New Information Available on Licensing Fee Proposal
Early last week, ARRM staff were able to meet with leaders within the DHS Licensing Division and speak with them directly about the Governor’s licensing fee proposal.
When the Governor released his initial budget it indicated that HCBS providers would see a licensing fee increase of between 20%-300%. However, when the actual bill language was introduced there was no language around licensing fees.
During the meeting it was confirmed that the language was inadvertently left out of the bill and it was the intent of the Department that the new licensing fee schedule would be amended into the bill when it is heard during committee.
ARRM has received information on the proposed licensing fee schedule and initial analysis shows an average increase to ARRM members of 61%. Members should watch for more information from ARRM on the exact impact to your organization and instructions for reaching out to your legislators in the next few days.
Governor releases his Supplemental Budget Bill - Keeps competitive workforce factor
On Friday, Gov. Walz released his supplemental budget bill; this was due to the updated February forecast which showed the state surplus about $500 million less than was forecast in November. We were watching closely to see if any changes were made to the proposed Competitive Workforce Factor for DWRS; the proposal however shows no change and a 4.7% CWF remains in the Governor’s budget proposal.
ARRM’s Policy Bill hits a bump in the House
This last Tuesday, ARRM’s policy bill was heard in the House Health and Human Service Policy Committee. During the hearing, two key legislators had questions and concerns over our language allowing Positive Support Specialist and Positive Support Analyst positions to receive their required training within 90 days of hire -- as opposed to needing to have the training prior to working with clients. Additionally, there were concerns over our language clarifying past statue allowing for competency-based annual training.
The initial motion during the committee was to send the bill to the General Register for final passage. That motion was amended and the bill was sent to the Health and Human Service Finance Committee for further work. We will continue to reach out to and work with the legislators that expressed concerns.
ARRM Testifies to Governor’s Budget Proposal
On Thursday, the House Health and Human Service Finance Committee held a hearing on the Governor’s budget proposal. During the hearing the public was given one minute each to provide comments on the proposal. I provided brief remarks on behalf of ARRM and its members, thanking the Governor and his administration on including a Competitive Workforce Factor for DWRS in their budget, but expressing our opposition to the proposed HCBS provider fee increase. The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the HHS Omnibus bill.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead to this coming week, the second committee deadline is this Friday, March 29. This means any bill not out of a policy committee in the House and Senate will not move forward this legislative session.
Questions
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns!
--Sara Grafstrom, Director of State and Federal Policy, sgrafstrom@arrm.org