Committee hears bill to update residential care terminology, repeal outdated rate‑setting chapter

The House Human Services Committee opened a hearing on House Bill 1109 to revise statutory language governing residential care and services for people with developmental disabilities and to repeal an outdated chapter related to fee‑for‑service rate setting.

House Bill 1109 was introduced at the request of the Department of Health and Human Services to replace older terms such as “treatment or care center” with “provider agency” and to replace “resident” or “patient” with “individual” or “eligible individual,” the department said.

"Most of the changes in house bill 1109 involve updating the terminology from treatment or care center to provider agency and replacing resident or patient with individual or eligible individual," said Tina Bey, director of the developmental disability section at the Department of Health and Human Services. "These revisions ... are necessary to remove outdated terminology and align the language with more person centered principles."

The bill moves the statutory definitions of "developmental disability" and "group home" into a single definitions section for clarity, amends multiple North Dakota Century Code sections (including 25‑16‑01, 25‑16‑03, 25‑16‑04, 25‑16‑05, 25‑16‑06, and 25‑16‑09) to reflect the new terminology, and removes duplicative language tied to the outdated chapter. It also adds a set of new provisions under section 14 that would give the department specific corrective‑action options when a provider agency is found out of compliance, and consolidates certain provisions previously placed in chapter 25‑18 into the chapter governing developmental disability services.

The department told the committee it proposes repealing North Dakota Century Code chapter 25‑18 because the chapter's retrospective rate‑setting language dates to studies and methodologies from 2003 and 2005 that were never implemented and that later rate‑setting changes in 2018 left portions of the chapter outdated. "Given this methodology changed in 2,000 18, the remaining language is now outdated and should be repealed," Bey said. The department also cited legislative history and a separate section (506‑06.4) when discussing related statutory intent for community residential programs for children.

Representative Balinski asked whether the bill’s federal‑requirements language would permit the department to disregard state law to preserve federal funding. Bey replied that the bill carries forward language saying the department "shall comply with the federal requirements to the extent necessary to obtain federal financial participation and shall not comply with the provisions of this chapter, if necessary, to avoid the loss of federal financial participation." Bey told the committee staff would keep legislators informed and that any long‑term change would be brought back as legislation in the next session.

The committee took testimony from the department and had no witnesses in opposition. After questions, the committee closed the hearing without taking action. Chairman Ruby said the committee will not act on bills the same day they are heard and outlined a schedule for follow‑up hearings and later bill work.

No formal votes or amendments were taken during the hearing.

The committee recessed to take up other business and to continue hearings on subsequent bills later in the week.