Typically, each fiscal year the General Assembly enacts amendments to the Public Welfare Code as part of a complete budget package. Though the budget might not be quite finished, a Public Welfare Omnibus Bill hit the Governor’s desk in late December and was signed last week. Now that it’s been signed, the legislation, H.B. 1322 (Kaufer, R-Luzerne), has been redeisgnated as Act 92, and its highlights include:
- Establishes the Keystone Education Yields Success, or KEYS program, designed to enable and assist persons receiving TANF or SNAP benefits to enroll in and pursue a certificate or degree program at a community college, career and technical school or university.
- Reauthorizes the hospital assessment through June 30, 2018 and provides that the assessment level be 3.71 percent of net patient revenue and caps the amount take by the state at $220 million.
- Repeals the current Gross Receipts Tax on Medicaid managed care organizations and replaces it with a broad based “managed care organization assessment” to be imposed on all MCOs, not just Medicaid MCOs
- Extends payments to nursing homes, to counties for child welfare services and expands subsidized child care.
To read the bill in its entirity, go to:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/billInfo.cfm?sYear=2015&sInd=0&body=H&type=B&bn=1322