Latest news with #WelfareandLaborCommittee
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant Arkansans set to go into effect
Rep. Lee Johnson (left), R-Greenwood, an emergency medicine physician and the Joint Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee's House chair, asks Department of Human Services officials a question about presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. At right is Rep. Cameron Cooper, R-Romance. (Screenshot/Arkansas Legislature) Arkansas lawmakers reviewed two rules Wednesday in response to a new law aimed at improving the state's maternal health care landscape for low-income pregnant women. The Joint Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee spent nearly an hour discussing Arkansas' new policy of presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women, part of the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act that will go into effect in August. Presumptive eligibility assumes 60 days of Medicaid eligibility and shortens the process of applying for coverage. The policy was among several recommendations to improve the state's maternal health care landscape that a task force convened by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued in September 2024. More than half of births in Arkansas are covered by Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance system for low-income Americans. A federal budget bill moving through Congress would make deep cuts to Medicaid spending, reducing the program by $625 billion over 10 years. U.S. House Republicans push through massive tax and spending bill slashing Medicaid Elizabeth Pitman, director of the Division of Medical Services for Arkansas Medicaid, said she anticipates the proposed cuts will affect the state's Medicaid expansion population but not pregnant women on Medicaid. Arkansas has among the nation's highest maternal mortality and infant mortality rates. Rep. Jack Ladyman, R-Jonesboro, said he found this frustrating and considered presumptive Medicaid eligibility 'a very good cornerstone' for improving these statistics. Ladyman and Rep. Lee Johnson, R-Greenwood, asked Pitman and other Department of Human Services officials how they plan to ensure that pregnant Arkansans statewide have the information and resources they need to opt into presumptive Medicaid eligibility if applicable. 'I want to support this rule, but I also want to be realistic in what we expect the outcome of this rule to be,' said Johnson, an emergency medicine physician and the joint committee's House chair. 'If we pass this eligibility category and nobody's applying for it any more often than they're currently applying for Medicaid, then it's not moving the needle.' Pitman said DHS can address Johnson's concerns about access to information in its focus groups with pregnant Arkansans. She also said the agency will work with community health workers, doulas and other local health care providers and community organizations to ensure the option of presumptive Medicaid eligibility is as widely known as possible. Committee outlines recommendations, actions taken to improve maternal health in Arkansas DHS learned during the three-year public health emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic that spreading information about public health resources via social media, digital billboards and doctor's offices successfully reaches the agency's target audience, state Medicaid Director Janet Mann said. In January, Arkansas received a 10-year, $17 million federal grant aimed at improving maternal health outcomes for Medicaid recipients. Applying for the grant was among the maternal health task force's recommendations last year. The grant includes payments to healthcare providers as incentives for improved data-sharing on maternal health outcomes, Pitman said. In response to more questions from Johnson, Pitman said DHS does not have data on whether pregnant Arkansans' first interactions with prenatal health care occur in primary care providers' offices or emergency rooms. Arkansas remains the only state that has taken no action to adopt the federal option of extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months after birth, according to KFF. The maternal health task force did not recommend this policy, and a bill to create it failed in a Senate committee in April after Pitman and Mann expressed DHS' opposition to it. Arkansas Senate committee rejects 12-month postpartum Medicaid coverage The other rule the joint committee reviewed Wednesday was the 'unbundling' of billing rates for labor and delivery, a policy also put forth by the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services authorized a 70% increase in Arkansas' maximum reimbursement rate for obstetrical care 'to include prenatal, delivery and postpartum care,' according to the rule. All of these services will be billed separately in all cases, Pitman said. CMS' approval of such a stark increase was 'very unusual,' but Arkansas' shortage of maternal health care providers in rural areas, closure of seven labor and delivery units since 2019 and high maternal and infant mortality rates led the agency to grant DHS' request without question, Pitman said. Higher reimbursement rates should 'improve Medicaid's data collection on utilization of prenatal and postpartum services,' the rule states. 'We're really hopeful that this will give us better data and insight into what is happening in the prenatal care space: when women are going [to the doctor], if it's the first, second or third trimester, who are they seeing and what are their diagnoses,' Pitman said. 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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Arkansas legislative committee reviews, advances water quality standards
DEQ Director Bailey Taylor (left) and the division's chief legal counsel, Kesia Morrison, address the Joint Public Health Committee on June 4, 2025. (Ainsley Platt/Arkansas Advocate) The Joint Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Wednesday reviewed amendments to Arkansas' surface water quality standards rule, which is part of the state's enforcement of the federal Clean Water Act. As part of the Clean Water Act, the state is required to review — and if necessary, revise — the standards every three years. The rule, currently called Rule 2, was pulled from last month's committee agenda to give lawmakers more time to review the changes, which include the addition of five new health-based water quality standards for benzene, methylbenzene, xylene, toluene and phenol. The rule also amends existing criteria for ammonia and cadmium, which haven't been updated in decades, to bring them in line with revisions made by the Environmental Protection Agency within the last 15 years. Rule 2 standards apply to surface waters — such as rivers, creeks, lakes and wetlands — not to drinking water, which is governed by a separate federal law, the Safe Drinking Water Act. While the Division of Environmental Quality oversees Arkansas' enforcement of the CWA, the Arkansas Department of Health enforces the SDWA in the state. 'It's not a blanket effluent limit,' DEQ Director Bailey Taylor told committee members. The standards are for the 'ambient' water quality, and permit limits for facilities like wastewater treatment plants and industrial plants that discharge waste into surface waters are backcalculated from the standards, she said. Under the revised rule, the 'primary contact season,' the period during which people are most likely to be recreating in the water by swimming, fishing or boating, would be extended by two months so it would now fall from April to October. Pressed by Greenwood Republican Rep. Lee Johnson for an explanation for the change, Taylor said standards during the primary contact season are tighter for some measures than outside of it to account for greater human contact with the water. Taylor singled out bacteria standards as one example. She said the change was made to account for water recreation that's been happening in April and October. Johnson said it was 'interesting' that the division was moving to make the change now, and asked if DEQ believed Arkansans were swimming more in 2025 than they were in 2020 or in the 1980s. 'I just wonder why we're deciding now to change the recreational season when it's been in effect for a long time,' Johnson said. Taylor said the division was trying to account for recreation that was happening outside of the traditional May to September season. Johnson countered by asking if DEQ had collected any data showing that more people were engaging in water recreation during the extended months. Taylor said the decision was based on 'anecdotal stakeholder engagement.' The rule will next be considered by the Arkansas Legislative Council's Administrative Rules Subcommittee. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Arkansas postpartum Medicaid extension bill fails in Senate committee
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A bill to extend Medicaid coverage for postpartum mothers failed in its Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. House Bill 1004 had a relatively easy time passing the House after its introduction there, sending it to the Senate. The Wednesday vote in the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, however, marked the end of its process. Bill to extend Medicaid postpartum care to 12 months passes Arkansas House, heads for Senate Advocates for the bill spoke about the importance of extending postnatal care for those who did not qualify for the ARHome program, which was the bill's intent. Opponents of the legislation were concerned about its expense. Others pointed out that Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders-backed Health Moms, Health Babies Act, passed earlier in the session, did not include the 12-month extension. Opposition included testimony from a Department of Human Services representative. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs 'Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act' into law Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies did streamline entry into the Medicaid maternal care process. The governor said earlier that she did not feel the state needed to extend postpartum care past 60 days. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Arkansas Senate committee rejects 12-month postpartum Medicaid coverage
Elizabeth Pitman (left), director of the Division of Medical Services for Arkansas Medicaid, and State Medicaid Director Janet Mann (second from left) speak against House Bill 1004, co-sponsored by Sen. Breanne Davis (right), R-Russellville, before the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) An Arkansas Senate committee voted down a bill that would have extended Medicaid coverage for women 12 months after giving birth if they do not already qualify for the state's Medicaid expansion program. House Bill 1004 passed the House April 1 with a bipartisan 71 votes but failed in the Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on a split voice vote Wednesday. More than half of births in Arkansas are covered by Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance system for low-income Americans. Arkansas' Medicaid expansion program covers people up to 138% of the federal poverty level, but since Jan. 1, 2023, Medicaid covers pregnant Arkansans with incomes of up to 214% of the federal poverty level, or about $45,200 for a family of 2 or $68,700 for a family of four. This coverage expires two months after birth, leaving many postpartum Arkansans to 'fall through the cracks,' said Sen. Breanne Davis, a Russellville Republican and HB 1004's Senate sponsor. Davis mentioned that Arkansas has one of the nation's highest maternal mortality rates and the third highest infant mortality rate. Maternal mortality is measured by the rate at which women die during childbirth or within a year of giving birth. 'We have got to address this holistically, and I think there's been a lot of really good work done, but it has not included this group of women,' who do not qualify for Medicaid expansion, Davis said. Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage has the support of legislative Democrats, and House Minority Leader Andrew Collins of Little Rock sponsored House Bill 1008, which is similar to HB 1004 but has not been heard in committee. Arkansas maternal health care landscape needs more coordination and teamwork, physicians say Without the policy outlined in the bills, Arkansas remains the only state that has taken no action to adopt the federal option of extending postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months after birth, according to KFF. Davis told the Public Health committee that the bill was 'narrowly tailored' and would not create any 'duplicative' services. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Human Services Secretary Kristi Putnam said repeatedly last year that 12-month postpartum Medicaid would be 'redundant' and 'duplicative,' since the state has other insurance coverage options for postpartum low-income Arkansans. A maternal health task force convened by Sanders did not include the 12-month policy in its September 2024 list of recommendations to improve the state's maternal health care landscape. State Medicaid officials Janet Mann and Elizabeth Pitman expressed DHS' opposition to HB 1004 Wednesday. Mann mentioned that DHS estimated it would cost more than $11.2 million to add 10 months of coverage to existing programs. DHS' assessment of the bill's overall fiscal impact states that the federal government would cover more than $8.8 million of the cost, leaving the state to cover less than $2.4 million. Davis told the committee that Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funds would support the proposed coverage extension. From July 1 to Dec. 31, 2024, roughly 60% of postpartum Arkansans remained Medicaid-eligible after the 60-day limit, according to two quarterly reports that a 2024 law requires DHS to submit to the Legislature. Putnam and Mann presented the first report in October, and the Advocate received the second report from DHS in February via a public records request. Arkansas DHS officials say they want to find insurance for low-income, Medicaid-ineligible new moms Of the 1,787 women who did not qualify for Medicaid past 60 days postpartum between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 42% of them had income above 138% of the federal poverty level, and 38% were not U.S. citizens, according to DHS' second quarterly report. By July 1, Arkansas' Medicaid program will include presumptive Medicaid eligibility for pregnant Arkansans, reimbursements for doulas and community health workers and pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage for specific treatments, Mann said Wednesday. In February, Sanders signed the Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies Act to put these policies into effect. The legislation had bipartisan sponsorship, including from Davis and HB 1004's House sponsor, Knoxville Republican Rep. Aaron Pilkington. One day we'll get these women covered, and I'm sure people will ask what took so long. – Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, House sponsor of HB 1004 The five Arkansans who spoke in favor of HB 1004 were all Black women; Arkansas' Black maternal mortality rate more than doubled from 1999 to 2019, according to a 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Extending postpartum Medicaid coverage is essential for 'helping families heal and remain together,' said Stephanie Garner, CEO of the Arkansas River Valley Area Council, a Russellville-based assistance organization for low-income families. 'Substance use disorders and mental health conditions don't resolve in two months,' Garner said. 'When coverage ends, I've seen women relapse, return to unsafe environments or even lose custody of their children, not because they didn't want to get better, but because they lost access to care that was helping them recover.' Danielle Wright, a single mother from Jackson County, said she lost Medicaid coverage after having her third child via an emergency Caesarean section that led her to seek mental health care. 'At one point [I was] even finding myself crying in a DHS office because I was having to prove a difficult moment that I was not ready to experience and relive in that moment,' said Wright, who also supported HB 1004 before the House Public Health committee in March. Maternal mental health 'cannot be separated' from maternal health as a whole, and untreated mental health issues during pregnancy can lead to poor birth outcomes and increased maternal mortality, therapist and social worker Mackenzi Foreman said. Foreman and Arkansas Birthing Project executive director Zenobia Harris both said they have worked with women who unexpectedly lost their Medicaid coverage while they were pregnant. Latoya Morgan said she supported HB 1004 on behalf of her friend, Helena Stanton, who died after the complicated premature birth of her third child. 'Shortly after giving birth, Helena began experiencing severe difficulties with her mobility, struggling to move her limbs and ultimately [to] breathe,' Morgan said. 'She didn't have access to a doctor until it became an emergency because she didn't have access to Medicaid.' After the committee voted down the bill, Morgan expressed frustration with the outcome in an interview, saying DHS officials and the majority of the committee lacked empathy for low-income pregnant Arkansans. '[Lawmakers] claim to be Christians and believers of Christ, but you're unwilling to take care of all of the people, the sick, the women that create life… because of what, funding?' Morgan said. 'Because it's not your sister, because it's not your wife, because it's not your daughter?' A 2023 bill similar to HB 1004 never received a committee hearing, and Pilkington was the House sponsor of both bills. He said Wednesday that he was disappointed HB 1004 did not advance. 'I promised that I wouldn't leave these women behind, and I did all I could,' he said. 'The fact that I had to fight back against so many lies was the most disheartening part about this whole process. One day we'll get these women covered, and I'm sure people will ask what took so long.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Proposed SNAP asset limit increase heads to Arkansas House after committee approval
Holly Skipper (right) speaks in support of House Bill 1915, sponsored by Rep. Jon Eubanks (left), R-Paris, before the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) An Arkansas House committee approved a bill Tuesday that would allow households receiving food stamps to save more of their income or own more assets. Arkansas is one of 13 states with an asset limit for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients, and the state aligns with the federal limit of $3,000. House Bill 1915 would double the limit to $6,000 and require it to be adjusted for inflation every two years. The House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee passed the bill on a split voice vote. On Thursday, committee members said they were hesitant to vote without knowing how much the policy would cost the state. The administrative cost to the Department of Human Services would be $87,500, according to the requested fiscal impact statement from the agency. DHS Secretary Kristi Putnam told the committee she still opposed the bill, repeating her statement from Thursday that the state should let Act 675 of 2023 take effect first. Act 675 kept the federal asset limit but authorized a USDA waiver request to allow exemptions for individual families with more assets. Those families would have a new asset limit of $5,500 and remain enrolled in SNAP as long as they receive an exemption within a year of exceeding the current limit, and they would only be allowed one exemption every five years. Advocates for child well-being call for removal of barriers to Arkansas SNAP participation Assets include cash on hand and in the bank, savings certificates and stocks and bonds, among other things. HB 1915 would repeal Act 675 and replace it with the $6,000 asset limit. Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, sponsored Act 675 and is sponsoring HB 1915. He expressed frustration in January and again last week that DHS has not yet implemented Act 675. The Arkansas Legislative Council's Executive Subcommittee approved an emergency rule Thursday to enact the policy. Earlier versions of Act 675 would have raised the asset limit to $12,500 and then to $6,000. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the time that she opposed making people more dependent on government benefits, a sentiment echoed Thursday by Opportunity Arkansas CEO Nicholas Horton and Tuesday by Nick Stehle, a visiting fellow at FGA Action. Rep. Jon Eubanks, R-Paris, is HB 1915's House sponsor and told the Public Health committee that the bill will give SNAP recipients a path to no longer needing food stamps. Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Knoxville, said he supported providing 'off-ramps' for Arkansans on government assistance, based on his past work with Section 8 housing assistance recipients. 'They would get a job, they're working, they're doing everything we want them to do, but then unfortunately they would get a promotion and potentially would lose their housing, so they wouldn't take the promotion,' Pilkington said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Three members of the public spoke in favor of HB 1915, with two saying they personally benefited from SNAP and saw the asset limit as a barrier to developing financial stability and food security. Brittany Stockton told the committee she enrolled herself and her three daughters in public assistance a few years ago after leaving a dangerous situation. 'Had we had savings, we would have been better off, but I wouldn't have been eligible for the benefits that I had,' said Stockton, who added that she has worked two jobs for two years and no longer qualifies for benefits. Holly Skipper said she also works two jobs and had to reduce her hours at one of them in order to receive SNAP benefits, which she received on Saturday, four months after applying. She is both a full-time student and a full-time caregiver for her husband and adult son, the latter of whom receives disability benefits, she said. 'Not only did I have to account for every dime that I was making in the two part-time jobs I had, plus school, plus my son's money, but I spent days and days crying, wondering which job I was going to have to quit so that I could afford to be able to feed my son and feed my partner,' Skipper said. Because of the SNAP asset limit, DHS required Skipper to explain why she owns a vehicle before approving her application; she explained she needs it to get her husband to his medical appointments, she said. 'People aren't just out there trying to stay down,' Skipper said. 'We're trying to get some help, and we're trying to get a leg up so we can help other people.' New report ranks Arkansas' food insecurity rate worst in the U.S. The federal asset limit of $3,000 isn't even one month's worth of savings in case of an emergency, said Christin Harper, policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the third person to speak for the bill. AACF called for the removal of the asset limit in a January report. Harper reminded the committee that Arkansas has the nation's highest rate of food insecurity, at nearly 19% in 2023, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report released in September. The report defines food insecurity as being unable, at some time during the year, to provide adequate food for one or more household members because of a lack of resources. Food insecurity for Arkansas children is higher at 24.2%, which accounts for more than 168,000 children, according to Feeding America. Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance Advocacy Director Lance Whitney expressed support for HB 1915 last week. The full House is expected to vote on HB 1915 Wednesday. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
