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Committee adopts amendments to SB 275 on home‑health reimbursement and rejects extended Medicaid estate lookback
Summary
The Ways and Means Committee approved Amendment 20 to Senate Bill 275 to sunset a restriction on home‑health reimbursement rate changes and require a collaborative rate methodology, and rejected a proposed extension of Medicaid estate‑recovery lookback from 120 to 365 days.
The Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment to Senate Bill 275 that removes two budget‑sensitive sections and requires state health officials to work with providers on a new reimbursement methodology, while rejecting a separate amendment to lengthen Medicaid estate‑recovery lookback rules.
Representative Lopez, presenting Amendment 20, said the change deletes sections on age‑blind and Medicare savings plan eligibility and sunsets a statute that currently prevents the secretary from changing home‑health reimbursement rates. "We sunset that in June 2027," Lopez said, adding that the amendment requires the secretary "to collaborate with the association ... and providers to set a reimbursement methodology by November and bring that to Legislative Council." The provision also allows individuals receiving home‑ and community‑based services to request quarterly access to accounting and billing records for the services they receive.
The committee debated a separate, contested Amendment 12 from Representative Porter that would have kept the Medicaid estate‑recovery lookback at 120 days instead of expanding it to 365 days. Porter argued the longer lookback would be ‘‘regressive’’ and impose burdens on families with little estate to recover. Lopez countered that agencies often learn of a recipient’s death belatedly and that a longer lookback can unfairly bar recovery efforts when agencies are delayed in filing claims.
Committee members took a roll‑call vote on Amendment 12; the chair announced the motion failed, 9 to 15. The committee then voted to pass Senate Bill 275 as amended; the chair announced the bill "passes out 24 to 0." The committee did not record an individual roll call for the consent adoption of Amendment 20.
What happens next: SB 275, as amended, advances from committee. The amendment’s November requirement asks the secretary and stakeholders to produce a methodology for rates and to report it to Legislative Council; the statutory sunset on the reimbursement restriction takes effect in June 2027.
Sources and provenance: The article draws on committee remarks introducing Amendment 20 (Representative Lopez) and the recorded roll‑call on Amendment 12 and final passage as announced by the chair (transcript segments where those items were introduced and the roll calls were recorded).
