HB 120-HEALTH CARE EMPLOYEE PROTECTION CHAIR DYSON announced HB 120 to be up for consideration. REPRESENTATIVE PEGGY WILSON, sponsor of HB 120, explained that this bill repeals two exemptions from Alaska's Blood Borne Pathogen Protection Standards to bring Alaska standards into compliance with federal standards. Alaska adopted its blood borne regulations in 2000 and in 2001 the federal government adopted theirs. Overall, Alaska's regulations are stronger and tighter than the federal regulations except in two areas. Those are dental and health care offices with less than 25 full time employees. This bill is really a housekeeping bill that ensures that state statutes are equal to the federal guidelines and it is mainly for the purpose of qualifying for certain federal grants. CHAIR DYSON asked if the medical community has weighed in on this bill. REPRESENTATIVE WILSON replied that the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the Nurses Association, the Alaska Dental Society and the Alaska Hygienists Society all support this bill and no one is against it. CHAIR DYSON asked if the Alaska Medical Association has taken a position on it. REPRESENTATIVE WILSON replied that they have not commented on the bill. CHAIR DYSON asked Dr. Funk, Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), if she is aware of anyone who takes exception to this bill. DR. BETH FUNK, Acting Chief, Epidemiology Section, Division of Public Health, Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), replied that she is not aware of anyone. GREY MITCHELL, Director, Labor Standards and Safety Division, Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD), said: Currently we are having some difficulty with our federal counterparts who provide us with grant funds to carry out our program - and that is specifically because under the agreement that the Alaska Occupational Safety and Health Program was created under in 1970, we agreed that we would maintain standards that were at least effective as federal standards. And this is an area where we are not meeting the minimum federal standards because we are exempting dental offices and small medical offices. So, to kind of straighten that out, we've taken those two exemptions off of the list and essentially we haven't heard any negative comments. The dental community has come out in support of the bill. Small medical offices haven't voiced any opposition to it. Our in-the-field personnel in the industrial hygiene area have essentially been guiding these businesses toward compliance with federal requirements already. And the overwhelming consensus is that they are already in compliance with federal standards. 2:22:12 PM SENATOR ELTON asked if he is correct in believing that all of the entities that fall under the scope of this bill are already required to be in compliance with federal regulations and thus this bill is not going to aggrieve anyone any more than they are already aggrieved. MR. MITCHELL replied that he is correct. JOHN BITNEY, Alaska Nurses Association, supported HB 120. SENATOR OLSON asked if a particular problem caused this issue to come to light. REPRESENTATIVE WILSON replied there was none that she was aware of and that, "This is just something that needs to be taken care of." The impact of this legislation is not expected to be significant for two reasons. One is that the businesses currently exempt under the Alaska law are already complying with federal requirements and also the participation required for the front-line health care workers in the evaluation process is automatic. SENATOR OLSON asked how this bill would affect health aides in rural Alaska who are minimally trained and under-funded and often do not have adequate, much less state-of-the-art, equipment. He said one village he visited last year didn't even have sterile suture equipment. REPRESENTATIVE WILSON replied that she was not sure. She assumed they are required to be trained and that would fall back under the umbrella of who is in charge of them and who oversees what they do. SENATOR WILKEN asked Representative Wilson to state her professional background for the record. REPRESENTATIVE WILSON replied that she is a registered nurse and a former Emergency Medical Technician III who practiced in rural Southeast Alaska. She personally understands the importance of protection for yourself and your patients. SENATOR WILKEN moved to report HB 120 out of committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note. There were no objections and it was so ordered.