Friday 29th March 2024

Health care scholarship bill clears House Health Services committee

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Rep. Chad Aull D-Lexington, (Left) confers with Rep. Steven Bratcher R-Elizabethtown on the House Floor on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023.
(LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT —A new bill aimed to address Kentucky’s health care worker shortage is on the move. The House Health Services Committee approved House Bill 200 on Thursday.

The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Ken Fleming, R-Louisville, said the bill would enable the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), health care programs and health care providers and facilities to match public and private dollars to award scholarships to eligible students. The fund would be called the Kentucky Health Care Workforce Investment Fund.

“We’ve worked very diligently in terms of trying to get something really innovative to address what I think the two main challenges we have in this Commonwealth: education workforce and health care workforce,” Fleming said.

Nursing, nursing aide, mental health, social work and emergency medical services students would be eligible, with 65% of the fund being dedicated to scholarships.

“There is a significant need and deficiency in the eastern part of this state when it comes to EMS workers and so forth,” Fleming said.

Fleming said HB 200 will “kick start career paths for all Kentuckians interested in a health care career.”

CPE President Aaron Thompson testified alongside Fleming. He agreed there is a dire need in the Commonwealth for health care workers.

“We looked at predictive analytics and see that (the shortage) is going to grow, and if you look at prescriptive ways of handling this, I cannot think of a better legislative process than (HB 200),” Thompson said.

Betsy Johnson, president of the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities and the Kentucky Center for Assisted Living, said there are more than 700 open state registered nursing aide positions within the association’s member facilities. “Nurse aides are the backbone of long term care, so we appreciate Representative Fleming for including nurse aides in House Bill 200,” Johnson said.

Committee Chair Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser, R-Taylor Mill, said she believes HB 200 is a “smart way” to address the health care worker shortage issue.

“I agree that this increases the pipeline, the potential pipeline, for those health care workers,” she said.

HB 200 will now go before the full House after receiving approval from the House Health Services Committee by an 18-0 vote with one pass vote.

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