Insurance & Commerce- House

and um I've been given an agenda and it asks us to walk, go around the table and introduce yourselves and tell us where you're from and anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself. So in Viewbanks, would you like to lead us off? OK. ion. That's how this works, right? OK, yeah, John Eubanks District 46, uh, my district's West Central Arkansas, all of Logan County, part of Johnson, part of Franklin, all of South Franklin and part of Sebastian. We continue to go. Represent Wastrom Representativestrom, I'm from Springdale. I represent Springdale, Elm Springs, Tawnytown, and a little bit of Fayetteville. Good morning, Ken Ferguson. Uh, District 64, parts of Jefferson, Lincoln and Dehea counties. Fred Allen District 77 central Little Rock. Uh, Steve Halliwell, District 37, uh, over in eastern Arkansas, parts of Cross, Saint Francis, and Boise Counties. My name is Zach Graham like I represent District 50, which is central Fort Sma. Brandon Acer, I represent District 71, which is primarily the city of Malmell and a little bit of North Little Rock. I'm Richard McGrew District 85, which is West Garland County, just west of Hot Springs. They have Hot Springs Village, Jezebel, Mountain Pine Piercing. Jay Richardson North Fort Smith, District 49. Less worn District 84, Hot Springs and Garland County. Carol Darby, District 100, which is Texarkana, Arkansas. I like to say we're on God's side of that state line, so that's my district. Yeah, Trey Steel District 2, that's going to be parts of Sharp, Randolph, and uh Fulton County. I do call Pocahontas home, so up there in the northeast part of the state. Thank you. Uh, John Maddox District 86, which is Polk, Montgomery, and portion of Howard County. Um, so I think we all know each other, but we like. Well, you were late, but no, I was on time. I was cleaning up my mess. and it also says to give us a little background, no one else did that, but you're welcome to do that. What you want less ease represent District 58, uh, in my 6th term and I represent Cersei, and Higginson and Kensett. That's about all you need to know. Thank you, and I'm going to introduce our staff. I think everyone knows Michelle Nelson. She's the committee analyst said to my left, um, Kathy Lett is our administrative assistant in the back. Um, probably you know her and of course Alex Stevens is the BLR attorney for us for when you need any assistance. Um, as you know, we're all very helpful. Um, they're here to to serve us and to help us. So anytime you need anything, just let us know. um, let them know. Um, now I'm gonna basically open it up to members of the audience who want to come up and introduce themselves to, particularly who are going to be here at most of our meetings and like for us to know who you are, um, I think I'll start with uh Mr. McClain, if you'd like to come up and bring any of the members of your staff that you would like to do. So if you want to. Just introduce yourselves and who you're with and anything else you'd like for us to know. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Alan McLean, Insurance commissioner, uh, thanks for letting me just introduce myself for those who haven't had a chance to work with. It's always a pleasure to work with the House and Senate Insurance and Commerce Committees, uh, we're, we're generally going to have our staff here at at all your committee member meetings and so we'll just, you you will be a familiar face to you. I'll introduce Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner Russ Galbraith, uh, Department of Commerce Director of Legislative Affairs, Jake Winley, and you know he didn't come to the table, he's gonna wave his hand and his deputy commissioner Jimmy Harris. So you will, you will definitely hear from, from, from, from Jimmy or any of us at any time you need us to help with anything, so we're, we're here to help, uh, don't want to get in the way of anything, but, uh, we were happy to assist you. We will have a small package from the insurance department we call it general omnibus bill, class. nothing to see here, just clean up stuff when we truly think that's what it is, and if it does have any questions and we've failed and and putting that bill together because it, it, that's the idea is that that it shouldn't have any questions. It truly is some clean up things and but always of course available to answer questions. So we'll be presenting that along the way and maybe talking to some of you about uh sponsoring that, then there's a couple of other bills that we think are noncontroversial, they'll be. Apart from the for the general omnibus bill, something to do with captive insurers and a couple of other things. Uh, you, uh, again, primarily we want to be here for a resource for you. You'll have legislation that you want to run and and sponsor and be a part of and to the extent that we can be help inform that discussion for you. We will definitely want to be able to do that, uh, uh, Jimmy, who's in the audience is our sort of our property and casualty guru and I don't think I'm overselling that, but he can, you know, can, can help us walk through some of that kind of in not like that's just describing what the lay of the land is now and how we regulate certain things and how your legislation may impact that. Uh, Booth Rand is sort of my health insurance guru as well. He's written a lot of the laws and rules that are on the books now with, with, with health insurance, uh and to the extent some of those are on the agenda, he'll be happy to to to be here to help inform that. Um, we don't want to be here just to be here and get in your way if you know you're going to run something and, and, and want our help, you know, you can let us know. I know things pop up, particularly later on the session that you you're going to decide to run it that day, so we, we do want. be available for you if you if you need us to be here but we don't want to get in your way of anything as well. Uh, you'll hear us reference the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. There are accreditation body I sit on a couple of committees there. We're pretty active there. We, we, we come up with model rules and regulations and laws there sometimes too, and some of them were accreditation standards and we'll we'll reference that to you. We're careful to know that we, we don't make the laws, we just might make some suggestions sometimes. and and see if you're interested in adopting those, and many of you are probably familiar with the thin coil, the National Council of Insurance Legislators, and some of you may have been engaged there or want to be engaged in that in the future, uh, Russ and I typically attend those when we can to stay in touch with legislative issues on the insurance front, and, and if you need us to make any connections there for you or happy, happy to do that is. well, so that's a that's really what I just wanted to just say hello and uh my, my, my mobile number is 5015158841 501 515-8841. 50151588. 41, feel free to call me, text me anytime, uh, and feel free to shoot me a text anytime so I'll make sure I get you on the phone. I have been known to ignore phone calls. I don't have you in my, my, my, uh my contacts, but I'll make sure I get you in my contacts so when you're, when you're hollering at me, we, we will respond to you. So always available for you and Mr. Chair, that's what they all had. Thank you so much and members, as he said, but there are excellent resource for all of us, um, with anything we need when you're need help, of course, drafting bills to run it by them and get their thoughts, but, um, And anything else you need, they're wonderful resources. Thank you, Mr. McClin. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Who else would like to come up and introduce themselves, um, particularly people who are going to be here quite often and they're going to um Mr. Hopkins, Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee. My name is Jack Hopkins. I'm the director of government relations for Centene in Arkansas. We are a tried and true managed care organization is our bread and butter, if you will, however, we have commercial products from Medicare Advantage, small group, larger group, the individual market, and then we are one of the one of the four passes that provider led Arkansas. Arkansas shared savings entity in Arkansas total care, uh. Beyond that, I think that's all my products, so I'm happy to answer any questions. I don't have enough business cards today, but I'll share my information with staff to share with you all. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hopkins. My name is uh There we go. My name is David Mans. I'm with Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield did not intend to come up here today because I didn't realize this was part of the process, but Um, just want to introduce myself to you and and let you know that I'm available to communicate with you. I know Mr. Richardson, I owe you an email and I apologize for not getting back with you yet, um. met with Mr. Johnson yesterday I'm, I'm here just to collaborate with you, uh, help give you feedback on anything that you have, um, and just to let you know that I'm I'm an open door, so thank you very much. Yes, so I will give it to staff as well, or do you like it now? Sure, my, uh my number is area code 571. 296 0845. That's an old cell phone number. My background is I worked previously for Senator Hutchinson and then after that I did some government relations work. And then most recently worked for Congressman Rick Crawford, and so very used to the to the legislating side and understand sort of the the the dynamics of that and I'm very sensitive to that. So I look forward to working with you. Thank you. Morning. Michael Harry with the Treasury. I'm a chief compliance officer and director of government affairs, so we're a new administration, obviously you all know that, so we're here to help. If you have any questions, I might have questions for you because it's a new topic for most of us in the office, so, but I just wanted to introduce myself. this morning, so. Thank you. more than everyone. Blake Meyer policy adviser with the governor's office. I'll be here at all the meetings. Uh, my areas are commerce, labor and licensing, and regulatory, so. Look forward to working with all of you as we go along. Hi, uh, Justin Brasher, senior Assistant Attorney General with the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General, and I have with my colleague Nicole Pugh, Assistant Attorney General Nicole will be in this committee uh for the for the uh session myself, I'll be more roaming the halls, but you can feel free to uh if you have anything that you want to get on the radar of the office as a whole. You can talk to myself and we'll make sure that that happens, so. There you go. Thank you. Thank you guys. I got the look from Mr. Maddox, so here I am, uh, for the record, I call less' coffee spill, so I will, I will own that plus I'm, I'm Laurie Trogden, I'm the president of the Arkansas Bankers Association, and we are always here to help with anything banking, it can be a little complicated trying to navigate the cross section of state law and federal laws were heavily regulated on both sides of that field, so. Here if you need us, give me a call anytime. I think most everybody has my contact information, but if you don't, happy to give it to you. Thank you. And members, I don't want to say I think I have almost, there's just a few members who do not have my cell number. Let's uh after committee, I will, I will give that to you because I want everyone to have it. I'm not necessarily gonna say it right now, but um thank you. Thank you, but I'm good. Mr. Bethel. Uh, good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I'm John Bethel, director of public affairs for Entergy Arkansas. Uh, is the largest electric utility in the state and we operate in 63 of 75 counties, and I'm familiar, I think with everybody at the table and uh if you have questions or need information about electric utility issues. I'm happy to help if you have questions from constituents. I do that as well and also in in storm and bad weather events, I'll work to keep you informed on on the situation in your, in your district and if you have questions during those times on restoration efforts reach out. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Richard Beard and Impact Management Group. Uh, we represent the Arkansas Heart Hospital, Arkansas bariatric Surgery Center, uh, so we'll be down in here, Austin McCullen, no pictures, please. Also John did have a little issue. My electric bill was a little bit amped, so I'll be busy with you after this, but look forward to working with you all. OK. Anyone else? Everyone's in a good mood today. You might want to come up and take your shot, so. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I'm Kelly Urstein. I represent the Independent Insurance agents of Arkansas. We represent about 400 independent agencies across the state of Arkansas, mostly property and casualty, both personal and commercial. We do handle benefits as well, but mostly property and casualty. So I look forward to working with all of you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Good morning everybody. I'm Joie Erid. I'm the executive vice president of the Arkansas Hospital Association. I'm also an attorney, so I'm happy to be with you and happy to um be a one trick pony, if you will and be all hospitals all the time. Thank you, Jordan. Well, uh, Charlie Spes I represent Black Hills Energy. We are natural gas utility, mostly in the northwest crossing northeast part of the state. I think we have about 340,000 customers in Arkansas, so ditto what uh Bethel said, if I can ever help with constituent matters or storms or Legislative issues, please give me a shout. Morning y'all. I'm Anna Strong. I'm the executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, so kids' health issues, insurance issues, that kind of thing. I'm around if you guys need anything and uh look forward to working with y'all. OK, that looks like it. Thank you guys. Um, and most of the members know, but the members who are new potential on this committee. A lot of the folks that just introduce themselves, they'll be here every, every meeting and um they'll be helpful, um, sometimes, um, but you'll definitely um be speaking with them, so, um, just wanted you to get to know them. A few other announcements I'm supposed to run through real quick. All the members will use their own devices to pull bills. I'm sure you know that, but I'm supposed to read. That, um, we need to have a quorum of 11 to start every meeting, and I'm sure we'll we'll comply with that. Um, I was being serious. Um, that, that's really about it. Agendas are prepared in accordance with the House rules. Um, they're prepared 2 days in advance, sponsor notifications are always sent to members who have bills, um, but I, I think. We don't have anyone that's new, so everyone knows that on this committee. Um, we're gonna meet every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. in this room. Um, our hope is to only meet on Wednesdays. I believe we stuck with that last session. I don't think we had to have too many other meetings, um, however, as of now, we're not going to meet next Wednesday because we don't have anything, so, so that's good, um. If that changes, we'll let you know. You know, you can always text me, um, or representative Vice Chair Steinmel, if you have anything, um, I just have a few other things just for me that I want to say, um, I guess one thing that is important, just kind of housekeeping, um. When you use the, the restroom back there, um, as you know, um, shut the door when you go in, um, leave it open when you leave, because if you close it, it locks, and then we have to get staff to come unlock it, so, um, that's actually kind of important, so let's try to remember that. Um, OK, the one thing that we did last time, um, The one thing that we instituted last time that I think worked well, and we're going to do it again this time is um When you have a follow-up question, you do not need to ask myself or I'm vice chair Steinel for permission. I just to ask your question. Um, it's my opinion that we are here to do committee work and to vet the bills and the way I look at it is when you ask a question and a lot of times that leads to a very relevant 2nd question, 3rd question, um, as many questions as you need to ask, as long as they're relevant to the topic. I want to give you that latitude because I think we need to do the work in here and try to get to, if it's a good bill or not, frankly, um, I think it worked well last session. There's times when I'll have to, um, We'll have to ask you to stop, um, but do, do try to be reasonable and um don't abuse it, but that is something that I certainly think worked well, and I want to, I want to continue to to do that. So, um, don't ask me because for some reason a few of you always would still ask me last session, so don't do it, just, just ask your questions. So, um, One other thing that I said and The best we can. The rules say that we're the chairs to maintain order in the committee, Representative Eubanks is laughing, um. But then, but in all seriousness, and I think we did a good job of this last session. I would like for us to, to conduct ourselves very professionally even when we're asking questions of witnesses that we disagree with, uh, members of the public, I think let's try and let's treat them with a certain amount of professionalism and dignity because we reflect on this body and this institution which is very important to all of us, so that's something I'd like to see us continue to do. So, um, Other announcements if we have any special orders of business, we can do that, um, you know how that works. Last year, we really had only had a couple of very lengthy issues that we had to deal with, but we made it through and sometimes it just takes a while, so that's what we'll do, um, that's really all that I have representative Vice Chair Steel, if you have anything. Uh, not really other than heck what John had to say here and just happy to work with everyone here and to pass some comprehensive legislation going forward. Thank you. OK, that is it. Any questions from the members? OK, thank you. And as of now, we are not meeting next Wednesday, so this meeting is adjourned.