SB 106: "An Act relating to decisions by the commissioner of health and social services to remand certain health facility payment decisions back to the hearing officers; and amending Rule 602, Alaska Rules of Appellate Procedure."
00SENATE BILL NO. 106 01 "An Act relating to decisions by the commissioner of health and social services 02 to remand certain health facility payment decisions back to the hearing officers; 03 and amending Rule 602, Alaska Rules of Appellate Procedure." 04 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 * Section 1. AS 47.07.075(b) is amended to read: 06 (b) The commissioner shall [,] by regulation [,] establish time limits applicable 07 to the various phases of an administrative appeal process involving an appeal of the 08 amount of a payment rate set by the department for a facility. The time limits set 09 under the regulations supersede conflicting time limits in AS 44.62.330 - 44.62.630. 10 The regulations must provide that 11 (1) a hearing for an appeal described in this subsection must be 12 scheduled under AS 44.62.410 to occur no more than 120 days after written notice of 13 rate appeal has been received by the department from a facility unless the facility 14 requests a delay or good cause for the delay is demonstrated to the satisfaction of the
01 hearing officer; 02 (2) the commissioner must, within 30 days after receiving the 03 recommendation of the hearing officer, either render a decision in the case or refer the 04 case back to a hearing officer for additional findings; within 10 days after referring 05 a case back to a hearing officer, the commissioner shall notify the health facility 06 of the referral; 07 (3) if a [EITHER] time limit set under (1) or (2) of this subsection is 08 not met, the department shall report the noncompliance to the legislature and the 09 governor by the following January 20 with an explanation of the length of delay, 10 reasons for the delay, and proposed corrective action by the department to ameliorate 11 the causes of delay. 12 * Sec. 2. AS 47.07.075 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: 13 (c) In addition to the review of final administrative orders under AS 44.62.560 14 and 44.62.570, a health facility may appeal to the superior court a decision by the 15 commissioner under (b)(2) of this section to refer a case back to a hearing officer. 16 The health facility must file the appeal within 30 days after the health facility receives 17 notice from the commissioner of the decision. 18 * Sec. 3. COURT RULE CHANGES. Section 2 of this Act changes Rule 602, Alaska 19 Rules of Appellate Procedure, by 20 (1) authorizing a right of appeal to the superior court for a decision that is an 21 interlocutory order and not a final decision of an administrative agency; 22 (2) authorizing an appeal even though the administrative agency has not issued 23 a decision that states that it is a final decision and that the claimant has 30 days to appeal; 24 (3) changing the time within which an appeal, as applied to an interlocutory 25 order, may be filed. 26 * Sec. 4. AS 47.07.075(c), enacted by sec. 2 of this Act, takes effect only if sec. 3 of this 27 Act receives the two-thirds majority vote of each house required by art. IV, sec. 15, 28 Constitution of the State of Alaska.