SB 152 CERTIFIED NURSE AIDES  CHAIRMAN LEMAN announced SB 152 to be up for consideration. MS. ANNETTE KREITZER, Staff to Senator Leman, sponsor, explained that the Alaska Nurses Association requested SB 152 which deals with certified nurse aides. Although certification of nurse aides has been administered by the Division of Occupational Licensing, there is no provision for revocation of certificates for inappropriate behavior. In response to changes in federal law, SB 152 allows for the creation of a certified nurse aide registry to include the information required when a nurse aide is found to have committed abuse, neglect, or misappropriation of property in connection with their employment as a nurse aide. SB 152 provides a mechanism for the Department of Health and Social Services to alert the Board of Nursing to inappropriate behavior by a certified nurse aide when that occurs in a state licensed facility. The legislation protects the health, safety, and welfare of a vulnerable population served by certified nurse aides as well as ensuring competency in the performance of nurse aide duties. She said basically the bill creates new sections giving the Board of Nursing the authority to regulate and certify nurse aides. MS. KREITZER noted there was one amendment that corrects an oversight on page 3, lines 14 - 15, use of the title by inserting the abbreviation "(CNA)". CHAIRMAN LEMAN asked if anyone was opposed to SB 152. There were no objections to it. He noted that he had Ron Cowan, Dorothy Fulton, Patricia Senner, and Louise Dean signed up to testify via teleconference and said if he could enter their support on record. There were no objections. MS. REARDON , Division of Licensing, said that the House had some issues with the companion bill to SB 152. She said the Administrative Procedures Act that came up in committee exempted the Division of Occupational Licensing and Board of Nursing from the APA in more places than they intended to exempt themselves which raised some concerns about due process in the other body. The effect of this amendment would be to limit their exemption from the APA to only the actions referred to on page 4, line 15. If the Department of Health and Social Services has already given due process to someone and found the person to have abused a patient, they can immediately revoke their license without having to give a second hearing since they just had their first hearing in HESS. This is the only procedure from which they wanted an exemption from the APA. TAPE 97-19, SIDE B SENATOR KELLY moved to adopt amendment #1. There were no objections and it was adopted. SENATOR MACKIE moved to adopt amendment #2. There were no objections and it was adopted. MS. REARDON clarified amendment #3 was on page 3, line 1 changed "may" to "shall". She said it was pointed out that the board "shall" issue certification to a qualified person. It's not an optional activity. The final item is saying when they mail out notice to an individual that their license has been revoked due to their appearance on the abuse registry, they need to send it certified so there is proof of mailing. SENATOR MACKIE moved to adopted amendment #3. There were no objections and it was adopted. MS. REARDON said the last issue was concerning line 22 regarding a single subject, rules, and titles which lead them to want to eliminate section 16. This has to do with when other agencies can reveal confidential information from their investigations of abuse to them. She said this needs to be clarified, but it causes problems in this bill. CHAIRMAN LEMAN said he thought that health professionals, other than nurse aides, should be covered under other legislation. MS. REARDON said that was her initial impression also. Department of Law raised the possibility that specifically mentioning CNAs weakens their legal claim to ever get that information out for other professionals because the legislature specifically addressed it for these people. CHAIRMAN LEMAN explained that amendment #4 deleted section 16. MR. RON COWAN asked if they could wait to adopt amendment #4 until they could talk to other agencies that are going to be affected by that change. They are not certain that deleting the entire section 16 is needed to fix the problem. CHAIRMAN LEMAN said that whatever is taken out can be put back in and if this is going to get through the legislature this year, it needed to be moved. MR. COWAN withdrew his objection. SENATOR MACKIE moved to delete section 16 as amendment #4. There were no objections and it was so ordered. SENATOR MACKIE moved to pass CSSB 152(L&C) from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered.