GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	2 

SENATE BILL 298
Government Performance Audit Select Committee Substitute Adopted 4/20/93

Short Title:  GPAC/Health Recs.	(Public)
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Sponsors:
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Referred to:  
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February 22, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPLEMENT THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE AUDIT COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF STREAMLINING THE REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS, TO REEXAMINE THE ORGANIZATIONAL PLACEMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND NATURAL RESOURCES, AND TO STUDY THE FEASIBILITY OF ESTABLISHING AN OFFICE FOR HEALTH CARE WITHIN THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  Chapter 120 of the General Statutes is amended by adding the following new Article to read:
"ARTICLE 22.
"Study Commission on the Organization
of Public Health Programs.
"§ 120-190. Commission established; appointment of members.
There is established the Study Commission on the Organization of Public Health Programs, which shall consist of 14 members.  The membership of the Commission shall be as follows: four Senators and one physician who is not a local health director but who provides health services to citizens through a local or district health department, appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate; four Representatives and one local health director appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; the Secretary of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources or his delegate; the Secretary of Human Resources or his delegate; the State Health Director or his delegate; and one public member appointed by the Governor.
"§ 120-191. Time of appointments; terms of office.
Appointments to the Commission shall be made within 15 days subsequent to the close of each regular session of the General Assembly.  The term of office shall begin on the day of appointment and shall end on the date when the next appointments are made.  Vacancies occurring during a term shall be filled for the unexpired term by the officer who made the original appointment.
"§ 120-192. Organization of Commission.
Upon its appointment the Commission shall organize by electing from its membership a chair.  The President Pro Tempore of the Senate or the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall preside over the Commission until the Commission has elected a chair. The Commission shall meet at such times and places as the chair shall designate.  The facilities of the State Legislative Building and the Legislative Office Building shall be available to the Commission.  The Commission is authorized to conduct hearings and to employ such clerical and other assistance, professional advice, and services as may be deemed necessary in the performance of its duties, with the approval of the Legislative Services Commission.
"§ 120-193. Members to serve without compensation; subsistence and travel expenses.
Members of the Commission shall serve without compensation but they shall be paid such per diem and travel expenses as are provided for members of State boards and commissions generally, pursuant to G.S. 138-5.  The Commission shall be funded by the Legislative Services Commission from appropriations made to the General Assembly for that purpose.
"§ 120-194. Assistance to Commission.
The Commission, in the performance of its duties, may request and shall receive from every department, board, bureau, agency, commission, or institution of this State, or from any political subdivision of the State, information, cooperation, and assistance.
"§ 120-195. Duties of the Commission.
The Commission's study shall include the following:
(1)	The feasibility of streamlining the regional organizational structure for public health programs;
(2)	Whether the regional office staffing structure adequately meets the needs of local and district health departments;
(3)	Whether technical assistance offered by regional offices adequately meets the needs of local and district health departments;
(4)	The organizational structure of public health programs in other states and whether any of those structures would be better suited to North Carolina's public health needs than the current State structure;
(5)	Monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the current organizational structure of public health programs as provided through the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources;
(6)	During the third year of its study, reexamine the organizational placement of public health programs, including, but not limited to, the following:
a.	Whether public health programs should be jointly provided with environmental health programs, and
b.	Whether public health programs currently provided by the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources should be reunited with health-related programs in the Department of Human Resources, taking into consideration constituencies served by the programs.
(7)	Whether it is feasible and appropriate to establish within the Office of the Governor an Office for Health Services Planning to act as the central agent for the design, coordination, and implementation of a strategy to meet the health care needs of the State.  The study should include consideration of the following issues:
a.	Development of a long-range strategic plan for the efficient and effective delivery of health care services in the State;
b.	Initiation of formal collaborative efforts among State agencies and programs that purchase or deliver health care services in order to address the problems of duplication and cost shifting;
c.	Creation of a central database of purchased health care services for use in policy formulation, reimbursement analysis, and negotiating better arrangements with health care providers; and
d.	Other activities deemed necessary and appropriate by the Commission.
"§ 120-196. Reports to the General Assembly.
The Commission shall make a report to the General Assembly and to the Fiscal Research Division of the Legislative Services Office not later than January 1, 1994, and January 1 of each subsequent year of the Commission's tenure.  The Commission's first report shall include the Commission's findings and recommendations pertaining to its duties under subdivisions (1)	through (5) and subdivision (7) of G.S. 120-195.  The Commission's report of February 1, 1997, shall include the Commission's findings and recommendations pertaining to its duties under subdivision (6) of G.S. 120-195."
Sec. 2. There is allocated from funds appropriated to the General Assembly's Legislative Services Commission to the Commission established under this act the sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) for the 1993-94 fiscal year and the sum of fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) for the 1994-95 fiscal year to be used for carrying out the purposes of this act.
Sec. 3. This act becomes effective July 1, 1993, and expires January 1, 1997.