HB7: AN ACT relating to welfare and family services.

Legislative Summary

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 205 to establish that the terms "cash assistance" and "public assistance" do not include foster care, kinship care, fictive kin care, or relative placement payments; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to conduct annual analysis of expenditures related to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program; provide for the allocation of unobligated TANF funds; establish restrictions on the use of cash assistance benefits; require the cabinet to utilize a single electronic benefit transfer card for each recipient of cash assistance benefits; direct the cabinet to establish a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) transitional benefit alternative; direct the cabinet to request SNAP waivers to establish an Elderly Simplified Application Project and a Standard Medical Deduction and waive certain time limit exceptions; direct the cabinet to implement certified change reporting requirements for SNAP benefits; establish conditions under which the cabinet shall implement community engagement requirements for individuals in the expanded Medicaid population; establish a work group to develop a framework for the creations of a Basic Health Program as permitted under the Affordable Care Act; prescribe actions to be taken by the Department for Medicaid Services in the event that the department is subject to federal temporary maintenance of effort restrictions that limit the department's ability to disenroll individuals from the state's medical assistance program; prohibit the cabinet and the Department for Medicaid Services from being designated as a qualified health entity for the purpose of making presumptive eligibility determinations for the state's medical assistance program; establish hospitals' responsibilities related to presumptive eligibility determinations for the state's medical assistance program; require the state's medical assistance program to provide coverage for substance use disorder treatment for incarcerated individuals; to permit a custodial parent who has been disqualified from receiving cash assistance benefits to designate a protective payee to receive benefits on behalf of a dependent minor child; require the cabinet to report to the Public Assistance Oversight and Advisory Committee on implementation of certain sections of this Act; establish the Attorney General's jurisdiction to enforce KRS Chapter 205; amend KRS 6.940 to reestablish the Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Committee as the Public Assistance Oversight and Advisory Committee; amend KRS 205.178 require enrollment and benefit tracking agencies associated with SNAP to receive and review information from the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Department of Revenue; require the cabinet to assign SNAP recipients to employment and training programs; require the cabinet to obtain authorization from the General Assembly before seeking certain SNAP waivers; amend KRS 205.200 to prohibit the use of categorical eligibility and self-attestation; require the cabinet to use only the most recent available income data when determining eligibility for public assistance; permit the cabinet to disqualify an individual from receiving public assistance benefits if that individual traffics electronic benefit transfer cards; amend KRS 205.231 to permit individuals who are disqualified from receiving public assistance benefits to appeal that determination; amend KRS 205.525 to require reporting to the Public Assistance Oversight and Advisory Committee; amend KRS 205.725 to require the cabinet to upon receipt of an application for public assistance to take action to assure that the responsible parent or parents provides support to a child; amend KRS 441.045 to require that a county jailer notify the cabinet when a county prisoner is incarcerated and when they are released; require the cabinet to provide information on the child care assistance program to the Public Assistance Oversight and Advisory Committee; require the cabinet to seek approval of a waiver to eliminate mandatory hospital presumptive eligibility and restrict presumptive eligibility to children and pregnant women; direct the cabinet to seek federal approval of any state plan amendment or waiver deemed necessary to implement any provision of this Act; direct the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet to establish job posting Web site for private businesses; direct the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee to conduct an in-depth analysis of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program; create the Basic Health Program Task Force to study and make recommendations on the development of a basic health program; outline task force membership; require the task force to meet at least 4 times during the 2022 interim; require the task force to submit recommendations to the Legislative Research Commission by December 1, 2022; and provide for severability.