HHSS-260515-0800

Meeting of the House Health and Social Services Committee will now come to order. It is 8:06 a.m. Friday, May 15th, in Grunberg 120. Members present are Representatives Mears, Fields, Gray, and myself, Representative Mena Chair. Let the record reflect that we have a quorum to conduct business. Please take this time to silence your cell phones for the duration of the meeting.

Staffing the committee today, we have Andrew Gianotti, our Health and Social Services Recording Secretary, Susan Quigley, our LIO moderator, and Katie Giorgio, my committee aide. If you need anything during the meeting, please don't hesitate to get her attention. We have one item on the agenda today. Senate Bill 178 is the identical companion bill to House Bill 376 on expanding the Infant Learning Program, which was considered and passed out of this committee earlier this session. Today's hearing on Senate Bill 178 is largely procedural, as we have already considered and passed this legislation, but it is necessary for Senate Bill 178 to be passed out of one standing committee of referral in this body before it can be considered on the House floor.

I would like to invite Senator Lukey Gil Tobin and her staff, Mike Mason, to come forward and give us a brief refresher on this legislation. These are—.

Hello and good morning, Madam Chairwoman. My name is Lukie Gail Tobin, and I have the pleasure and privilege of representing the neighbors who comprise the North Anchorage District, which is Senate District I. I want to thank you all again for waking up so early this morning so we can hear this very critical piece of legislation. I know you all are familiar with the Alaska Children's Caucus, which I co-chair with Senator Cathy Giesel, Representative Ruffridge, and Representative Diebert. And in our work, we identified this piece of legislation as the top priority of the Alaska Children's Caucus, and it really was driven by stakeholders, uh, through a survey process. The underlying goal of Senate Bill 178 is to expand access to Alaska's Infant Learning Program and to provide healthcare and therapy services for more young children who are experiencing developmental delays.

One thing we learned in the course of our early work is that Alaska has the most significant benchmark for providing intervention services for children who are 0 to 3 when they experience developmental delays. It's set at 50%. That means a parent has to watch their child struggle. They have to wonder if their child is being, uh, unfortunately left behind, and they have to struggle as providers to ensure that that young person is able to do very basic things. That 50% benchmark means you were struggling for months, maybe years before you're able to access quality intervention services.

The bill before you seeks to reduce that benchmark from 50% to 25%, which is more in line with many other states. We also know that when we are able to provide those services to young kids, there is significant cost savings. Uh, you'll hear from some of the invited testifiers, if you so choose to do so, Madam Chairwoman, that for every dollar that we invest in early interventions, we see 17 return on $17 return on our investment over the course of that young child's K-12 education. We also know that if we are able to reduce that benchmark from 50% to 25%, the state will save on average annually $38 million in special education services for children who are able to get the interventions early and then hopefully not enter into special education services once they start their K-12 education. One of the things I think is really important to note with those cost savings.

And you'll see this on one of the handouts that you have in your bill packet, that if we're able to implement this policy, even though it might take 1 to 2 years to implement and get the Medicaid, uh, the Medicaid plan adjusted so that we're able to recoup some of the dollars from the federal government for these services, we'll actually see a cost savings that results in a break-even point for the investment that we will make. And that break-even point starts at about year 6. So this is a very prudent, cost-effective measure that also we know is going to help struggling families and support families here in Alaska. I'm happy to answer any questions. My teammate Mike Mason here is going to stay with you as unfortunately I have caucus this morning and I'm unable to stay for the entire bill hearing this morning.

Thank you, Senator Tobin. Representative Fields. What if we just reported out the bill and that way Senator Tobin could have stayed for the entire hearing? I second that.

Do we have any objections from the committee for moving it out?

Chair Mena, I move Senate Bill 178, Work Order 34-LS0918, backslash N as in November, from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal notes. Is there any objection? Seeing none, Senate Bill 178 passes from committee. I ask that members please stick around after we adjourn to sign the committee report in This may be our last Health and Social Services Committee, and because it might be the last, who knows what could happen next week. I do first want to acknowledge that, uh, Representative Prox did join us at 8:07, and Representative Ruffridge joined us at 8:08 AM, uh, and, uh, I just want to briefly share my appreciation for chairing this committee over this legislature, for the 34th Alaska Legislature.

I think we've had a great committee with a lot of good discussion to help focus on helping to improve healthcare access, making sure that we hear from robust different perspectives, and it's been a joy.

All right, the time is 8:12 AM, and this hearing of the House Health and Social Services Committee is now adjourned.