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Minutes for HB2427 - Committee on Federal and State Affairs
Short Title
Adult care home licensure and background check amendments.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 8, 2018
Chairperson Barker opened the second hearing on HB2427. Jason Long, Revisor, gave an overview on the bill (Attachment 14).
Chairperson Barker recognized Brenda Dreher of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) as a proponent of HB2427 (Attachment 15). Amendments will be offered which change the prohibiting offenses and add time frames for the prohibiting offenses to the workers in home health agencies and those providers' services for recipients under the Home and Community Based Service Waiver Program. Currently in Kansas, the background checks that are done are on a name-based, Kansas only record check. This bill would allow national background checks and fingerprint-based background checks. This would ensure that records of criminal events which occurred in other states would be available for review. The fingerprint-based background checks would ensure that potentially prohibited individuals cannot circumvent employment restrictions by changing their name or falsifying information. They are adding 21 new prohibiting offenses and removing nine. Questions were asked by Representatives Miller, Highland, Clayton, and Ruiz, as well as by Chairperson Barker.
Chairperson Barker then recognized Rachel Monger as a proponent of HB2427 (Attachment 16). Last year they opposed this bill last year because it imposed a five-year employment ban for misdemeanor convictions of ten non-violent, non-person crimes, but with the proposed amendments they now support the bill.
Cindy Luxem was recognized by Chairperson Barker as a proponent of HB2427 (Attachment 17). They opposed the bill last year because non-person offenses were being included to prohibit employment in adult care homes. With the proposed amendments, HB2427 strikes the right balance. Questions were asked by Representatives Highberger, Weber, and Lusk.
Chairperson Barker recognized April Holman of Kansas Adult Care Executives as a proponent of the bill (Attachment 18) . The national background check will help their members in their ongoing efforts to protect their residents from abuse and this bill will allow the state continued access to federal resources provided for the transition to the new system, which will lower the cost of the background checks for providers.
Chairperson Barker recognized Tim Graham, InterHab, as an opponent to HB2427 (Attachment 19). They oppose the bill because they have not been included in the discussions and meetings about how to improve this bill even though they have expressed their concerns about the bill a number of times with Secretary Keck and the staff of KDADS. He is asking the Committee to fully vet the amendments proposed on this bill. A question was asked by Representatives Rooker, Weber, and Arnberger.
Chairperson Barker stated that a copy of the proposed amendments will be distributed to the Committee by the Committee Assistant. He also asked that she email a copy of the amendments to Mr. Graham.
Representatives Horn and Highberger were allowed to address questions to Brenda Dreher regarding the proposed amendments.
Chairperson Barker noted that there was written proponent testimony from Ernest Kutzley of AARP Kansas (Attachment 20); Deputy Attorney General Steve Karrer (Attachment 21); and Jim Perkins of the Kansas Department of Health & Environment (Attachment 22).
Chairperson Barker asked if anyone else wanted to testify on HB2427. Seeing none, the hearing was closed.
Chairperson Barker asked if there were any further requests for bill introductions. There were none.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:15 a.m.
