Senate Human Services committee approves technical updates and a pilot 'host home' program for people with developmental disabilities

Chairman Lee and members of the Senate Human Services Committee voted 6-0 to pass House Bill 1109 as amended, approving a suite of technical changes to North Dakota law and language authorizing a pilot host-home program for some people with developmental disabilities.

The bill, presented by Tina Bay, director of the Developmental Disabilities Section at the Department of Health and Human Services, replaces outdated phrases such as “treatment or care center” with “provider agency” and “resident or patient” with “individual or eligible individual” across multiple sections of the Century Code. Bay told the committee the department requested the bill “to remove outdated terminology, and align with the language with more person centered principles.”

Committee members also approved a department-proposed amendment that adds a definition for a host home and moves several related statutory provisions into clearer locations in the chapter. Under the amendment, the department may establish “a host home program to provide out of home placement habilitation and support services for Medicaid…