A Senate committee voted to report House Bill 2575 to the full Senate with a recommendation that it do pass as amended, establishing a permanent, full-time dementia service director charged with coordinating the state Alzheimer’s disease and dementia plan and evaluating applicable state government services.

Counsel explained the director’s duties would include coordinating implementation of the state Alzheimer’s and dementia plan, compiling an annual report on the department’s webpage, identifying duplicated services and grant opportunities, and evaluating residential and home- and community-based care to make recommendations to increase efficiency and improve quality of care. The committee substitute replaced earlier subdivisions describing the director’s evaluation duties and updated other descriptive language; counsel noted the title was acceptable, there was no fiscal note and the Department of Health would be the impacted agency. The bill has a second reference to the Committee on Finance and an effective date of 90 days.

The committee adopted counsel’s proposed amendments by voice vote and then voted to report the bill to the full Senate for further consideration, with the finance referral intact.

If enacted, HB 2575 would create a statutory director position within the Department of Health to oversee and streamline state dementia services and to publish an annual report on agency actions and recommendations.