{"id":25604,"date":"2019-03-22T09:33:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25604"},"modified":"2019-03-22T09:33:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:33:43","slug":"bill-would-stipulate-title-x-requirements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=25604","title":{"rendered":"Bill would stipulate Title X requirements"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health and Human Services Committee considered a bill March 21 that would specify requirements for Nebraska recipients of federal funds that subsidize reproductive health care.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nebraska receives funds from the federal Title X program that are used to subsidize preventive and reproductive health services, including the diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screenings and family planning services. Federal grant money dispersed by the state through the program cannot be used to fund abortions.<\/p>\n

LB629, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, would stipulate that the state Department of Health and Human Services could grant funds only to entities that:
\n\u2022 are licensed under the Health Care Facility Licensure Act and provide services to recipients of medical assistance under the Medical Assistance Act;
\n\u2022 are compliant with the provisions of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act; and
\n\u2022 are able to diagnose and treat sexually transmitted diseases and infections and provide gynecological exams.<\/p>\n

Pansing Brooks said the funds are a \u201cprecious resource\u201d that should be granted to providers who can best carry out the important priorities of the federal program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought this bill because I want to ensure that Title X funds go to those providers who offer the vital health care services women need,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat is at stake is access to confidential services to low-income women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pansing Brooks added that the bill would ensure that legislative debate regarding Title X funding\u2014which she acknowledged can be \u201cincendiary\u201d\u2014would take place outside of the state\u2019s budget process.<\/p>\n

Scout Richters, testifying on behalf of the ACLU of Nebraska, spoke in support of the bill. She said it would realign Nebraska law with the purposes of the federal program.<\/p>\n

\u201cLB629 ensures patient safety [and that] regardless of what is happening with federal regulations with the program, we make sure we have a minimum standard of care for Nebraska Title X patients,\u201d Richters said.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Seibert Joekel, representing the Women\u2019s Fund of Omaha, also testified in support. Health clinics that receive Title X funding often are the only point of access that low-income women have to a health care provider, she said. If low-income patients can receive comprehensive care at one location, she said, it means less cost to them in child care, transportation and lost wages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese services are about family planning. They\u2019re also about broader preventive and health screening services \u2026 and that\u2019s why we think LB629 is important in requiring subgrantees to be licensed medical facilities and HIPAA compliant,\u201d Seibert Joekel said.<\/p>\n

Bo Botelho, testifying on behalf of the state Department of Health and Human Services, opposed the bill. He said the changes made to Nebraska\u2019s administration of Title X funds through last session\u2019s budget process have provided clearer guidelines and ensured program integrity.<\/p>\n

In addition, he said, the language in LB629 would limit access to providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe four eligibility requirements established in this proposed legislation would prohibit at least one federally qualified health center that currently provides services under their practitioner\u2019s license and would effectively ban practices, clinics and facilities that offer a \u2026 more narrow set of Title X related services,\u201d Botelho said.<\/p>\n

Also testifying in opposition was Marion Miner, representing the Nebraska Catholic Conference. New federal rules\u2014set to take effect in May\u2014are meant to encourage small providers to apply for Title X funds, he said, including entities that do not offer a full range of reproductive health services.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese barriers [in LB629 would] make it more difficult for small providers serving low-income patients to qualify for federal aid, when it is exactly those types of providers who could use the aid the most to further develop the range of services they offer and to increase the reach of their work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Health and Human Services Committee considered a bill March 21 that would specify requirements for Nebraska recipients of federal funds that subsidize reproductive health care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-25604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-and-human-services","tag-sen-patty-pansing-brooks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/LB629PansingBrooks3-21-19a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25604"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25607,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25604\/revisions\/25607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}