HB 58-ADULT HOME CARE; MED ASSISTANCE  3:06:45 PM CHAIR PRAX announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 58, "An Act relating to medical assistance for recipients of Medicaid waivers; establishing an adult care home license and procedures; providing for the transition of individuals from foster care to adult home care settings; and providing for an effective date." 3:07:12 PM CHAIR PRAX opened public testimony on HB 58. 3:07:57 PM STEPHANIE WHEELER, Ombudsman, Alaska State Long Term Care Ombudsman program, said the Alaska State Long Term Care Ombudsman program was in support of HB 58 as the bill aligned with its mission to protect the rights, health, safety, and welfare of Alaskans living in long-term care facilities. She highlighted many elders wished to live in facilities close to family or the place where they were born. She stated Alaska had the fewest options for assisted living homes despite its size, and that HB 58 would help provide more options for elders. 3:10:19 PM PATRICK REINHART, Executive Director, Governor's Council on Disability and Special Education, stated the Governor's Council could provide its position paper in support of HB 58 to the committee. He said HB 58 could provide more tools for young people who were in therapeutic foster care that grew out of foster care homes. 3:11:53 PM MARGE STONEKING, Advocacy Director, AARP Alaska, stated that AARP supported HB 58, expansions, and improvements to home and community based waiver programs. She said most elders desired to remain in their own homes and communities as they age, and that community based services were significantly less expensive than nursing home care. She added that Alaska had a shortage of home care workers which threatened access to home care-based services, and that nursing homes and institutional care housing increased the cost of Medicaid. She said that HB 58 would reduce administrative burden and offer elders more home-like settings. 3:14:35 PM KIM CHAMPNEY, Executive Director, Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities, stated that the Alaska Association on Developmental Disabilities (AADD) had 81 members that provided services from Utqiagvik to Metlakatla, and was a member of the Key Coalition of Alaska. She highlighted the struggle Alaska had faced with workforce shortages disproportionately affecting those with disabilities, and that HB 58 would provide another opportunity for care to be provided from neighbors or family members that may not typically work at a provider organization. MS. CHAMPNEY provided a story about a mother with a disability who had two children with disabilities and could not provide care for them. She described that an uncle had taken care of the children and raised them under a Medicaid waiver, but as the children had aged out he struggled to make his home into an assisted living home. She stated that if the uncle had not been able to jump through hoops, the two children would have taken up spots in a group facility that could have been used by others. She emphasized that adding flexibility to home-based care would help address the shortages Alaska had faced. 3:17:45 PM CHAIR PRAX, after ascertaining there was no one else who wished to testify, closed public testimony on HB 58. 3:19:12 PM REPRESENTATIVE RUFFRIDGE moved to report HB 58 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying zero fiscal notes. There being no objection, HB 58 was reported from the House Health and Social Services Standing Committee.