2005 Testimony

Testimony Before The House Human Services Committee

Clara Sue Price, Chairman

N.D. Health Care Trust Fund and the government nursing facility funding pool

January 10, 2005

Chairman Price, members of the committee, I am David Zentner, Director of Medical Services for the Department of Human Services. I appear to provide information regarding this bill.

The Department submitted a similar bill, SB 2139, that had a hearing on January 5, 2005 in front of the Senate Human Services Committee. A copy of my testimony is attached in which we supported that bill.

During committee discussion it was noted that HB 1204 dealt with the same issue. The bill we are discussing today includes language in Section 1, paragraph 2, lines 1 through 3 on page two that was not contained in our bill. The Senate Human Services Committee suggested that the bill be amended to include paragraph 2 of this bill in the Senate version. The Department had no objection to the amendment and the bill was amended to insert that language. The bill has been voted out of committee with a do pass recommendation.

Senate Bill 2139 also eliminated language on lines 12 and 13 beginning with and ending with facilities. The Department suggested eliminating this language since the changes in federal regulations no longer permit us to use this mechanism to generate funds in the future. You may want to consider amending this bill to eliminate this language.

The Department has no preference as to which bill becomes law since both accomplish the intended purpose of eliminating language that is no longer necessary since we are no longer able to use the intergovernmental transfer process to transfer funds generated through the use of the upper payment limit from public owned nursing facilities to the North Dakota Health Care Trust Fund.

I would be happy to respond to any questions you may have.

 

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