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March
18, 2008 |
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ACTION
ALERT—SUPPORT PROVISIONS OF SF3099 SF3099, the
Berglin health reform bill, is expected to be voted on by the full Senate
tomorrow. *Action
Needed*
Please contact your Senators and express support for several provisions in
this bill related to county responsibilities. These
include: ·
Statewide
Health Improvement Plan (see attached LPHA FACT SHEET) This section
would provide $26-$57 million in funding for county, multicounty, and 4
city community health boards to prevent obesity, tobacco use, and alcohol
use. In the Senate bill, funding would come from the community
benefit required of hospitals and health plans in order to maintain their
non-profit status, NOT general fund dollars. ·
Expanded and
continued health insurance coverage through MinnesotaCare. Funding
for this provision would come from the Health Care Access
Fund. Both
these provisions have been endorsed by the AMC Health Care Task
Force. Check
here for legislators by county.
Or here for your specific legislator. Finally,
you can see the final bill language online here.
Public health provisions are in article 1; expanded MinnesotaCare
provisions are in article 3. For
more information contact:
Patricia Coldwell, AMC Policy
Analyst Levy
limits proposed by Gov. Pawlenty Gov.
Pawlenty proposed stringent new levy limits on local governments as part
of his supplemental budget. The House Tax committee heard testimony
from affected units of government Monday March 17. AMC joined with
MICA, LMC and other groups to strongly oppose the proposed levy
limits. Joe Mathews, General Government Policy Analyst at AMC,
testified about the difficult choices counties are already being asked to
make and urged the committee to once again reject any and all levy limit
proposals. AMC specifically pointed to other areas of the
governor’s budget that would adversely impact county finances including
Short-Term Offenders, Civil Commitment holds for sex offenders and
Targeted Case Management. Given the mandates counties are required
to carry out and the continued decline in county revenues it remains
inappropriate for the governor to interfere with local decision
making. AMC suggested that the best way to combat rising property
taxes would be to address cost drivers rather than impose artificial
property tax caps. The Senate Tax Committee heard similar testimony
at a hearing on Tuesday March 18. Targeted
Case Management: rule moratoria AMC
and the Minnesota Association of County Social Services Administrators
(MACSSA) received a timely update on federal targeted case management
(TCM) legislation today. The following comments are
provided to all counties with special thanks to Tim Walsh (Scott), Paul
Fleissner (Olmsted), Judith Brumfield (Scott) and Deb Huskins
(Hennepin). The
above mentioned individuals met yesterday with staff from Congressman
Ellison’s and Senator Coleman's offices. Both congressional staff
expressed optimism that they have broad bi-partisan support and that they
continue to be willing and highly motivated to work together to pass the
various MA rules moratoria. The House is following a strategy of packaging all
seven MA moratoria and attaching them to a bill that will likely get the
President's signature (HR 5613, Rep. Dingell, companion bill, Sen.
Rockefeller). The vehicle bills they are considering include
the Medicare-finance bill or the Iraq War supplemental funding
bill. Representative Ellison's TCM moratorium bill is
getting broad bi-partisan support. It has at least 75
co-sponsors. Republican staffers thought that the five-year 15
billion dollar price tag was too steep, but the House leadership appear to
be more accommodating and is looking for offsets. Both the Senate
and House Democratic leadership said they are committed to finding the
budget offsets and finding a legislative vehicle that will
pass. Senator Coleman's office is more optimistic about
the TCM moratorium's chances if attached to a germane bill such as
Medicare finance. Both congressional offices’ staff thought at this
point that the "Joint Resolution of Disapproval" of new TCM rules authored
by Senator Mikulski (D-MD), co-sponsored by Senator Coleman and introduced
in the House by Representative Ellison, is a good and powerful message,
but largely symbolic at this point. The House has set aside a "reserve" in the FY 2009
budget for all 7 MA moratoria. The Senate’s reserve is only for the
TCM moratorium. While reserving does not commit spending, it shows
the resolve and seriousness of House and Senate leadership to pass their
respective bills. On a final note, S. 1200, the American Indian
Health Care Improvement Act, which contains a TCM moratorium, passed the
Senate but is not predicted to pass out of House committees.
Staffers will work on getting it passed out, but felt that the other
moratoria bills will take precedence and there is just not enough time to
get it passed. NOTE from
NACo: Federal
Bill to Delay Medicaid Regulations Introduced in House
- Action Needed! Bipartisan
legislation was just introduced in the House to delay implementation of
harmful Medicaid regulations. The bill was introduced by Energy and
Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and Congressman Timothy
Murphy (R-PA) and imposes a one year moratorium on the seven Medicaid
regulations recently issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS). The bill, H.R. 5613, the “Protecting the Medicaid
Safety Net Act of 2008” would prohibit CMS from taking action to implement
these regulations until April of 2009. The regulations include CMS
regulations limiting Medicaid payments for: targeted case management
services, rehabilitation services, school-based transportation and
outreach services, governmental providers, provider taxes, and hospital
outpatient services. In
addition, Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) is very close to reaching an
agreement with lead cosponsors on a similar one-year moratorium on the
Medicaid regulations as well as the August 17 SCHIP Directive. His goal is
to introduce the bill the first week back from
recess. Action
Needed: Over the Congressional Easter Recess (next two weeks) county
officials should be calling on their House Members to cosponsor and
support H.R. 5613 when they return to Washington. Senators should be
urged to work with Senator Rockefeller on a Senate moratorium.
(Contact:
Paul Beddoe 202/942-4234 or pbeddoe@naco.org.) *ADMINISTRATORS
/AUDITORS: Please share a hard copy of all AMC UPDATE emails with
any county board members who do not have email. **If
you do not wish to receive these emails in the future, please reply to
this message with the word ‘REMOVE’ in the subject line. |
|
Association
of Minnesota Counties 125
Charles Avenue Saint
Paul, MN 55103-2108 Phone:
651.224.3344, Fax: 651.224.6540 |
