HB 260-DAY CARE ASSISTANCE & CHILD CARE GRANTS  3:11:12 PM CHAIR SEATON announced that the first order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 260, "An Act relating to the recovery of overpayments of day care assistance and child care grants; and providing for an effective date." 3:11:29 PM REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ moved to adopt Amendment 1, labeled 29- GH2769\A.2, Glover, 3/10/16, which read: Page 1, lines 2 - 3: Delete "daycare assistance and child care grants" Insert "benefits for public assistance programs  administered by the Department of Health and Social  Services" Page 1, lines 4 - 11: Delete all material and insert: "* Section 1. AS 47.05.080(a) is repealed and reenacted to read: (a) Except for overpayments recovered under AS 47.07 that cover the value of services paid from federal sources, benefit overpayments collected by the department in administering public assistance programs under AS 47.05.010 shall be remitted to the Department of Revenue under AS 37.10.050(a)." Page 1, line 14, through page 2, line 2: Delete all material. Insert "APPLICABILITY. This Act applies to the recovery of benefit overpayments for public assistance programs administered by the Department of Health and Social Services under AS 47.05.010, regardless of whether the overpayments occurred before, on, or after July 1, 2016." CHAIR SEATON objected for discussion. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ explained that this proposed amendment would broaden the ability of the Division of Public Assistance to recoup overpayments of benefits to any of its programs. CHAIR SEATON clarified that this applied to the public assistance programs administered by Department of Health and Social Services. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ expressed her agreement, and reiterated that the amendment would encompass all the public assistance programs. 3:14:06 PM SEAN O'BRIEN, Director, Director's Office, Division of Public Assistance, Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), expressed appreciation and offered his support for proposed Amendment 1. He clarified that the proposed bill would allow collection of funds, which was currently only voluntary, and it specifically included an option to allow for garnishment of the permanent fund dividend (PFD). He acknowledged that the proposed amendment would allow PFD garnishment across all of its programs. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked whether overpayment to child care grants was recovered from the recipient and not the provider. MR. O'BRIEN explained that currently collection for an overpayment was voluntary. In response to Representative Wool, he stated that repayment was the responsibility of the parents. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked about the most common cause of overpayment. He mused that the benefit payment was made to the parent, who in turn paid the provider. He asked if these causes of overpayment were similar to other public assistance programs. MR. O'BRIEN explained that overpayments were recovered for a variety of reasons, which included: fraudulent requests, incorrect applications, or change to income level status of the applicant or family. CHAIR SEATON asked for clarification for whether the benefit payment for child care was paid to the parent or to the provider of the care. MR. O'BRIEN replied that it was paid to the provider. CHAIR SEATON asked who would be garnished in the case of overpayment. 3:20:04 PM JANICE BRADEN, Program Coordinator, Child Care Program Office, Division of Public Assistance, Department of Health and Social Services, explained that if the day care assistance payment was made to the provider on behalf of the family, and it was determined to be an incorrect benefit payment, recoupment would be from the family, if this was a family caused error, such as failure to report changes in circumstances which made the benefit more than allowable. However, if the provider incorrectly filled out the billing form, overpayment collection would be from the child care provider. She stated that the child care grants were only paid to child care providers, so any error for overpayment would be collected from the child care provider. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL mused that, although the overpayment was made to the provider, the garnishment would be from the parent as they had already received the benefit for lower child care costs, hence the necessity to reimburse the costs. CHAIR SEATON shared that the child care grant, which was made directly to the provider, would be reimbursed by the provider. However, any mistake made by the parent was reimbursed by the parent. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked if this proposed amendment would include other public assistance programs. MR. O'BRIEN replied that the amendment would expand the garnishment using the PFD to the senior benefits program and the general relief program. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ recounted that any overpayment request was initiated with a letter to the individual requesting overpayment, and then the individual could ask for an administrative hearing to contest that amount. She explained that there was an administrative process that allowed a further appeal to the court. She touted the garnishment of the PFD as a "great tool in getting back overpayments." She pointed out that monthly payments were also a means of repayment. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked if there were any fines, penalties, or multipliers that could increase the repayment. REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ said that historically the Division of Public Assistance had not charged any interest. 3:25:44 PM MONICA WINDOM, Chief, Policy & Program Development, Division of Public Assistance, Department of Health and Social Services, in response, expressed agreement that there was not any penalty added. 3:26:07 PM CHAIR SEATON removed his objection. There being no further objection, Amendment 1, labeled 29-GH2769\A.2, Glover, 3/10/16, was adopted. CHAIR SEATON pointed out that Amendment 1 was quite extensive and replaced original language of the proposed bill. 3:27:18 PM REPRESENTATIVE VAZQUEZ moved to report HB 260, Version 29- GH2769\A, as amended, out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSHB 260(HSS) was moved from the House Health and Social Services Standing Committee.