 The House Ways and Means committee’s FSSA budget presentation is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 10:15 a.m. The agency’s original scheduled presentation conflicted with the Governor’s HIP.2.0 announcement so it was postponed to Feb. 3rd. Those who want to watch the presentation online can do so at http://iga.in.gov/. Then under the yellow “Watch Live” button chose “House” and then “Room 404”. The session is heading into its 5th week and committee activity on the 1100 introduced bills is hectic as they face only 2 ½ weeks for bills to pass from committee in the house of origin.
Perhaps the biggest legislatively-related news of the week occurred outside the legislative chambers—CMS approved a slightly altered version of Indiana HIP 2.0 to extend healthcare coverage through the “Medicaid Expansion” provisions of the Affordable Care Act to an additional estimated 350,000 Hoosiers. 2014 legislation had authorized the waiver application and negotiation process. Sen. Patricia Miller’s (R-Indianapolis) Senate Health Committee passed an amended version of her SB 460, a nursing home bed moratorium through June 30, 2018. The bill contains some exemptions, including “small house facilities” which are limited to 100 new licensed or Medicaid certified comprehensive care beds per year and facilities in counties with a 90 % bed occupancy rate. The bill will be eligible for Second Reading on Monday. SB 420, changing the term “mental retardation” to “intellectual disability” throughout the Indiana Code passed from the bill’s author, Sen. Ron Grooms’ (R-New Albany) Family and Children Services committee and Second Reading this week. It is now eligible for Third Reading on Monday. The Legislative Council would be urged to assign the topic of Adult Protective Service laws to an Interim Study committee under the terms of SB 182, authored by Rep. Tim Lanane (D-Anderson). It passed from the Senate Family and Children Services committee and Second Reading this week. Rep. Ed Clere’s (R-New Albany) bill to realign and centralize certain authority within FSSA, HB 1613, has been reassigned to his Public Health committee from its originally assigned House Family, children, and Human Affairs committee. It will likely be heard in his committee. One of the numerous bills on charity gaming passed from the Senate Public Policy committee this week. A committee amendment to SB 327 adds a definition of “bona fide state organization” to the list of qualified organizations that may receive an annual comprehensive charity gaming license. That definition would require exempt designation under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code, operation in Indiana for at least three years, and Indiana members. Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) is the author. Information about 2015 session bills can be found at http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/bills/. Comments are closed.
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