Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Administrative Rules topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee reviews multiple Department of Health and DHS rules, supports assisted-living rate changes and administrative updates
Summary
The committee reviewed a bundle of Department of Health rules (home caregiver training, plumbing consolidation, massage therapy and cosmetology/body-art changes) and several DHS rules (vaccine counseling coverage, DISH audit redistribution, Medicare/Medicaid crossover billing, assisted-living cost reporting/rate adjustment); most items stood for review without objection and an assisted-living rate change was proposed to take effect retroactively to July 1 pending approvals.
Department of Health general counsel Laura Shue presented several rule packages for committee review: proposed home caregiver training amendments to comply with Act 70 of 2023 (requiring at least four hours of dementia/Alzheimer's training), consolidated plumbing licensing rules to incorporate Acts 137 and 457 of 2023, on-site wastewater system rule updates, cosmetology/body-art rules consolidation, and updates to dental hygienist practice prioritization under collaborative-care permits. Shue reported public-comment periods and responses; several packages had no public comments and moved forward to stand reviewed.
DHS representatives presented administrative and payment-related rule items. Mitch Rouse described a vaccine-counseling coverage rule and Jay Hill described an assisted-living cost-reporting requirement pursuant to Act 198 of 2023 with a proposed rate adjustment (bringing previously different rural/urban rates to a single increased rate and retroactive applicability to July 1, pending CMS/ALC approvals). DHS also presented a DISH (disproportionate share hospital) audit redistribution rule designed to capture and redistribute overpayments to eligible hospitals rather than losing funds, which DHS said was approved by CMS. A Medicare/Medicaid crossover-billing data-field addition was presented as an efficiency measure.
Representative Gramlich's two ISP items were moved and passed by voice vote earlier in the docket. For the departmental rules, most items "stood for review" without objection; the committee did not enact additional statutory changes in this session but asked staff to correct typos and address bureau-of-legislative-research comments where noted.
Committee members asked clarifying questions about public-comment responses, financial impacts of redistribution rules, and implementation details; DHS and ADH said they would provide technical clarifications and follow-up to members.
No final statutory rule adoptions were voted in committee; rules were left under review as part of the administrative promulgation process.
