JCA committee work during week 8:
Week 8: JCA bill hearings: The Joint Committee on Appropriations (JCA) wrapped up their budget hearings during week six. Weeks seven and eight focused on bills that needed to pass before the appropriations crossover deadlines.The committee also set a few agency budgets for fiscal year 2020.
The budgets for the following departments have been set for fiscal year 2020 .
- Office of the Governor
- Bureau of Finance and Management excluding employee compensation
- Tourism
- Bureau of Administration excluding employee compensation
- Bureau of Human Resources
- Department of Energy and Natural Resources
- Office for Tribal Relations
- Public Utilities Commission
- South Dakota Retirement System
- Office of the School and Public Lands
- Office of the Secretary of State
- Office of the State Treasurer
- Office of the State Auditor
- South Dakota Investment Council
Week 8: JCA bill hearings:
SB 8 – to provide for a statewide resource information system and to make an appropriation therefor.
This bill had a special appropriation ask of $800,000. The bill was amended in committee down to $1 in order to keep the bill and conversation alive. This is a priority; however, it may or may not survive through the entire process as the number one focus for spending any additional resources is in the post-acute care space.
SB 158 – to make an appropriation for increased reimbursement for care of residents of nursing facilities and assisted living facilities.
HB 158 was killed in JCA; however, similar to HB 1060, the bill was asking for one-time money and would not increase the base funding for providers. The Association and providers did support this piece of legislation throughout the process in order to continue telling their stories about the crisis in post-acute care facilities across the state. The ultimate goals for this entire legislative session has been to increase ongoing funding, raise the base funding and update the payment methodology.
SB 172 – to appropriate money for the ordinary expenses of the legislative, judicial, and executive departments of the state, the expenses of state institutions, interest on the public debt, and for common schools. This is the Governor’s general appropriation bill for fiscal year 2020. This bill has been the subject of all of the budget hearings from week one through week six. The budget setting process has been taking pieces from this budget and the Appropriations Committee will create a new budget bill that will reflect the legislative priorities as negotiated between both Chambers and the Governor.
SB 173 – to make an appropriation to fund certain health care innovation grants and to declare an emergency. There are two innovation grants, within SB 173, a $5M Nursing Home Innovation Grant, funding for community nursing homes to develop and implement new and innovative approaches to nursing facility care, and a $1M Primary and Prenatal Care Innovation Grant, seeking innovation solutions from providers in the area of primary/prenatal care.
Proponent testimony came from:
- Shawnie Rechtenbaugh, Interim Secretary of the Department of Human Services (DHS)
- Greg DeSautel, Secretary Department of Social Services (DSS)
- Tim Rave, President/CEO South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations,
- Deb Fischer-Clemens, Sr. Vice President, Avera Health
- Corey Brown, Senior Legislative Affairs Specialist, Sanford Health.
JCA amended SB 173 in committee to require certain reports, expedite the scheduled review of the nursing home rate methodology and even included the hiring of an outside consultant to accomplish the tasks set forth in SB 173. The amendment was added to move the Nursing Home Provider Workgroup up to this summer and not wait until 2021, when Nursing Homes were supposed to be under review with the Provider Rate Methodology Workgroup. In addition, SB 173 was amended to reflect DHS and DSS shall report to JCA in January 2020 and the Interim Committee on Appropriation and the Government Operations and Audit Committee in the summer of 2020 on the grants awarded pursuant to the Act.
