Advocacy Update: Final Veto Override, No Senate Budget, Foster Care, and Medicaid Reform
By Kay Castillo, Director of Advocacy, Policy, and Legislation
Senators pushed back their release date for their proposed budget by a week and we expect it to be released today, Monday, June 15th. Meanwhile, the House finally had the three-fifths votes needed to override Governor McCrory’s veto of Senate Bill 2 Magistrates Recusal for Civil Ceremonies making it become law. House Bill 562 Amend Firearm Laws that was scheduled to heard on the House floor last Monday night got pulled by the bill sponsor stating that amendments for the bill were not ready. This sent the bill back to House Rules Committee.
Relevant bills with action
HB 424 Fostering Success passed the House on Tuesday, sending it to the Senate. Of the two foster care related bills, this bill raises the age for those in care to 19. The House and Senate will work out a plan as just last week the Senate proposed to raise the age to 21.
HB 372 Medicaid Modernization was introduced in House Health Committee on Wednesday. The House’s plan for Medicaid Reform includes Provider Led Entities covering services in all 100 counties. Each Entity must cover at least 30,000 patients and ensure appropriate services. Behavioral health services, dentistry, care for dual eligible patients, and pharmacy are all excluded. Under the plan, 90% of Medicaid recipients would be served within five years. The plan was passed in House Health Committee after several hours of debate and was referred to Appropriations. We anticipate seeing this bill come up again this week. While the plan will most certainly change throughout it’s development, we are encouraged to see behavioral health services remain stable while reform takes place.
HB 714 Behavior Analyst Licensure sets up a licensing board in North Carolina to oversee behavior analyst. The effort of this bill is to cover licenees in the state to provide services in hopes that autism insurance passes in the state. The bill passed House Health Committee and was referred to Finance.
SB 423 Foster Care Family Act: Of the two foster care related bills, this one better supports foster parents by providing them with prudent parent rights, provides liability insurance for foster parents, reduces barriers for youth in care to obtain driving insurance, and directs DHHS to study a Medicaid waiver for children with serious emotional disturbances so they can live in home settings instead of institutional care. This bill passed House Judiciary III Committee and was referred to Insurance. However, it was taken out of Insurance and re-referred straight to the floor. We should see it up this week.
SB 578 Transition Certain Abuse Investigations: This bill comes after the ruling from appellate court requiring the Division of Development and Early Education to investigate child abuse cases in child care facilities. The bill transitions abuse cases to this Division if it occurs in child care facilities to remove duplicate processes by both the Division and DSS. The bill passed House Judiciary III and was referred to the House floor.
Representative Rick Glazier (D- Cumberland) to Resign
Last week, Representative Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland) announced his plan to resign at the end of the legislative session. He is resigning to take a position with the NC Justice Center. The Center focuses on poverty, opportunity and prosperity for all, education, and more- a few reasons why Representative Glazier first ran for office. While we are grateful to continue working with him, we are sad to see him leave the NC General Assembly. Representative Glazier is a strong voice for the social work profession, particularly school social workers and received the NASW-NC Advocacy Award in 2010.
NASW-NC works on behalf of the social work profession on a variety of issues. It is a member benefit provided by NASW-NC to have a registered lobbyist advancing and supporting the profession of social work in North Carolina. The North Carolina Chapter works with National NASW on Federal issues such as reimbursement rates, immigration, student loans, and more. Your membership dues help support our advocacy efforts everyday on the state and federal levels. Thank YOU for being a member and staying engaged in supporting the social work profession.
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