Legislature(2017 - 2018)BARNES 124
03/20/2017 03:15 PM House LABOR & COMMERCE
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Audio | Topic |
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Start | |
HJR14 | |
HB157 | |
HB119 | |
HB79 | |
Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+= | HB 79 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | HJR 14 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | HB 157 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | HB 119 | TELECONFERENCED | |
+ | TELECONFERENCED |
HJR 14-FCC: INCREASE RURAL HEALTH CARE BUDGET 3:18:21 PM CHAIR KITO announced that the first order of business would be HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 14, Urging the Federal Communications Commission to increase the Rural Health Care Program budget sufficiently to adjust for inflation, advances in technology and the services available with increased broadband, and the increase in demand for broadband-based services and provide for any unused funds to be carried forward to future funding years, ensuring that rural communities in the state continue to have access to affordable broadband telehealth services. 3:18:44 PM TIM CLARK, Staff, Representative Bryce Edgmon, Alaska State Legislature, advised that HJR 14 requests that the FCC raise the budget for the Rural Health Care Universal Services Support Program. The budget has been capped at $400 million for 20 years now, but with the increase in the exploitation of broadband, increase of technologies available, and the increase on the state side with using telemedicine to make more healthcare services available at the local level, has brought the healthcare providers close to reaching that $400 million annual cap, and the time has come to raise that budget. 3:20:02 PM CHAIR KITO asked whether the $400 million is nationwide. MR. CLARK answered in the affirmative. [Public testimony on HJR 14 had remained open from the last hearing.] 3:20:33 PM RACHEL GEARHART, Clinical Director, Juneau Alliance for Mental Health, Inc., Alaska Chapter National Association of Social Workers, advised that she is the Clinical Director for Juneau Alliance for Mental Health, Inc., (JAMHI) which is Juneau's community behavioral health center for adults, and it constantly sees roughly 400 outpatients for mental health services at any given time. The catchment area includes the small communities of Gustavus, Tenakee Springs, and Elfin Cove, and it works with USAK to offer tele-behavioral services to those communities, and it also partners with the Sitka Hospital using equipment to provide medical services to folks in those communities. Additionally, the Juneau Alliance for Mental Health is working with the Rural Veterans Health Access Program (RVHAP) utilizing federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funds to create access to veterans across the state. Using this tele-behavioral health equipment is extremely vital for JAMHI to reach the many veterans spread across the state, and they are sometimes either unwilling or unable to come into more populated communities and access services. Particularly important for Juneau Alliance for Mental Health (JAMHI) is that its services are known throughout the state, and it has been able to serve people discharged from the Alaska Psychiatric Institute after going home to their communities. However, she said, patients may be related to everyone at their home community clinic so they can receive counseling from an agency in another community, with no connection to anyone working in the clinic, using their smart phone, or iPad. Personally, she said, as a citizen of Juneau and a member of the mental health field, she strongly encouraged the committee to pass this important legislation. 3:23:28 PM JENNIFER HARRISON, Eastern Aleutian Tribes, reiterated the testimony of the previous speaker and said its Rural Health Care Universal. Service Support Program enables the provision of healthcare providers in the most remote communities of Alaska offering telehealth services that dramatically improve (coughing). Due to telehealth behavior services they are able to provide psychiatric services to villages with less than 100 people. Psychiatrists are rare in Alaska and child psychiatrists are even more rare, she stressed, but Eastern Aleutian Tribes successfully have a contract with Orion Health to provide child psychiatric services to Alaska's smallest villages. She reiterated the importance of this program and offered support. CHAIR KITO, after ascertaining no one wished to testify, closed public testimony on HJR 14. 3:25:00 PM REPRESENTATIVE WOOL moved to report HJR 14, Version 30-LS0422\J, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, HJR 14 passed from the House Labor and Commerce Standing Committee.
Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
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HJR014 Supporting Documents Index 3.17.17.pdf |
HL&C 3/20/2017 3:15:00 PM |
HJR 14 |
HJR014 Supporting Documents-Support Letters 3.17.17.pdf |
HL&C 3/20/2017 3:15:00 PM |
HJR 14 |
HJR014 Supporting Documents-Universal Service Disbursements 2015 3.20.17.pdf |
HL&C 3/20/2017 3:15:00 PM |
HJR 14 |
HJR014 Supporting Documents-Universal Services Fact Sheet 3.17.17.pdf |
HL&C 3/20/2017 3:15:00 PM |
HJR 14 |