At the Capitol: The Legislature Begins Passing Budget Bills

Posted on April 14, 2021 by Matt Steele

This week, lawmakers began passing budget bills off the House and Senate floors. This step establishes starting positions for the House, Senate and Governor as they enter negotiations to reach a final budget deal by May 17. Here is what you need to know about what is happening at the Capitol:

This Week
While the legislature has moved several budget bills through their respective chambers, none of the bills passed so far impact senior services providers. We anticipate that the legislature will debate budget bills related to health and human services next week. For an in-depth look at what the House and Senate HHS budget bills include, read last week’s article in Advantage.

Last Week
We got the first look at Health and Human Services (HHS) budget bills in the House and the Senate last week. Although the House closely reflects recommendations in the Governor's budget, a handful of provisions are included in both the House and Senate bills. Those include:

• A proposal to adjust to nursing home assessment practices requires an updated assessment for residents at the end of therapy or isolation results in $3.9 million in budget savings for the biennium, including funding for nursing facility cost report auditors, additional costs of the consumer satisfaction survey and a case mix transition study.
• A proposal that includes acuity-based limits on customized living payments for clients on disability waivers results in budget savings of $2.3 million for the biennium and was one of the proposals considered by the Blue Ribbon Commission in 2020.
• There is also a proposed expansion of an encounter alert system to improve care coordination during transitions.

While proposals found in both the House and the Senate bills are likely to pass without objection, lawmakers must reconcile the many differences in conference committee before going to the Governor to be signed into law.

What’s Ahead
We expect that lawmakers will release additional proposals to spend money from the federal American Rescue Plan this week. While the  House and Senate plans are unclear, we are strongly advocating for the House and the Senate to include Elderly Waiver rate enhancements, hero pay and adult day recovery grants. We encourage you to contact your lawmakers and ask them for their support.

What to Watch
As we near the last month of session, the budget bills are nearing finalization. Here are the two we are watching most closely:

• HF 2127 (Schultz) / SF 383 (Abeler): Human services reform, finance, and policy omnibus budget bills. Both bills have been passed out of committee and are awaiting floor passage.

• HF 2128 (Liebling) / SF 2360 (Benson): Health and human services finance and policy omnibus budget bills. Both bills are in committee, awaiting final passage to the House and Senate floor.