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DHS official says statute limits use of nursing home administrator fees as committee questions $800,000 balance
Summary
Martina Smith of DHS told the Occupational License Review Committee the division oversees three occupational licenses and that state statute restricts the use of nursing home administrator fees to training, after a committee member questioned a reported roughly $800,000 fund balance and asked about reducing fees.
At a meeting of the Occupational License Review Committee, Martina Smith, director for the Division of Provider Services and Quality Assurance, told members the division oversees three occupational licenses and defended the current use of fee revenue, saying statute limits how the funds may be spent.
"Provider services and quality assurance has 3 occupational licenses," Smith said, listing certified nurse aide, nursing home administrator and psychiatric residential treatment facility licenses and saying the licenses "are necessary to protect the health and safety of our individuals that live in, residential facilities." She then invited questions.
A committee member pressed Smith about the nursing home administrator account, saying, "It shows that you currently have about an $800,000 fund balance," and pointing to recent expenditures the member read from the report: "looks like there's a $2,000, to the national board" and "$26,000 for the, training classes." The member asked whether the division had plans "either to reduce licensing fees or how can we use that money so it's not sitting there unnecessarily."
Smith said staff could "definitely take a look at some alternative methods" to use the fees but that "the statute that is in place says we can only use those fees for training." She noted the division's contract with the Arkansas Health Care Association "to provide training classes." The record does not identify the statute by name or number.
The committee member reiterated a preference to reduce fees or otherwise deploy the surplus, saying the balance was "way, way" above current expenses and that committee members would find a constructive purpose for the funds if they remained.
Separately, the committee approved without objection a procedural change to move an agenda item identified in the meeting as the "fire protection last name board" to the March meeting. No formal roll-call vote was recorded. With no further business, the chair dismissed the DHS representative and adjourned the meeting.
The committee did not record any immediate plan to seek statutory change or a staff report that would enable broader use of the fees; the transcript records only the exchange above and the DHS statement that current statute limits use to training.
