701-566-9300On January 13-14, I attended the hearings for the Legislative Rural Health Transformative Interim Committee. However, Legislative Management also met to lay out the rules and procedures for the Special Session commencing on January 21 and likely concluding January 23.
The Governor called this special session to address the grant award of $199 million dollars from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services (the Department), for year one of five years, for the transformation of rural health in North Dakota. The Department has been diligently working for many months to be prepared to receive and implement this funding. The uses of this funding are very broad but have some exclusions such as the State cannot expend any of these monies for the purchase of land, construction or improvement of buildings, or to replace existing funding. The Department has established “pillars” or categories of panned projects. CMS has approved North Dakota’s plan. There is a wealth of information on the Department’s application and approved plan on it’s website. The opportunities for rural health are phenomenal.
In order to facilitate and allow the receipt of these funds, the legislature must adopt certain legislation for implementation. Therefore, there are four specific proposed policy bills relating to the presidential physical fitness test, physical continuing education requirements, the physician assistant licensing compact, and the prescriptive authority of pharmacists. Finally, there is one bill related to the appropriation of Rural Health Transformation program grant funds, in order for the state to expend any received funds. These bill drafts, available under “All Documents” on the Legislative Council website, were approved this week and will be subject to hearings and the legislative process next week during the special session.
The special session is not limited by law to just these bills. However, with my discussions, I am aware that members of the Legislative Management Committee are strongly inclined to not expand the scope of the session to allow introduction of additional bills unrelated to the expressed purpose for the session.
Nonetheless, that committee on January 20 from 1:00 p.m.to 4:00 p.m. will allow legislative members a very brief opportunity to propose legislation that should be introduced at the session and addressed in public hearings. See Agenda Notice. There however, is some speculation that one bill, requiring funding by the state to provide free meals to all students, could slip through with approval from the Legislative Management Committee. The odds, however, are unpredictable by me.
The rural health grants are hugely important for rural North Dakota. Also, with the unpredictability of what could occur in the special session, I plan to attend the special session to advocate for the interests of the Association’s Board and our members.