Legislature(2025 - 2026)DAVIS 106
02/18/2025 03:15 PM House HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HB73 | |
| HB70 | |
| HB27 | |
| HB14 | |
| Overview(s): Child Advocacy Centers | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | HB 73 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 70 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 27 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HB 14 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | TELECONFERENCED |
HB 14-REPEAL CATASTROPHIC ILLNESS/MED ASSIST
4:24:47 PM
CHAIR MINA announced the next order of business would be HOUSE
BILL NO. 14, "An Act repealing programs for catastrophic illness
assistance and medical assistance for chronic and acute medical
conditions."
4:25:06 PM
REPRESENTATIVE WILL STAPP, Alaska State Legislature, as prime
sponsor of HB 14, gave key points from the sponsor statement
[included in the committee file], which read as follows
[original punctuation provided]:
Although housed in Division of Healthcare Services,
the Division of Public Assistance (DPA) is responsible
for administering the Catastrophic Illness and Chronic
or Acute Medical Conditions program. In FY21, FY22,
and FY23, the DPA has collectively processed thousands
of applications and only two qualifying applicants
that did receive assistance within the year of 2021.
The program began in 1986. Recipients were mainly
those too young for Medicare and with incomes too high
to qualify for Medicaid. Those who were either not
covered by health insurance or whose insurance was
inadequate to brace a catastrophic illness event
without endangering their financial resources,
subsistence and essential assets. Due to the expansion
of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act put into
effect within Alaska in late 2015, the increase in
coverage for Medicaid recipients grew nearly 145,000
people. Since that time, the number of qualifying
recipients has dramatically declined to the numbers we
see today. However, as a statutory program, the
division must administer it, which is costing the
state over $150,000 a year and countless hours of
administrative work that could otherwise be spent on
other such programs.
As a statutory program, the division was administering
[Chronic and Acute Medical Assistance] CAMA program
until FY 24 costing the state over $150,000 a year.
Funding for the program was discontinued in the FY25
budget and remains unfunded in the FY26 budget. The
division had also provided countless hours of
administrative work that would alternatively have been
used to process applications for more utilized
programs within their division such as Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to prevent
backlogs in assistance funding. The Catastrophic
Illness and Chronic or Acute Medical Conditions
program has since become obsolete and House Bill 14
aims repeal the program from state statute.
4:26:47 PM
BERNARD OTO, Staff, Representative Will Stapp, Alaska State
Legislature, on behalf of Representative Stapp, gave the
sectional analysis for HB 14 [included in the committee packet],
which read as follows [original punctuation, with some
formatting changed]:
Section 1
AS 36.30.850(b)(11) amended
Deletes reference to Catastrophic Illness Assistance
from service providers
Section 2
AS 47.05.085 amended
Deletes reference to Catastrophic Illness Assistance
from evidence in connection with investigation under
the administration
Section 3
AS 47.05.200(d) amended
Deletes Catastrophic Illness Assistance from obtaining
payment from providers
Section 4
AS 47.05.210(a) amended
Deletes reference to Catastrophic Illness Assistance
from medical assistance fraud
Section 5
AS 47.05.240 amended
Deletes reference to Catastrophic Illness Assistance
commissioner excluding applicant from medical
assistance program
Section 6
AS 47.05.290(9) amended
Deletes Catastrophic Illness Assistance from the
definition of "medical assistance program"
Section 7
AS 47.05.290(10) amended
Deletes Catastrophic Illness Assistance from the
definition of "medical assistance provider"
Section 8
AS 47.05.290(17) amended
Deletes Catastrophic Illness Assistance from the
definition of "medical assistance services"
Section 9
AS 47.05.330(a) amended
Modifies reference to Catastrophic Illness Assistance
as "former"
Section 10(a)
AS 47.08.010 47.08.140 Repeal
Repels all references to Catastrophic Illness
Assistance within statute
Section 10(b)
AS 47.08.150 Repeal
Repeals reference to Medical Assistance for Chronic
or Acute Medical Conditions within statute
Section 11 Uncodified Law/Add new section
Allows the Department of Health to create an initial
case if fraud is found within previous program of
Assistance for Catastrophic Illness and Chronic or
Acute Medical Conditions
Section 12 Uncodified Law/Add new section
Allows the Department of Health to issue subpoenas and
further investigate with necessary records or evidence
4:27:42 PM
CHAIR MINA invited questions from the committee.
4:27:58 PM
REPRESENTATIVE FIELDS asked for confirmation that even if U.S.
Congress is successful in gutting Medicaid, "we would want to
then continue covering people under Medicaid and not CAMA."
4:28:26 PM
REPRESENTATIVE STAPP replied that it is hard for him to imagine
that "even if they did cost-shift 100 percent of the cost of the
Medicaid program back on to the state, that they'd still qualify
for CAMA." He deferred to Deb Ethridge.
4:29:16 PM
DEB ETHERIDGE, Director, Division of Public Assistance,
Department of Health (DOH), stated that the division does not
anticipate "any additional eligibility if there's any effect."
4:29:42 PM
CHAIR MINA asked if the funds would be returned to the
[undesignated general fund] (UGF).
REPRESENTATIVE STAPP answered yes, they would be available to
spend on other things because they would be returned to the
[general fund] (GF).
4:30:03 PM
CHAIR MINA announced that HB 14 was held over.