Upcoming Public Hearings on
Proposed DHHS Rules and Regulations

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All interested persons are invited to attend and comment at the hearing or to submit comments in writing. Written comments must be postmarked or received by the deadline indicated for each hearing. Written comments may be sent to DHHS, Regulatory Analysis and Integration, 301 Centennial Mall South, P.O. Box 95026, Lincoln, NE 68509-5026, faxed 402-742-2382, or e-mailed to Rules.Regs@dhhs.ne.gov

Draft copies of the regulations and the estimated schedule for rulemaking are available at DHHS as above, phone 402-471-9022, and at the office of the Secretary of State, Regulations Division, Room 1305, State Capitol, Lincoln, NE 68509, phone 402-471-2385. The draft fiscal impact statement for these regulations is available at DHHS as above. Draft regulations will be available online 3 weeks before the hearing at http://www.sos.ne.gov/rules-and-regs/regtrack/index.cgi

If auxiliary aids or reasonable accommodations are needed to participate in a hearing, please call 402-471-9022. For persons with hearing impairments, please call DHHS at 402-471-9570 (voice and TDD) or the Nebraska Relay System at 711 or 800-833-7352 TDD at least 2 weeks before the hearing date. This notice is given in compliance with Neb. Rev. Stat. Section 84-907.

The link for each hearing date below will take you to the Notice of Public Hearings for that date.

Hearing Date	Subjects
Thursday, September 18, 2008	Transitional ADC-Related Medicaid
Thursday, September 18, 2008	Deprivation of Resources for Medicaid Eligibility
Thursday, September 25, 2008	Clean Indoor Air Act
Thursday, October 2, 2008	Child Care Subisdy Program Revisions
Thursday, October 2, 2008	Stillbirth Certificate - LB 1048, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008	Methamphetamine Clean-up
Thursday, October 16, 2008	Medicaid Coverage of Tobacco Cessation Services & Drug Products

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

State Office Building, Lower Level Conf. Room A
301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE

1:00 p.m. CT

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Division of Children & Family Services and Division of Medicaid & Long-Term Care are holding this hearing to accept comments on proposed changes to regulations for Transitional Medical Assistance (Medicaid) related to Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) in Title 468, Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 6, of the Nebraska Administrative Code.

The proposed changes will establish in Department regulations an Eighth Circuit Court ruling on the determination of eligibility for Transitional Medical Assistance (TMA). The Court ruled that the Department must count certain additional qualifying months in determining TMA eligibility for families whose incomes have increased enough to disqualify them for ADC assistance. The proposed changes also include minor clarifications and updates.

Authority for these regulations is found in Bowlin v. Montanez, No. 4:04CV3218, slip op. at 9-10 (D. Neb. Apr. 5, 2005) (quoting Section 1396u-1(b)(1)(c)) and Neb. Rev. Stat. Sections 68-901 to 68-956 (the Medical Assistance Act), 68-1708 to 68-1734 (the Welfare Reform Act), and 81-3117(7).

Written comments must be postmarked or received by 5:00 p.m. CT on September 20, 2008.

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Thursday, September 18, 2008

State Office Building, Lower Level Conf. Room A
301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE

2:00 p.m. CT

The DHHS Division of Children & Family Services and Division of Medicaid & Long-Term Care are holding this hearing to accept comments on proposed changes to regulations for the Assistance to the Aged, Blind, or Disabled (AABD) Program; Medical Assistance (Medicaid) Program; and State Disability Program. These regulations are found in Title 469, Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 7, of the Nebraska Administrative Code. The proposed changes will:

• Provide that revocable, assignable, or saleable annuities are counted as resources (assets) in the determination of AABD/Medicaid eligibility;
• Modify provisions on the assessment of resources and transfers of resources between a spouse in a nursing home and the spouse in the community;
• Define and provide for the treatment of an “endowment policy";
• Clarify the treatment of annuity transactions on or after February 8, 2006, the effective date of the federal Deficit Reduction Act, which included provisions designed to discourage the use of financial techniques intended to protect wealth while enabling access to public benefits;
• Provide for the recovery of all overpayments, regardless of cause; and
• Make various clarifications and updates to the regulations.

Authority for these regulations is found in the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-171) and Neb. Rev. Stat. Sections 68-1001, 68-1001.01, and 81-3117(7).

Written comments must be postmarked or received by 5:00 p.m. CT on September 20, 2008.

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Thursday, September 25, 2008

State Office Building, Lower Level Conf. Room A
301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE

9:00 a.m. CT

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Division of Public Health is holding this hearing to accept comments on proposed changes to regulations for Clean Indoor Air in Title 178, Chapter 7 of the Nebraska Administrative Code.

The proposed changes will implement Laws 2008, LB 395 that repealed the current Nebraska Clean Indoor Air Act and adopted a new act that prohibits smoking in public places and places of employment throughout the State of Nebraska beginning June 1, 2009. The proposed operative date for the regulations is June 1, 2009.

Authority for these regulations is found in the Nebraska Clean Indoor Air Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. Sections 71-5716 to 71-5734, Neb. Rev. Stat. Sections 71-1911 and 81-3117(7).

Written comments must be postmarked or received by 5:00 p.m. CT on September 27, 2008.

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Thursday, October 2, 2008

State Office Building, Lower Level Conf. Room A
301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE

9:00 a.m. CT

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Division of Children and Family Services is holding this hearing to accept comments on proposed changes to regulations for the Child Care Subsidy Program in Title 392, Chapters 1, 3, 4, and 5 of the Nebraska Administrative Code (NAC). The changes will:

• Clarify that families in Transitional Child Care must continue to meet the $6,000 resource limit;
• Clarify the 18-hour per day limit on paid hours of assistance;
• Provide for the collection of overpayments caused by Department error;
• Clarify that a sanction for refusal to cooperate with Child Support Enforcement will not be imposed on a Child Care Subsidy client who is participating in Employment First (EF), so the client may continue to participate in EF;
• Allow documentation of a child’s special need by a licensed mental health practitioner;
• Prohibit smoking any time a client’s child is present in any part of the home, if care is being provided in the child’s home or the provider’s home;
• Revise regulations on provider charges or convictions for Driving Under the Influence;
• Clarify that grandchildren are counted when the grandparent is a license-exempt provider; and
• Revise definitions and remove obsolete language.

Authority for these regulations is found in the Quality Child Care Act, the Clean Indoor Air Act, and Neb. Rev. Stat. Section 81-3117(7).

Written comments must be postmarked or received by 5:00 p.m. CT on October 4, 2008.

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Thursday, October 2, 2008

State Office Building, Lower Level Conf. Room A
301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE

10:30 a.m. CT

The DHHS Division of Public Health is holding this hearing to accept comments on proposed regulations to implement LB 1048 (2008), which provides for a certificate of birth resulting in stillbirth. These regulations are found in Title 174, Chapters 3 and 8, of the Nebraska Administrative Code (NAC).

The regulations provide the certificate forms and provide that only a parent may request and receive a stillbirth certificate.

Authority for these regulations is found in Neb. Rev. Stat. Sections 71-602, 71-606, and 81-3117(7).

Written comments must be postmarked or received by 5:00 p.m. CT on October 4, 2008.

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

State Office Building, Lower Level Conf. Room A
301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE

11:00 a.m. CT

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Division of Public Health is holding this hearing to accept comments on proposed changes to regulations for Environmental Health in Title 178, Chapter 24 of the Nebraska Administrative Code (NAC). This is a second hearing on these regulations. The first hearing was held on May 15, 2008. The proposed new regulations will:

• Add the language “as soon as practicable” to be consistent with the statute;
• Remove the thirty-day reporting requirement for a property owner; and
• Remove language that required notification in writing to potential lessees or buyers before agreement to lease or sale of the property that has been used as a clandestine drug laboratory and that the owner or record has completed site remediation and a decontamination consultant has performed necessary sampling to confirm that the decontamination standards presented in these regulations are not exceeded.

Authority for these regulations is found in Laws 2006, LB915 and Neb. Rev. Stat. Sections 71-2432 to 71-2435 and 81-3117(7).

Written comments must be postmarked or received by 5:00 p.m. CT on October 11, 2008.

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Thursday, October 16, 2008

State Office Building, Lower Level Conf. Room A
301 Centennial Mall South, Lincoln, NE

11:00 a.m. CT

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Division of Medicaid and Long-Term Care, is holding this hearing to accept comments on proposed changes to regulations for the Nebraska Medical Assistance Program, also known as Medicaid, in Title 471, Chapters 10, 16, and 18 of the Nebraska Administrative Code (NAC). The proposed changes will:

• Provide for Medicaid coverage of tobacco cessation products and services under the following terms:
  • A Medicaid client must enroll and actively participate in the Nebraska Tobacco Free Quit-Line;
  • Drug products will be covered for a 90-day supply during a 12-month period, with two quit attempts allowed (two 90-day supplies of drug products could be covered during a single 12-month period);
  • A total of four tobacco cessation counseling visits will be covered when provided by a medical care provider (physician or mid-level practitioner) or by a tobacco cessation counselor (a licensed pharmacist who has met specific requirements); and
  • Coverage of services and drugs is limited to two quit attempts in a 12-month period;
• Remove “smoking cessation products” from the list of non-covered drug products;
• Add to the list of products requiring prior approval: “certain drugs or classes of drugs that are used for tobacco cessation” and provide for prior approval of certain drugs “when Medicaid coverage begins”; and
• Specify in 471 NAC 10-004.09 that tobacco cessation services are not covered as a hospital service.

Authority for these regulations is found in Laws 2008, LB 959, Section 27, and Neb. Rev. Stat. Section 68-908 and 81-3117(7).

Written comments must be postmarked or received by 5:00 p.m. CT on October 18, 2008.

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