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House committee adopts changes to bill creating home care advisory board
Summary
The House Health and Social Services Committee adopted two sponsor amendments to House Bill 96, clarifying covered providers and changing the advisory board report workflow, then moved the bill from committee with recommendations and an attached fiscal note.
The House Health and Social Services Committee on April 8 adopted two amendments to House Bill 96, a bill by Rep. Prox to establish a home care employment standards advisory board, then voted to report the bill from committee with recommendations.
Rep. Prox, the bill sponsor, told the committee HB 96 “is supposed to address some challenges that we're having with home care and establish an advisory board to work on those issues and hopefully make some improvements.” The committee adopted two sponsor amendments before moving the bill out of committee.
Amendment No. 1 modified language on page 6, lines 2–3, replacing the phrase “enrolled with” with “certified by” to clarify that the term “covered provider” refers to home care agencies rather than individual caregivers. The sponsor said the change “clarif[ies] that covered provider references home care agencies rather than the caregivers themselves.” The committee adopted Amendment No. 1 with no recorded objection.
Amendment No. 2 rewrote page 5, lines 11–23, to change how the advisory board's recommendations are handled. Under the adopted language, “the department shall take the recommendations of the board into consideration when setting rates for covered services. If the rate set by the department for covered service differs significantly from the rate recommended by the board, the commissioner shall notify the board and the chair of each legislative committee having jurisdiction of health and social services in writing.” The sponsor said the change removed an approval step by the commissioner and sends the board’s report directly to the bodies that set rates; if a rate differs significantly from the board’s recommendation those legislative chairs are notified. Amendment No. 2 was adopted with no recorded objection.
After adopting both amendments, a member moved that House Bill 96, Work Order 34-LS0297, as amended, be reported from committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note. With no objection, the committee reported the bill from committee.
The hearing record shows the committee had staff present for the meeting, including Jordan Nicholson (recording secretary), Marne Provost (LAO moderator) and Katie Georgiou (committee aide). Director Tony Newman of the Division of Senior and Disability Services was listed as available for questions during the bill recap. The committee adjourned after completing the report.
Votes at a glance: House Bill 96 — amendments 1 and 2 adopted; committee reported bill from committee (no roll-call recorded in the transcript).
