Committee to Review Bill Drafts on Developmental Disabilities Services

Committee: Children, Families, Health, & Human Services Interim Committee
Author: Sue O'Connell
Posted on June 13, 2018

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A legislative committee will review and take public comment next week on five bill drafts related to a study of community services for people with developmental disabilities.

The Children, Families, Health, and Human Services Interim Committee will consider the public comment as members decide whether to proceed with the ideas and whether to revise any of the bill drafts.

The committee will meet June 21-22 in Helena, when members also will hear updates on the Medicaid expansion program, Department of Public Health and Human Services activities, behavioral health peer support specialists, a preschool pilot project, and efforts related to Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

For the House Joint Resolution 24 study of community services for adults with developmental disabilities, the committee will review bill drafts:

• requiring DPHHS to use the Supports Intensity Scale when assessing the level of support that a person will need in the community;
• requiring DPHHS to submit a budget that ties rate increases for providers of community services to the Consumer Price Index and appropriating money to increase direct-care worker wages by $3 an hour over the next two fiscal years;
• providing more flexibility in funding by requiring that some services be reimbursed at a daily, rather than hourly, rate and creating a grant program with funds that were appropriated for community services but not used for that purpose during a fiscal year;
• creating a crisis response system that provides varying levels of response depending on a person's needs; and
• requiring DPHHS to review rules, policies, and procedures for the developmental disabilities program with an eye toward streamlining state requirements.

In its ongoing review of the Medicaid expansion program, the committee will hear an update on the optional workforce development program known as HELP-Link and will receive a fiscal report on the costs of expansion. The committee also will consider and take public comment on a bill that would eliminate the advisory council created under the Medicaid expansion law.

The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. on June 21 in Room 137 of the Capitol in Helena and will continue at 9:15 a.m. on June 22. For more information about the meeting, including a full agenda and related materials, visit the committee's website or contact Sue O'Connell, committee staff.

Committee Website: www.leg.mt.gov/cfhhs
Committee Staff: soconnell@mt.gov or 406-444-3597