. Let's do it.
Don't try something. That's not gonna work. We had shots. And I had All of my, well, several of my family members, my oldest daughter, had to take the shot. She got COVID. Who'd you get it from? Her 10 year old son that had been supposedly sus Protected at school. And he gave it to her. What saved us?
Albert M. You say, how do you know? Well, just about everybody in my son-in-law's family, if not all of them. Yeah I, they got the COVID. They took the Ivermectin. We had somebody that was telling us what dosage to use and how to figure it. Fortunately for me, I'm a 2 time COVID survivor. Fortunately for me,
The night that I was supposed to die. I had been to the hospital earlier that day. My wife She had it too. We both went to the hospital at the same time to take some tests on the way, I threw up. couldn't even drive. throwing up the stuff, whatever it was. All over the windshield, all over my wife's new car.
And that wasn't a happy move. For some reason, they decided to keep her even though everybody thought I was sicker than she was. They said, oh, well, she'll probably come home tomorrow. That's the last time I saw her. Except for when I held her hand. And she died in Salem Memorial Hospital. Why? I begged them. To give her Abermectin. We can't do it.
They won't allow us. So when I sit there and held my wife's hand, I was going, why? They let me in. For that last That last breath. While I held her hand, I said, why is she living? I'm the one that's in bad health. She's strong. But then you hear that last breath after they take them off the ventilator. And gas, all I could think about was why would they not try it?
She would not be dead now. If they had given her Ibermectin. My 10 year old grandson took it. My daughter took it. She took the shot and got breast cancer. I would not take the shot, and neither would my wife. I've died 8 times. I didn't want to die the 9th 1 and be like a cat and be the last one. So Ivermectin is not a horse drug. It's a miracle drug. And if it's controlled,
Like it was for me, especially, I had some medical people that, that helped me out. Won't mention any names. Because I don't want them in trouble. But the thing about it was it had already been approved. For other human consumption to cure other stuff. So it's not just a horse medicine. Guys, this is a miracle drug. We're talking about saving lives. How much did we spend on needles?
to get the shot or how much did we spend just to You know, try to fix it. Well, I'm gonna tell you. Right now They told me to be at the, well, they had to drive me because I was so sick I couldn't drive. We had to be at the hospital of it. Well, we're not gonna do this till around noon. They were setting it up every hour. That they would take people off the ventilator and they'd die.
Because We could not issue ibermectin. Now, fortunately, The night I lay there in bed. I had some people that came in. And they started giving me hypermectin. I had my handicapped daughter there that was the only one who could come in because she was already in there with me. So she had to follow the rules on what to give me. Not only did they
give me avermectin. They gave me vitamins and a couple of other things that were supposed to help it along. Guys, if it hadn't been for them, I wouldn't be here now. And I've wondered why. God has saved me all these years. Well, maybe this is it. Maybe he wanted me to live through this. So we could save other people. With your vote for this deal,
you will save somebody. Because if it's controlled and it's given to you like it's supposed to be just like they said, you're gonna live. But if you go in that hospital, you're gonna die. And that's what some of the medical people said if he goes to the hospital tonight, the EMTs were there. If you go to the hospital at night. Or to the hospital with COVID. You automatically scratched yourself off and said you were dead.
Those people would not like the, I mean EMTs. Take me The next morning at 6 o'clock by daughter and my son-in-law contacted each other every 2 hours at night. Make sure I stood alive. It's 6:30 when they called. I was hungry. Guys, I was dead. And that brought me back. But after that,
We had people all over. Question and Why it helped me since I was in such bad shape. I don't know. God did it. But the main thing is there was a family right behind me. Member of 8. Some of the kids were so sick. They couldn't even get off the couch. They were scared of Ivermectin.
And we told them about it and they told them my story. Hey guys, The next morning, After they took their dosage, all 8 of them had it. The next morning, they were carrying on, even the kids that couldn't get up. It cured them that it didn't cure them. But it made them to where they could function and get better. Guys Ipermectin is a miracle drug. It's not just for horses.
Hell Hey is for horses. Not Aber Mac. guys Please Please pass this. At least it can be controlled. Nobody will be going. We had people that were buying farmers were buying it and passing it out. That's how we were able to get enough ibermectin. To cure those 8 people. We had a little group.
But that's what I need to do, I just wanted to tell you all my story. It lets you know that this
is a good drug. Any questions for the witness? See you. Thank you for your testimony. We have a David Simmons. It's not here. It's not here. And he's not here, we have, that's it. You are recognized to anyone else
in you to speak for or against the bill. You recognize clothes for your bill.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:50:36
Thank you, callers again, I think we all are here and our folks are getting into at the co op. I'd assume they get a human dose and sort of what
this bill is about. It's going to add to the process of getting it approved federally understand it's not FDA approved at this point, but I think it will help the process in 10 other states are running as well as we are. So with that, I would uh make a motion to pass. As amended, correct? Do pass as amended. Yes, sir. That's proper motioning discussion on the motion. Representative, uh, Cooper, you're recognized for discussion.
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
1:51:06
Representative Long, I got you next. Tried really hard to get my name on this bill. It just wasn't meant to be. But I can speak for it, um, you know, I grew up on a farm, we still have a farm, very familiar with, we call it Avanic. That's the, the trade name for the official name for it. Ivermectin is the Uh The other name for it, but anyway, very familiar with it, um. Use it for all our animals, um, and 2021, my family and I got
COVID, and that was in the middle of the dreaded delta variant if you remember that. That was the, the bad variant that really made you sick. Um We did telehealth with a good doctor here in Arkansas who prescribed. Avermectin for my wife and I. We, we had the, the animal version, but we weren't going to take that. We wanted the properly dosed version. When you're sick with COVID, you're, you're not able to try to figure out the proper dosage from the animal medication that you just are not capable of doing that,
So this good doctor prescribed it to us. We had no trouble filling it at that time. got it through the draft through pharmacy. And we credit it with making us. Uh, get well very quickly. I really improved. We credit it with keeping my wife out of the hospital. She was more sick than I was. Um, so we definitely support this, um. You know, that's just anecdotal evidence, I know, but we believe it helped us. I believe it can help other people, and I think
that if this eventually can be made over the counter that um It'll actually be safer because people won't be trying to To dose themselves off medication that's meant for animals. Um, you know, a few weeks after. We got better. I received a letter from our insurance stating that they would no longer Pay for ivermectin without a throw a review of why it was being prescribed. So I thought that was kind of telling. And also I'd like to
say when I, when we recovered from COVID, I felt better than I had for years. I haven't felt that good since then. I don't know if that's just because I got better from COVID and felt and felt better or or maybe I had some parasites. I mean, living on a farm, being exposed to animals. Maybe I do, maybe I did. Maybe that fixed it. Maybe I do now, and that's why I don't feel as good as I did then, but uh I just support this bill. Thank you for bringing it. I'm going to vote for it. I hope you'll join me in voting for it. Representative Long, you recognize. Thank you, Mr.
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
1:53:42
Chairman. I had a similar story, when my wife and I, well, when my wife came in with COVID first. She had had a history of asthma and she was having some difficulty breathing and uh we uh we were rather concerned. Fortunately, our doctor was willing to prescribe ivermectin and got it called into the pharmacy, uh, but I better pick it up, and he said, Well, you know, insurance is not going to pay. For, you know, it'd be $90. I said I pay $900 you know, to
help my wife and uh. I think probably within 24 hours of being on the medication, she was Substantially better. It was a drastic turnaround for um. About 3 weeks later I came down with it. I thought I was going to avoid it after being in the house with her having it, but I came down with it and by that time it was up to $150 but you know I was of course willing to pay that because it's a lot cheaper than going to the hospital, um. But I talked to many people
whose doctors weren't willing to prescribe and they were just sort of left to hang out the dry or use the the veterinarian version. And I think if this bill works out and we can get it over the counter. That would eliminate that problem and everybody that would like to take the drug we have it available and hopefully they would get the same good results that my family did, so I'll be voting for this bill and I hope you all do too. Thank you. OK Any further discussion? Representative McGee, you recognize.
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
1:55:16
Thank you Mr. Chair. So, I don't want to relitigate whether COVID and and Ivermectin whether it's good for it, bad for it, indifferent. I have my own personal opinions as a physician and what I know in the science. That's not why I'm Going to vote no on this bill. Let me tell you what I'm going to vote no on it and what you could do to fix it where I would be OK with it. It It's certainly better. I don't disagree one bit. It's certainly better that if somebody's gonna
take this, it's better to take the human form than go to the co op, and we all know people that did that. Uh, and some people became very ill by the dope because they took too much. I mean, it's a big pasty thing and they take 1000 mg of that. You can have all kinds of problems. The human dose is probably pretty safe. Uh, we put it over the counter, you know, we're going to get rid of some scabies headlights and some roundworms in the gut. As a secondary effect. I don't have a problem. The only problem I have with it is, I
really think if you're gonna give a drug, Any drug, and I agree with the pharmacists that said Down here earlier. If you're going to take a drug, Your pharmacist needs to be the one that Sits there, if you go to the farm, if you get my age, you go to the pharmacy and you pick your medication up and and they talk to you about potential side effects or how it might interact with other drugs or what the appropriate dose might be or what to look for. This is just Joe Blow goes buys it over, buys
it off. I don't see anything here that says you got to go to a pharmacy. They can just buy it off the shelf at Walmart. It's probably as safe as taking Tylenol, but, but or safer maybe as Representative Bentley said. I just think there needs to be some guardrails in it where, where the patient wants it, they go to the pharmacist and say, I want this, and the pharmacist can decide, I'm going to sell it to you or not, but you know, you're on Coumadin, you really probably shouldn't be taking this, uh, or you're trying to give this to a child, you need
to adjust the dosage or you're trying to give it to somebody that weighs 350 pounds, you need to up the dosage. So, So I'm OK with it being over the counter. I just think we probably ought to go back and look at Putting this back in the medical realm and let the pharmacist decide. Whether or not, or at least talk to the patient and properly label the drug. So that's why I would be a no. I'd appreciate if we might change that, but Maybe that's not possible at this point. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
1:57:56
Any other discussion for committee members. I have just one quick discussion since I'm on the committee, um, just again, we're going to have
proper labeling that's the whole purpose of just like you do in a bottle of Tylenol or Advil or any other drug that you get, so I think it's a very appropriate for a patient to make that wise decision to get it and do the proper dosages like you do with a bottle of Tylenol right now. So thank you. Representative Ladyman,
Speaker 115
1:58:18
you reckon? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, I, I wasn't going to
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
1:58:20
say anything, but I, I know many people are confused about this. This drug had become political
back during COVID, uh, the medical community is still wanting to study this more. I think they need to, but, you know, I believe this needs to be passed now and I'll give you a personal thing. I was chairing this committee during COVID. My nephew called me. He said, hey, I know you know a little bit about this. You're on this committee here. Uh, can you help me because my wife It's probably gonna die tonight. She's that bad. And I told him, I said, well, I don't know anything about it, but people have talked about this Iron.
It might work if you think she's that bad, you might want to give it to her. And he somehow got it. I don't know where, where he got it. Uh, but the next morning about 10 o'clock, I called him and I said, well, how is she? And he said, she's up walking around, she ate breakfast this morning. Now, I don't know whether that's solve that problem or not, but I'm kind of like the gentleman that came to the end of the table. If it works, we need to use it. So I'm going to vote for it.
Seeing no further discussion. All those in favor, say ah. All disposed. I have it. Congratulations your bill passed as amended. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. in Members without having to call the list is there any other bills that need to be
Speaker 51
1:59:47
run today? Yeah. 1674. Uh Seeing no other business, we stand adjourned.
Agenda
REGULAR AGENDA
HB1468 Cozart TO AMEND ARKANSAS LAW CONCERNING CLAIMS AGAINST CONTRACTORS AND SUPPLIERS TO REMEDY CONSTRUCTION DEFECTS.
HB1530 Achor TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "SPECIALTY HOSPITAL" RELATING TO THE ASSESSMENT FEE ON HOSPITALS UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM.
HB1543 Underwood TO ESTABLISH THE WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES ACT OF 2025.
HB1582 McAlindon TO REQUIRE AN INDIVIDUAL TO TAKE CERTAIN ACTIONS TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR BENEFITS UNDER THE DIVISION OF WORKFORCE SERVICES LAW.
HB1585 L. Johnson TO PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION FROM LICENSURE AS A HOME HEALTHCARE SERVICE TO AN ENTITY THAT SOLELY PROVIDES THERAPY SERVICES THAT ARE NOT REIMBURSED BY MEDICARE PART A.
HB1592 J. Mayberry TO CREATE THE ARKANSAS ALZHEIMER'S AND DEMENTIA PUBLIC HEALTH ACT.
SB257 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO EXTEND THE APPEAL PERIOD FOR PROVIDERS IN THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM; AND TO REQUIRE COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION IN NOTICES OF ADVERSE DECISIONS.
HB1622 Gramlich TO AMEND THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; TO MODIFY THE DEFINITION OF "ADVERSE DECISION" UNDER THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT; AND TO PROVIDE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE RECONSIDERATION UNDER THE MEDICAID FAIRNESS ACT.
SB99 C. Penzo TO AUTHORIZE A PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT TO DELEGATE CERTAIN TASKS.
SB118 C. Penzo TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "AUDIOLOGY" RELATING TO THE PRACTICE OF AUDIOLOGISTS.
HB1653 Cavenaugh TO SET STANDARDS FOR THE LICENSING AND REGULATION OF PSYCHIATRIC RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT FACILITIES.
HB1679 M. Brown TO AMEND THE REVISED ARKANSAS ANATOMICAL GIFT ACT; TO ALLOW
CERTAIN CLASSES OF PERSONS TO REVOKE OR AMEND AN ANATOMICAL GIFT UPON THE DEATH OF THE DONOR; AND TO REQUIRE CERTAIN REPORTING OF PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATIONS.
HB1079 F. Allen TO MANDATE COVERAGE FOR GENETIC TESTING FOR AN INHERITED GENE MUTATION FOR CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS; AND TO MANDATE COVERAGE FOR EVIDENCE-BASED CANCER IMAGING FOR CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS.
HB1164 J. Mayberry TO ALLOW A PHYSICIAN OR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER TO OFFER COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS FOR CERTAIN PATIENTS; AND TO MANDATE THAT INSURANCE POLICIES COVER ASSESSMENTS FOR COGNITIVE FUNCTION FOR CERTAIN PATIENTS.
HB1619 Gramlich TO SET ADMINISTRATION FEES UNDER THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM FOR IMMUNIZATIONS AND MONOCLONAL ANTIBODIES FOR RESPIRATORY SYNCYTIAL VIRUS DISEASE; AND TO PROVIDE CIVIL IMMUNITY.
HB1241 J. Mayberry TO ENSURE THAT THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM REIMBURSES FOR DENTAL AND ANESTHESIA COSTS FOR HIGH COMPLEXITY ORAL HEALTH CARE.
HB1004 Pilkington TO REQUIRE MEDICAID COVERAGE FOR POSTPARTUM MOTHERS FOR ONE YEAR AFTER GIVING BIRTH.
SB189 A. Clark TO AUTHORIZE IVERMECTIN FOR HUMAN USE TO BE SOLD WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION OR CONSULTATION WITH A HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL.
HB1252 L. Johnson TO ESTABLISH THE CERTIFIED COMMUNITY-BASED DOULA CERTIFICATION ACT; AND TO CERTIFY BIRTH AND POSTPARTUM DOULAS IN THIS STATE TO IMPROVE MATERNAL AND INFANT OUTCOMES.Johnson
HB1677 Bentley TO AUTHORIZE ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT PROGRAMS TO MAINTAIN EMERGENCY MEDICATION KITS.
HB1712 Joey Carr TO ESTABLISH THE SOCIAL WORK LICENSURE COMPACT IN THIS STATE.
HB1718 Gramlich TO ESTABLISH STANDARDS FOR SURGICAL SMOKE EVACUATION IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES LICENSED IN THIS STATE.
HB1723 Pilkington TO AMEND INITIATED ACT 1 OF 2000, ALSO KNOWN AS THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT PROCEEDS ACT; AND TO DIRECT THE ARKANSAS MINORITY HEALTH COMMISSION TO ESTABLISH AND ADMINISTER A GRANT PROGRAM FOR SCHOOL-BASED HEALTH CENTERS.
HB1731 Vaught TO STRENGTHEN CHILD LABOR LAWS THROUGH THE REINSTATEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES.
HB1734 Childress TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING DEATH CERTIFICATES; AND TO CLARIFY THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS WHO MAY SIGN A MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DEATH AND PRONOUNCE DEATH OF A PATIENT.
HB1332 Pilkington TO REQUIRE THE ARKANSAS MEDICAID PROGRAM TO COVER GLUCAGON- LIKE PEPTIDE-1 RECEPTOR AGONISTS, ALSO KNOWN AS GLP-1 AGONISTS, WHEN PRESCRIBED FOR WEIGHT LOSS.
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — PUBLIC HEALTH, WELFARE AND LABOR COMMITTEE- HOUSE, Mar 13, 2025 | Agenda | 4 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Representative Fred Allen
Unverified
Representative Jeremy Wooldridge Chair
Unverified
Speaker 13
Uh Sam
Unverified
Linda Hendrickson
Unverified
Representative Kendra Moore
Unverified
Speaker 28
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Lindsay Penn
Unverified
Speaker 50
Speaker 66
Speaker 72
Representative John P. Carr
Unverified
Speaker 79
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Representative Paul Childress
Unverified
Speaker 104
Representative Denise Jones Ennett
Unverified
Joel Landreneau
Unverified
Speaker 107
Representative Jack Ladyman
Unverified
Speaker 122
Chair
Unverified
Representative Mindy McAlindon
Unverified
Representative Jeff Wardlaw Chair
Unverified
Speaker 147
Speaker 154
Speaker 158
Representative Glenn Barnes
Unverified
Representative Mark Perry
Unverified
Speaker 191
Representative Kenneth B. Ferguson
Unverified
Speaker 213
Taylor Hanford
Unverified
Kevin Cleghorn
Unverified
Representative Dolly Henley
Unverified
Speaker 224
Representative Lee Johnson
Unverified
Speaker 44
Speaker 250
Speaker 255
Speaker 260
Speaker 266
Speaker 85
Speaker 271
Brock Thompson
Unverified
Speaker 287
Representative Richard McGrew
Unverified
Speaker 290
Speaker 294
Speaker 321
Speaker 324
Representative Cameron Cooper
Unverified
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
Speaker 115
Speaker 51