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DHS lists long-term care, Arkansas Works and Medicaid items for public-health committee
Summary
Department of Human Services Secretary Cindy Gillespie told the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee to expect bills on Arkansas Works reauthorization, expanded Medicaid eligibility support for Marshallese adults, long-term care ownership and staffing changes, stronger in‑home caregiver checks, and prohibitions on nonconsensual videotaping of nursing‑home residents.
Cindy Gillespie, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services, briefed the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on several pieces of legislation the agency expects to move this session.
Gillespie said a reauthorization of Arkansas Works is expected and likely to be noncontroversial enough to go on the consent calendar. She asked to meet individually with lawmakers to walk through proposed concepts and outcomes for beneficiaries.
Gillespie asked the legislature to consider a resolution supporting the addition of Medicaid coverage for eligible Marshallese adults, noting recent federal action that permits states to provide such coverage. She also described work on a possible legislative task force to review the state’s process for determining fitness, responsibility and restoration for criminal defendants who raise an insanity or mental‑disease defense.
In long‑term‑care policy, Gillespie described proposed authority to better screen prospective facility owners to limit acquisitions by operators with poor track records; a bill to prohibit videotaping or posting images of long‑term‑care residents to social media without consent; and efforts to simplify duplicative nursing‑home staffing reporting by retrieving federal staffing submissions rather than requiring separate state filings.
Gillespie said DHS is strengthening abuse‑registry checks for in‑home caregivers paid by Medicaid and is considering statutory updates to victim‑impact panels that include a fee increase from $10 to $40 to expand provider capacity.
The committee asked questions; none of the DHS proposals were voted on at the meeting. Gillespie also noted DHS will distribute promotional items from an agency store that sells products made by people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
The agency agreed to provide more detailed bill lists to committee staff as drafts and bill numbers become available.
