Agenda - 04-04-2023; 8-a - Minutes

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4 1 to the Board and shared that people who receive healthcare through the additional pandemic- 2 related benefits will fall off care before Medicaid expansion is in place and we may lose contact 3 with them. 4 Senator Meyer said Governor Cooper brings up this issue every time he talks about 5 Medicaid expansion. 6 Representative Buansi said he's on the Housing Standing Committee for Appropriations 7 for Health and Human Services and they received a presentation from the Deputy Secretary of 8 DHHS last week talking about that very issue, as well as how the State will have to make up the 9 gap in funding from lost pandemic benefits. 10 Commissioner Richards asked if State agencies are ready to handle Medicaid expansion 11 when passed. 12 Senator Meyer, Representative Buansi, and Representative Price all said yes. 13 Chair Bedford said the Board received a letter from DHHS saying the State will cover the 14 administrative costs to the county for Medicaid expansion. She said she's glad DHHS is trying 15 to be proactive so counties won't be left with the cost. She said she is grateful for that support. 16 Chair Bedford revisited the following components of the first item on the list: 17 18 Increase compensation for nurses and direct support staff funded by innovation waivers 19 and other Medicaid sources. 20 21 She said while the General Assembly did increase the pay for direct care staff last year, 22 it's still insufficient. She said with an aging population, the shortage will only get bigger. 23 Commissioner Hamilton said the Board heard that the State is not training Adult Care 24 Home and Nursing Home Community Advisory Committee applicants to go into these facilities. 25 She said this is crucial work and there are people willing to volunteer, but they have to be 26 trained. 27 Chair Bedford said she plans to work on this issue as well and may need help from the 28 legislators. 29 Representative Price said they have contacts at the Governor's Office that can assist if 30 needed. 31 Commissioner Richards said she wanted to make the legislators aware that the plan for 32 mental health supports starts at age 4, and there really is a need for it at this age. She said the 33 Board is particularly interested in anything that supports mental health services in early 34 childhood and for children. 35 Senator Meyer said there's discussion across the General Assembly this year about 36 child and adolescent mental health. He said there is also discussion about increasing funding 37 for early childhood care and rate of pay for early childhood care. He said there's crossover in 38 the labor market of people who work in adult care and early childhood care, so if there's funding 39 towards this effort the market dynamics may raise rates for adult care workers too. He said 40 there is also a broad realization that the vacancies in state agencies are due to pay not keeping 41 up with the private sector, so there could be significant increases in state agency pay as well, 42 which could help pay rates in all of these fields. 43 Commissioner Richards asked if there's discussion about expanding eligibility rules for 44 Medicaid, which were waived during the pandemic, as part of the negotiations on Medicaid 45 expansion. 46 Representative Price and Representative Buansi said that is part of the bill passed by 47 the House. 48 Back on child care, Representative Price said money came in during the pandemic to 49 help with early childhood centers, but the pay is abysmal. She spoke about the importance of 50 increasing pay for these positions.