HHS Appropriation Subcommittee 1/27/10
The Health and Human Services Appropriation Subcommittee met on 1/27/10. In the meeting they briefly discussed the Base Budget bills that will be submitted in both the House and Senate. There were a couple of changes that were recognized and added to the Base Budget priority list for the subcommittee. The committee added 3 items to the list for the Department of Health. The 3 items are related to the FY2011 budget recommendations listed last on the following link.
FY 2011 Base Budget Recommendations
The committee was also presented with the following reports that were specific to the Department of Health.
Health Care Financing
SB 87 Follow Up
Federal Disallowance
Children’s Health Insurance Program
Medicaid Mandatory Services
Medicaid Optional Services
Medicaid Providers: A Snapshot
UPEA is committed to tracking the State Budget and will continue to provide critical updates as they are received.
Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee
1/20/10
The Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee met to discuss the FY10 budget on 20 January, 2010. The Legislative Analysts Office put forward their proposals, using the 3% cut that the Departments of Health and Human Services have already implemented in accordance with Governor Herbert’s Executive Order. The recommendations that Legislative staff put forward can be found online, including the “Reductions Already Made”, “Base Budget Recommendations – Staff Proposal”, and “Optional Reductions”.
Legislative staff is proposing that DHS extend the hiring freeze to save more money, target all programs to take a 0.75% budget reduction – so as to spread the cuts equally across the board, and tap into the Disabilities Trust Fund to make up the $10 million reduction that is needed to amount to the required 4%. Representative Powell, suggested using more money from the Disability Trust Fund to remove DSPD services from the 0.75% cut – keeping their funding in tact. The committee agreed to those changes and removed DSPD from the backfill prioritization list.
The Analysts Office is recommending cuts that the Department of Health agrees with. However, prioritization was the difference in the recommendations given. Dr. Sundwall indicated that the reorganization is a large contributor to the savings found in DOH. He also stated that the Medicaid Restricted Fund account may be a reasonable option to plug the gaps that are found in the FY2010 budget, as the committee is requesting cutting one-time funds. Despite the recommendations made by Dr. Sundwall, the HHS Appropriations Committee decided to implement the recommendations made by the Legislative Analysts office.
The overwhelming hope of the committee was that the Executive Appropriations Committee would backfill many of the recommended reductions to the departments, rather than having to rely on such drastic cuts to critical programs and services.
