Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee - Joint
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- October 2, 2026
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
3:11
yeah we grab your seats we're go and get started Representative Eubanks would you open us up in prayer?
right committee, I need a motion on the minutes. a motion the second all those in favor say aye all opposed ayes have it with that we move on to C Miss Paula Stone talk about the emergency rule and hospital based residential treatment. you would introduce yourself for the record and you'
Chair
Unverified
4:18
Good afternoon Paula Stone. I'm the director of the office of substance abuse and mental healthalth at Department of Human Services. so this is an emergency rule that was heard by lc last week the permanent rule is out for public comment and the public comment will be completed on the6th of this month. but this rule is for adolescent residential substance use disorder treatment services in a
hospital setting so this allows medicaid to pay for service within a unit of a general hospital. we are doing for ages 12 and above and adolescents only we have one hospital that has is opening a unit and that is Unity Hospital in Sarci. I can accept any questions you might
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
5:17
have just have a quick question
beyond the one hospital are there others that if they choose to open would also be
Chair
Unverified
5:29
able to be under this yes so they would get they would be licensed through the Arkansas Department of Health that's who does the licensure there they would license as a specific unit within a hospital that's separate from their other units and medicaid would be able to pay for those services. thank you. Representative Bentley, you recognize Thank you chair just
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
5:52
real quick I was trying to look through here what's the length
Chair
Unverified
5:59
of stays the length of stay predetermined or it isn't predetermined so we are using the American association of substance medicine substance abuse medicine it's called Aam so it's a criteria that determines what level somebody needs and for how long they need it and that would be between the vendor that does our
utilization review right now it's a centtra actually AFM C on the hospital side and so they would receive an authorization request from the hospital unit. they would give a diagnosis and what that individual needed generally talking to Unity Hospital they're expecting about a30 or45 day length of stay but that's not a cap there's no cap on that. OK great
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
6:56
Representative Long you recognize him thank you Mr Chairman. what's the cost per day projected
Chair
Unverified
7:04
to be at the unity hospitalspital yes sir we have proposed a rate of $850 a day tocms to the Centers for medicare and Medicaid Services so we're waiting on approval from them on that bed day rate. I think you
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
7:20
said you know in the last meeting that we had with you is they won't have maybe
2020 slots at that hospital 24 they're
Chair
Unverified
7:29
opening up 24 they're doing 1el adolescent boys and 12 adolescent girls so they're doing units and they have some shared space so they're doing that plus they have a school on site in that unit so they don't miss any school time
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
7:44
and does medicaid not pay like in these other type of treatment facilities the the private type facilities or I'm not I'm not familiar with it so if you could
Speaker 9
7:57
introduce introduce that to me so we have not
Chair
Unverified
8:01
had a specific provider type for substance use disorder services for adolescents for residential services that medicaid reimburses we reimburse for psychiatric services the mental health services and in psychiatric hospitals or in psychiatric residential treatment facilities but they don't treat substance use. they may treat it kind of secondarily if there's something going on but this is specific for substance use disorder services
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
8:28
and this will be our first medicaid reimbursed one. Thank you ma'am. Representative Richardson thank you Mrchr. the 800 and something that you just said is the average daily stay. how
Speaker 9
8:48
do we know if that is in line with the actual cost for
Chair
Unverified
8:51
that stay? we did when we proposed 850 a day that is a hospital daily rate for a hospital service and so we believe that's in line
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
8:59
with what the cost is going to be you seeing no other questions we'll move on to the next itemittee on
Speaker 7
9:10
the next item, my wife works for personal care agency so I'm going to recuse and let Senator Irvin chair this portion.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
9:25
all right if you'll come to the table and state your name please.
Speaker 33
9:32
then you may proceed good afternoon Elizabeth pitman division ofedical Services and today we're presenting a rule for electronic visit verification for in home personal care and attendant care and respite care? as well as home health services. you have already approved our rule overall for electronic visit verification it is a way in which we verify the services the start date, start time in time date place of service and recipient and provider it complies with the federal law the 2fi1st century Curees
Act and we've been compliant with that for several years now. This rule is updating the requirements for that to clarify and make sure we're compliant and to add some ability to audit and do corrective action plans for those providers the federal government will institute what they call KPIs or minimum requirements of claims that can be submitted electronically versus manually. we still have a lot of providers that are doing manual entry and so we're trying to increase the number of electronically submitted claims and so this will will help with that it does allow us to
do corrective action plans with those providers if they are doing too many manual claims. Additionally, we are also removing the requirement to submit a W9 form per provider enrollment and that has caused several issues over the past year several years and this will allow us to actually do some automatic verifications with the IRS because they will no longer have to submit those W9 forms as part of their enrollment application and happy to take any questions are there any questions from members of
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
11:04
Right I federal law requires us to provide for theevVV correct? ma'am OK, even though within your rule they can choose to use a thirdparty vendor but the federal law requires us to have one in place. Yes, we've chosen a system called
Speaker 33
11:17
an open system where they can use our or they can provide their own and many choose the one that is either integrated into their electronic health records or that they were using prior to us offering a statewide thank you any other
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
11:30
questions from members of the committee all right see done. thank you this
rule stands reviewed. thank you is there any other business to come, Mr chairir? to you to gobble out seeing no
Chair
Unverified
11:45
further business and no other discussions we stand adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Consideration to Approve the June 3, 2026, Meeting Minutes [Exhibit B]
C. Discussion of Emergency Rules on Hospital Based Residential Treatment for Substance Use Disorder [Exhibit C] ̶ Paula Stone, Director, Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, Department of Human Services (DHS)
D. DHS, Division of Medical Services (DMS), Review of Rule, Electronic Visit Verification (EVV) for In-Home Personal Care, Attendant Care, Respite Care, and Home Health [Exhibit D] ̶ Elizabeth Pitman, Director, DMS, DHS
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
No documents posted.
Speakers
Representative Jeff Wardlaw
Unverified
Chair
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Representative Mary Bentley
Unverified
Speaker 9
Representative Wayne Long
Unverified
Representative R. Scott Richardson
Unverified
Speaker 7
Speaker 33