Senate committee advances Medicaid bill
Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, speaks Tuesday during a Senate Health Services Committee meeting. A high-resolution photo can be found here.
FRANKFORT — The Senate Health Services Committee on Tuesday unanimously advanced an amended bill designed to overhaul the state’s Medicaid program.
The legislation – House Bill 2 – aims to bring state Medicaid law in alignment with House Resolution 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, that the U.S. Congress passed last year. It would also implement recommendations from the state Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Board.
Broad goals of the legislation include enhancing transparency, streamlining program operations and delivery, strengthening program oversight and accountability, and reducing fraud, among others.
Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville, is sponsoring the measure. Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, and Sen. Craig Richardson, R-Hopkinsville, testified about details and offered updates on the latest changes to the legislation during Tuesday’s meeting.
Richardson said the bill will allow Kentucky to approach Medicaid with transparency, maintaining integrity in the program and allowing for flexibilities with federal guidelines. Changes to the bill Tuesday are designed to allow the federal framework to operate within the state program and clear up any due process issues that may arise, he said.
Some of the approved changes include extending the deadline for implementing cost-sharing to correlate with federal requirements and reducing some of the cost-sharing dollar amounts.
The latest version of the bill would also remove language that limits state officials from requesting a waiver on community engagement requirements for counties with high rates of unemployment. It would also remove a prohibition on self-attestation and allow self-attestation as a last resort with the aim of eliminating due process concerns.
Adams said the program has grown tremendously, and changes are necessary. She said the legislation is now in a “strong place to move forward.”
“We know that this program has exploded. We know that we need to figure out better ways to make this program more efficient so that it’s there for the long term for those who need it most. And so, this was really almost an overwhelming task and Representative Fleming has done an outstanding job,” she said.
Committee Chair Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, described the bill as a “Herculean effort,” and said it represents what needed to be addressed, but nothing further than that.
“What we’re attempting to do is make sure we’re in compliance with House Resolution 1, and I’ll just remind everyone that we won’t get it perfect this time. But we will be back in about nine months, and we’ll continue to work on this. This is a work in progress, will be probably for a couple, three years,” he said.
Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, said she’s extremely happy with the changes she’s seen so far, but getting the bill to this point wasn’t easy.
“I think our version here will allow us time as a state to figure out how will we best implement those requirements in the One Big Beautiful Bill and bring them into our state in a way that will hurt the fewest number of people that are eligible and will be most cost effective for us to implement, which is another whole, huge thought process,” she said.
She said she’s concerned about provisions that require recertification for recipients because she’s being told there are several databases that don’t align automatically.
Sen. Keturah J. Herron, D-Louisville said Medicaid is probably one of the largest, most complicated issues the general assembly tackles.
“It is definitely an issue that I am still learning about, and so I do want to thank you all for your expertise and willingness to come together and meet with folks and get this bill into a better place” she said.
