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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 5040
AN ACT CONCERNING THE GOVERNOR'S BUDGET
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HUMAN SERVICES.
SUMMARY
This bill makes unrelated changes in provisions on the Department
of Public Health’s (DPH) Student Loan Repayment Program (§ 1), the
Community Health Worker Grant Program (§§ 2 & 3), temporary relief
to nursing homes (§ 4), and minimum per diem rates for intermediate
care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ICF-ID) (§ 5).
The bill broadens DPH’s Student Loan Repayment Program (see
BACKGROUND) to (1) require community-based providers to provide,
or arrange access to, behavioral health services, in addition to other
services currently required (e.g., primary and preventative health
services) and (2) expand the types of primary care clinicians that may be
recruited through the program to include psychiatrists, psychologists,
licensed clinical social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists,
and licensed professional counselors (§ 1).
The bill also transfers the Community Health Worker Grant Program
from DPH to the Department of Social Services (DSS), and makes
conforming changes. It extends the deadline to issue grants by one year,
to June 30, 2024. It also specifies that the current $30,000 annual
maximum grant issued to a Community Action Agency (CAA) is the
maximum grant per community health worker the CAA employs (i.e.,
$30,000 per worker). (The bill retains the $6 million total cap for the
program.) It requires DPH to transfer funds to DSS for this purpose. The
bill also expands the information CAAs must provide on their grant
applications (§§ 2 & 3).
By law, DSS must provide temporary financial relief for nursing
homes from the $10 million in federal funds allocated to DSS under the 2022HB-05040-R000054-BA.DOCX
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American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-2). The bill eliminates
provisions requiring DSS to (1) allocate grants based on the difference
between the issued and calculated medical assistance reimbursement
rate and (2) issue one-time grants adjusted proportionally based on
available funding (§ 4).
Last year’s budget required DSS to increase the minimum per diem,
per bed rate for ICF-IDs to $501. Under the bill, this rate increase is to
provide pandemic-related support (§ 5). (According to DSS, this change
corresponds with funding the increase through Coronavirus State Fiscal
Recovery Funds rather than Medicaid.)
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage
§§ 2 & 3 — COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER GRANT PROGRAM
The bill transfers the Community Health Worker Grant Program
established in last year’s budget from DPH to DSS (PA 21-2, June Special
Session, §§ 36 & 37). In doing so, it requires DSS to review program
applications and allows the department to enter into agreements with
people, firms, corporations, or other entities to operate the program. The
program provides grants to CAAs that employ community health
workers who provide services to people adversely affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Current law caps the amount of any grant issued under the program
at $30,000 annually. The bill specifies that this is the amount of funding
that a CAA may receive per year for each health care worker it employs.
The bill retains a $6 million cap on the total amount of grants issued
under the program and specifies that this cap is in the aggregate. The
bill requires DPH to transfer to DSS $3,000,0000 allocated for each year
in FYs 22 and 23 in last year’s budget (PA 21-2, June Special Session, §
306).
The bill expands the information that CAAs must include in a grant
application to include strategies for integrating community health
workers into a person’s care delivery team, including the capacity to
address health care and social services needs. Under the bill, the 2022HB-05040-R000054-BA.DOCX
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application must include both the number of health workers the CAA
employs and the number it seeks to employ, rather than one or the other
as under current law.
Current law prohibits the department from issuing grants after June
30, 2023. The bill delays this deadline by one year to June 30, 2024, and
correspondingly extends the period for grant availability as posted on
the department’s website.
The bill eliminates a requirement that the DPH commissioner report
to the Human Services and Public Health committees on the program’s
progress and any legislative proposals. The bill retains a second
reporting requirement for the program, due January 1, 2024, and makes
a conforming change to require DSS, rather than DPH, to make the
report.
BACKGROUND
Student Loan Repayment Program
By law, the program provides three-year grants to community-based
primary care providers to expand health care access to the uninsured by
(1) funding direct services, (2) recruiting and retaining primary care
clinicians and registered nurses by subsidizing salaries or loan
repayment programs, and (3) funding capital expenditures. In practice,
the program has been inactive since 2012, but generally repays
education loans in exchange for a specified period of employment in
federally designated health professional shortage areas.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Human Services Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 15 Nay 5 (03/08/2022)