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Committee clears bill to remove statutory Medicaid rate mandates for certain behavioral-health providers
Summary
Senate Bill 497 would delete statutory language that mandated automatic Medicaid reimbursement increases and comparable-rate requirements for applied behavioral analysis providers, returning rate-setting discretion to the Legislature and budget process.
Senate Bill 497 would remove a statutory requirement that had mandated increases in Medicaid reimbursement rates — and set those rates at levels comparable to other states — for a subset of applied behavioral analysis (ABA) and related behavioral-health providers. The bill was presented to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee as a legislative ‘‘fix’’ to language adopted in 2021.
Senator Rochelle Winn, presenting SB497 as a Committee on Finance bill, said the 2021 language created the only statutory, mandatory increases in Medicaid reimbursement in the Nevada Revised Statutes, and that the requirement limited the Legislature’s ability to set rates across provider types when making budget decisions. ‘‘This does not exist anywhere else in statute,’’ she said, adding that the statute contained no metric to determine which out-of-state Medicaid programs constituted a ‘‘comparable’’ rate and that, in practice, providers could point to states with high rates.
Winn said the bill would align reimbursement rate-setting for these providers with how the state treats other Medicaid providers, restoring the legislative and budgetary discretion to set rates during the budget process. Administrator Weeks from the presenting agency was present and available to answer implementation questions, Winn said.
Senator Titus voiced support, calling SB497 a ‘‘fix-it’’ bill that corrected a well-meaning but problematic statute. There was no public testimony in opposition; one neutral commenter, Stephen Cohen, requested additional witness testimony later in the day because some stakeholders were unavailable. Committee leadership then moved the bill to work session: the vice chair made the motion, Senator Stone seconded it, members voiced ‘‘aye’’ and the chair announced the motion carried and the bill will be work-sessioned.
SB497, as presented, would remove the automatic statutory reimbursement increase and the undefined ‘‘comparable rates’’ requirement put in place in 2021 and would give the Legislature and the state budgeting process discretion over future Medicaid reimbursement decisions for the affected providers.
