It has been a busy two weeks for the continuum of care license legislation, but the goal line is finally in sight.
I last reported that the House Human Services Committee had approved the Senate bill, SB2610, by a vote of 12 to 2, but that the state agencies, DHS and HFS, were going to suggest an amendment to the bill to further address the Medicaid matching funds issue. On Tuesday, May 17, we received from the governor’s office their proposed amendments to SB2610. Unfortunately, the amendments went well beyond addressing the Medicaid matching funds issue. Some of the amendments were minor and we could readily agree to them. Others would have substantially altered the legislation and undermined the purpose of the continuum of care license.
On Wednesday, May 18, we submitted a memorandum to the governor’s office and the agencies outlining our position on each of the proposed changes to SB2610. Where we objected to the proposed change, we explained our reasoning. On Friday, May 20, we had a conference call with the governor’s office and DHS to go through the proposed changes and our responses. At the conclusion of the call we had largely resolved all of our differences. Reta Hoskin from DHS was very receptive to our concerns and was very supportive of Misericordia and what we were trying to accomplish. In some respects, the agencies’ proposed changes arose because they did not fully understand what we were trying to do. Once we explained our goals, specifically that we were seeking both state and federal recognition of our model of care and that the two were separate, not linked, the agencies understood better why some of their changes were not acceptable.
After the call, we marked up SB2610 to reflect the changes that we agreed to make. The mark-up was given to DHS Secretary Dimas for his approval. On Monday, the governor’s office got back to us indicating that there were still four open issues. We were able to quickly resolve those four issues in time to get a final revised SB2610 to the Legislative Research Bureau in time for it to make the changes before the end of the day. With the end of the legislative session coming up this Tuesday, May 31, we needed to act quickly.
Because SB2610 has been changed, it needs to be heard once again by the House and Senate Human Services Committees and to be voted on by the full House and Senate, before the end of the day on May 31. However, with the state agencies now on board, we do not anticipate a problem. The House Human Services Committee held its hearing on the revised SB2610 on Wednesday, May 25 and approved the bill by a vote of 9 to 2. The two opposing votes were from the same two state representatives that have opposed the bill from the beginning. The full House voted on the bill Thursday afternoon and approved it 108 to 4. It is anticipated that the Senate Human Services Committee and the full Senate will vote on the bill either over the weekend or on Tuesday, May 31.
If, as we anticipate, the Senate votes to approve SB2610, the bill will be sent to the governor’s office for his signature. The governor has 60 days from the time he receives the bill to sign it or veto it. He likely will receive the bill before the end of June. Therefore, hopefully by mid-August the continuum of care licensing bill will become a law.
For those who want more detail about the issues that we discussed with the state agencies over the past two weeks, please let me know and I would happy to share that information with you. For those who wish to see the final version of SB2610, the blow link should take you to the bill. Again, we greatly appreciate all the help of Miz’s pro bono Springfield lobbyist, John Nicolay. It is only through his tireless efforts that we were able to meet all the deadlines to get the bill heard this legislative session.
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=09900SB2610ham001&GA=99&SessionId=88&DocTypeId=SB&LegID=95903&DocNum=2610&GAID=13&Session=
Thanks, Scott