CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 299(FIN) An Act relating to the establishment of an additional south-central panel to the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board and to appointments to that panel; and providing for an effective date. DEBORAH GRUNDMANN, STAFF, SENATOR BEN STEVENS, stated that CSSB 299 (FIN) would amend the Workers' Compensation Act to provide for an additional panel for the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board in the South-central venue. She indicated that was needed to help provide more hearings in the area and would address the need to reduce lag time between when a worker files a claim and obtains a hearing. The bill would relieve growing caseloads. Ms. Grundmann added that the Alaska Workers' Compensation Act requires hearings to be conducted by panels of the Workers' Compensation Board. A panel consists of a labor member and an industry member, with a designee of the commissioner of the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The commissioner's designee is an employee of the State of Alaska; the other two members are lay volunteers who receive a $50 per day stipend. Ms. Grundmann pointed out that the industry seat members of the panels usually work in some management position, while the labor members are usually officers of labor unions, which makes for a "good mix" in deciding the types of cases. Panel members also have full time jobs outside of the division, and have limited time to devote to hearings. Consequently, there are only so many hearings that can be conducted with the current component of panel members. With the adoption of the committee substitute in the Senate Finance Committee, the effective date of the bill was changed to January 1, 2003. Enactment of SB 299 would provide much needed relief to the Worker's Compensation Board. Representative Foster MOVED to report CS SB 299 (FIN) out of Committee with individual recommendations and with the attached fiscal note. There being NO OBJECTION, it was so ordered. CS SB 299 (FIN) was reported out of Committee with a "do pass" recommendation and with fiscal note #1 by Department of Law. #SB345 SENATE BILL NO. 345 An Act relating to medical assistance for rehabilitative services for certain children with disabilities; relating to agreements to pay medical assistance for covered services paid for or furnished to eligible children with disabilities by a school district; and providing for an effective date. JERRY BURNETT, STAFF, SENATOR LYDA GREEN, commented that under the federal Individuals Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), school districts are required to provide rehabilitative services to qualifying students. Currently, the federal government pays approximately 16% of the cost for services required by IDEA. The balance is paid out of the foundation formula with a mix of State and local funding. To the extent that the students qualify for Medicaid, federal law allows for schools to bill the State Medicaid program for many of the services. However, Alaska State law does not authorize school districts to be Medicaid providers. Senate Bill 345 authorizes the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services to promulgate the necessary regulations and to contract with school districts to reimburse for rehabilitative services for students who qualify under the Medicaid program. Currently, forty-two other states fund school-based services through the Medicaid program. Mr. Burnett stated that under the provisions of SB 345, the school district would pay the State match for the Medicaid services it receives. The only State cost under the bill, would be the cost of promulgating the regulations and some small administrative costs. Mr. Burnett added that school districts would benefit by receiving federal matching dollars under the Medicaid program for services that they must provide, regardless of how they are funded. For each school district dollar expended for the services, the school district would receive approximately $1.50 in additional federal dollars. Mr. Burnett claimed that money could help defray the costs of providing special education services. JON SHERWOOD, DIVISION OF MEDICAL ASSISTANCE, DEPARTEMNT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES, noted that the Department supports the bill. He stated that it was a cooperative effort between Department of Health & Social Services and Department of Education & Early Development. Mr. Sherwood offered to answer questions of the Committee. Mr. Sherwood pointed out that there are two fiscal notes. One of the notes is for Medicaid services. The bill would enable the school districts to bill Medicaid for services provided to Medicaid-eligible children in special education programs. Districts would reimburse the Department of Health & Social Services for the State match required. There would be no net increase in State general fund match for Medicaid. The other fiscal note would cover the small administrative fees for expenses associated with making the claim payments. Claim payments for the new service and a small amount of on- going staff support would be needed to policy development. Vice-Chair Bunde asked if the Medicaid reimbursement would be "trading dollars". Mr. Sherwood acknowledged that was correct, noting that currently, the federal government pays 60% of the cost for Medicaid services. Vice-Chair Bunde pointed out that schools claim that the State would be responsible for paying for a portion of those costs. Mr. Sherwood agreed that was correct, noting that those State dollars would already have been spent. Representative Foster MOVED to report SB 345 out of Committee with individual recommendations and with the accompanying fiscal notes. There being NO OBJECTION, it was so ordered. SB 345 was reported out of Committee with a "no recommendation" and with fiscal note #1 and #2 by the Department of Health & Social Services.