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.