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Good evening CSNI & Friends,
Our weekly (sometimes more, sometimes less) legislative updates are back until June.
There is a bill tracking sheet attached to this email. The sheet contains links to the full bill text. We are currently tracking over 100 bills! The tracking sheet will become color coded in the coming weeks. (Note from Will Walker: The bill tracking sheet is not attached to this G-FAN email blast. I will work to keep the list of bills up to date on the bottom of the G-FAN Page. The list will be very dynamic. I will also send out separate G-FAN emails to notify you of opportunities for you to give testimony, much like I did for HB 1593 yesterday.)
House and Senate Act on Remaining 2023 Bills
This week the House and Senate returned to the State House in full session to act on over 300 bills left over from the 2023 session. These bills were all held in committees for further study over the summer and fall of 2023.
On Wednesday, the House adopted the committee recommendation to kill HB 317. This bill would have established a commission to study transitioning to a 2-tier waiver system for individuals eligible for disability services. The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has stated many times since this bill’s introduction that there are no plans to transition to a two-tier waiver system for the developmental services system in NH. The leadership at DHHS has also stated that this issue would not be re-examined again until at least 2026.
The full House has also adopted the committee recommendation to send HB 608 to interim study. While this action essentially killed the bill, the issue is still very much alive. HB 608 would have established a established a pilot program to support the bureau of developmental services redesign. Because the redesign is already underway, the committee and Legislature feel the time for piloting changes has passed. However, the bill remains in study and the issues will continue to be examined by key legislative decision makers in 2024. This will be done at the Health and Human Services Oversight committee and other HB 608 interim study work sessions as needed.
Important Public Hearing Next Week!!
On Wednesday, January 10th at 1pm the Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs committee will conduct a public hearing on HB 1593. This bill establishes a developmental services community integration fund in the department of health and human services to support individuals and makes an appropriation of $1 million in general funds therefor.
This bill was filed because of written communication received last year (2023) from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) that clarified to individuals and families that certain items and services that may had been historically funded by Medicaid in NH are not supposed to be covered and no longer will be in the future. Specifically, these services are known as community integration. Community integration is an important part of the foundation of the home and community based developmental services system that we have today. People with disabilities have a legal right to participation in normal life experiences. The important of community integration is also referenced extensively in RSA 171-a. It is critical that we continue to work to implement the vision of the system and the laws that support it.
CSNI believes that community integration services are critical to supporting individual goals in an ISA or IEP. Sometimes, NH must implement strategies that fall outside of Medicaid allowable funding. Thus, we need to create a new fund that will use state funds to support services that assist in skill development to aid health, wellness, and safety goals. For example, community-based and integrated karate, dance, and swimming classes that support weight loss and mental and social wellness strategies identifies for the individual in a person-centered way. HB 1593 is a solution to close a gap created by a sometimes-inflexible federal bureaucracy that occasionally fails to consider individual circumstances and local available resources.
Under HB 1593, the fund will be used to provide services that are excluded from the Medicaid program and the services must be include in the individual’s service agreement (ISA) to be covered. DHHS must adopt rules relative to administration of the fund, including authorized use of community integration funds and eligibility requirements. The rules, for example, could cap the amount per person/per year, and could require that a licensed professional (Physician or therapist) recommend the service or item requested be funded.
Other CSNI High Priorities in 2024 Include:
HB 1028, relative to the definition of mental illness for purposes of the New Hampshire mental health services system.
HB 1168, establishing a committee to study the impact of the housing crisis on people with disabilities.
HB 1291, relative to accessory dwelling unit uses allowed by right.
HB 1615, relative to the autism registry.
SB 353, relative to insurance coverage for autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome.
SB 408, establishing a committee to study the effects of the housing crisis on the disability community.
We look forward to working with you all during the 2024 legislative session!!
Alex Koutroubas
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