Typically when a state General Appropriations (GA) bill for the new Fiscal Year is passed, the legislature considers bills amending the Public School Code, Human Services Code, Fiscal Code and Tax Code. While the GA bill distributes funds to different branches of government and state agencies, the “code bills” provide directives on how the money is to be spent.
On June 30, the legislature passed H.B. 1062 (Killion, R,-Ret.) which includes amendments to the Human Services Code as are necessary for the 2016-2017 state spending plan.
The bill would:
- Eliminate the ten percent county share paid by counties that operate public nursing facilities to the Department of Human Services while rolling out and expanding the Community HealthChoices program;
- Extend the nursing home assessment and the budget adjustment factor through June 30, 2019;
- Extend assessment on intermediate care facilities for the intellectually disabled through June 30, 2019;
- Extend the Philadelphia hospital assessmentthrough June 30, 2019 and exempt cancer treatment centers from the assessment (as is the case with the statewide hospital assessment);
- Require providers of county children and youth services to continue to make required submissions to the department through 2016-2017;
- No longer require that the department have staff dedicated exclusively to the inspection of assisted living residences; and
- Move the Pennsylvania eHealth Partnership Program, a standalone act, into the Human Services Code.
Once signed in the Senate, the Governor will have ten days to act on the bill.
To read the legislation in its entirety, go to: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/billInfo.cfm?sYear=2015&sInd=0&body=H&type=B&bn=1062