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Busy Legislative Week Includes Hearings on Finance Bills, Long-Term Care Conflicts of Interest and More

On Tuesday the Finance Committee heard testimony on HB 1608, a bill to appropriate $2.5 million for health and human service providers to address the unexpected fuel prices. The cost estimate provided by DHHS was made available at the hearing, and included providers ranging from child day care to mental health centers to nursing homes; conspicuously absent from the list were home care providers. Rep. Wallner, prime sponsor of the bill, identified this omission, stating her intent had been to include home health agencies. Sen. Dick Green of Rochester supported the bill, asserting the position that the state has a responsibility to its HHS subcontractors, and if these agencies go under due to poor reimbursements, the state will still have to care for the clients but at higher cost. The Finance Committee recommended that Division III, the subcommittee that deals with DHHS budgets, consider combining this bill with HB 1710, another supplemental appropriations bill that seeks additional funding for home health, hospitals, and several other provider groups.

Much grassroots advocacy was generated to kill SB 366, a bill that would have required ServiceLink Resource Centers to be completely separate from any long-term care service providers. Two home health agencies, Community Health & Hospice and Carroll County Health and Home Care Services, are fiscal agents for the ServiceLinks in their counties. Speaking in favor of the bill was Jebb Curelop of LifeCoping, one of the independent case management providers. He asserted that the existence of any conflict of interest, even if publicly acknowledged, is a problem, and recommended that senior centers be considered as the more appropriate home for ServiceLinks. Based on comments following the hearing, an ITL (inexpedient to legislate) recommendation is expected.

On Wednesday both House and Senate were in session following the State of the State address by Governor Lynch. On the House side, a bill closely watched by hospice advocates, HB 656 relating to advanced directives and DNR, was “special ordered” to come back for a vote on February 15. Although involved in the drafting of the bill, the Catholic Diocese has come out in opposition to the bill and presents the greatest impediment to passage, along with right-to-life advocates. Proponents of the bill now have a few weeks to seek greater support for passage of the version recommended by the House Judiciary Committee. On the Senate side, HB 66 relative to mandatory overtime for nurses, a holdover from last session, was killed.