House Insurance and Commerce Committee

January 15, 2025

 

Representative John Maddox ...the vice chairman, Representative Trey Steimel. Proud to have him here with us this session. He's going to bring a lot of insight and knowledge. And I've been given an agenda and it asks us to go around the table and introduce yourselves and tell us where you're from and anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself. So Representative Eubanks, would you like to lead us off?

 

Representative Jon Eubanks That's how this works, right? Okay. Yeah. Jon Eubanks, District 46. My district is West Central Arkansas, all of Logan County, part of Johnson, part of Franklin, all of South Franklin and part of Sebastian.

 

Representative John Maddox We can just continue to go. Representative Lundstrum.

 

Representative Robin Lundstrum Representative Lundstrum. I'm from Springdale. I represent Springdale, Elm Springs, Tontitown and a little bit of Fayetteville.

 

Representative Ken Ferguson Good morning, Ken Ferguson, district 64, parts of Jefferson, Lincoln and Desha Counties.

 

Representative Fred Allen Fred Allen, District 77. Central Little Rock.

 

Representative Steve Hollowell Steve Hollowell. District 37 over in Eastern Arkansas, parts of Cross, St Francis and Poinsett Counties.

 

Representative Zack Gramlich My name is Zack Gramlich. I represent District 50, which is Central Fort Smith.

 

Representative Brandon Achor Brandon Achor. I represent District 71. It's primarily the city of Maumelle and a little bit of North Little Rock.

 

Representative Richard McGrew I'm Richard McGrew, District 85, which is West Garland County, just west of Hot Springs. I have Hot Springs Village, Jezebel, Mountain Pine, Pearcy.

 

Representative Joy Richardson Jay Richardson, North Fort Smith, District 49.

 

Representative Les Warren Les Warren, District 84, Hot Springs and Garland County.

 

Representative Carol Dalby Carol Dalby District 100, which is Texarkana, Arkansas. I like to say we're on God's side of that state line. So that's my district.

 

Representative Trey Steimel And Trey Steimel, District 2. That's going to be parts of Sharp, Randolph and Fulton County. I do call Pocahontas home. So up there in the northeast part of the state. Thank you.

 

Representative John Maddox John Maddox, District 86, which is Polk, Montgomery and a portion of Howard County. So I think we all know each other, but we-- well, you were late.

 

Representative Les Eaves No, I was on time. I was cleaning up my mess.

 

Representative John Maddox Representative Eaves. And it also says to give us a little background. No one else did that. But you're welcome to.

 

Representative Les Eaves What would you like to know?

 

Representative John Maddox Whatever you want.

 

Representative Les Eaves Les Eaves. I represent District 58, in my sixth term. And I represent Searcy and Higginson and Kensett. And that's about all you need to know.

 

Representative John Maddox Thank you and I'm going to introduce our staff. I think everyone knows Michelle Nelson. She's the committee analysts sitting to my left. Kathy Lett is our administrative assistant in the back. I believe we know her. And of course, Alex Stevens is the BLR attorney for us for when you need any assistance. As you know, all very helpful. They're here to serve us and to help us. So any time you need anything, just let us know. Let them know. And now I'm going to basically open it up to members of the audience who want to come up and introduce themselves, particularly who are going to be here at most of our meetings and would like for us to know who you are. I think I'll start with Mr. McClain. If you'd like to come up and bring any members of your staff that you would like to do. So if you want to just introduce yourselves and who you're with and anything else you'd like for us to know.

 

Alan McLain Thank you, Mr. Chair. Alan McLain, Insurance Commissioner. Thanks for just letting me just introduce myself for those who I haven't had a chance to work with. It's always a pleasure to work with the House and Senate Insurance and Commerce committees. We're generally going to have our staff here at all your committee meetings. And so we will be a familiar face to you. I'll introduce Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner Russ Galbraith and Department of Commerce Director of Legislative Affairs, Jake Windley. 

And even though he didn't come to the table, he's going to wave his hand and his deputy commissioner, Jimmy Harris. So you will definitely hear from Jimmy or any of us at any time you need us to help with anything. So we're here to help. Don't want to get in the way of anything, but we're happy to assist you. 

We will have a small package from the Insurance Department we call a general omnibus bill. Classic. Nothing to see here. Just clean up stuff where we truly think that's what it is. And if it does have any questions and we failed in putting that bill together because that's the idea is that it shouldn't have any questions. It truly is some clean up things. But always of course available to answer questions. So we'll be presenting that along the way and maybe talking to some of you about sponsoring that. And then there's a couple of other bills that we think are noncontroversial. They'll be set apart from the general omnibus bill, something to do with captive insurers and a couple of other things. 

Again, primarily we want to be here for a resource where you will have legislation that you want to run and sponsor and be a part of. And to the extent that we can help inform that discussion for you, we will definitely want to be able to do that. Jimmy, who's in the audience, is our property and casualty guru. And I don't think I'm overselling that, but he can help us walk through some of that, just describing what the lay of the land is now and how we regulate certain things and how your legislation may impact that. 

Booth Rand is sort of my health insurance guru as well. He's written a lot of the laws and rules that are on the books now with health insurance. And to the extent some of those are on the agenda, he'll be happy to be here to help inform that. We don't want to be here just to be here and get in your way. If you know you're going to run something and want to help them, you know, you can let us know. I know things pop up, particularly later on the session, that you're just going to decide to run it that day. So we do want to be available for you if you need us to be here. But we don't want to get in your way of anything as well. 

You'll hear us reference the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. They are our accreditation body. I sit on a couple of committees there. We're pretty active there. We come up with model rules and regulations and laws there sometimes too. And some of them are accreditation standards. And we'll reference that to you. We're careful to know that we don't make the laws. We just might make some suggestions sometimes and see if you're interested in adopting those. 

And many of you are probably familiar with NCOIL, the National Council of Insurance Legislators. And some of you may have been engaged there or want to be engaged in that in the future. Russ and I typically attend those when we can to stay in touch with legislative issues on the insurance front. And if you need us to make any connections there for you, we're happy to do that as well. So that's that's really what I just wanted to just say hello and my mobile number is--. Feel free to call me. Text me anytime. And feel free to shoot me a text any time so I'll make sure I get you. I have been known to ignore phone calls if I don't have you in my contacts. But I'll make sure I get you on my contacts. So when you're hollering at me, we will respond to you. So always available for you. And Mr. Chair, that's really all I had.

 

Representative John Maddox Thank you so much. And members, as he said, but they're an excellent resource for all of us with anything we need when you need help. Of course, drafting bills, to run about them and get their thoughts. But anything else you need, they're a wonderful resource. So thank you. Mr. McLain. Who else would like to come up and introduce themselves? Particularly people who are going to be here quite often. Mr. Hopkins.

 

Jack Hopkins Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee. My name is Jack Hopkins. I'm the director of government relations for Centene in Arkansas. We are a tried and true managed care organization is our bread and butter, if you will. However, we have commercial products from Medicare Advantage, small group, large group, the individual market. And then we are one of the four PASSEs, the provider led Arkansas shared savings entity in Arkansas total care. Beyond that, I think that's all of my products. So happy to answer any questions. I don't have enough business cards today, but I'll share my information with staff to share with you all. Thank you.

 

Representative John Maddox Thank you, Mr. Hopkins.

 

David Manns Hello, My name is David Manns. Here we go. My name is David Manns. I'm with Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. I did not intend to come up here today because I didn't realize this was part of the process. But I just want to introduce myself to you and let you know that I'm available to communicate with you. I know, Mr. Richardson, I owe you an email, and I apologize for not getting back with you yet. I met with Mr. Johnson yesterday. I

'm here just to collaborate with you, help give you feedback on anything that you have and just let you know that I'm an open door. So thank you very much. Yes. So I will give it to staffers as well. Or would you like it now? Yeah sure. My number is --. That's an old cell phone number. My background is I worked previously for Senator Hutchinson. And then after that I did some government relations work and then most recently worked for Congressman Rick Crawford. And so I'm very used to the legislating side and understand sort of the the dynamics of that. And I'm very sensitive to that. So look forward to working with you.

 

Representative John Maddox Thank you.

 

Michael Harry Morning, Michael Harry with the Treasury. I'm Chief compliance officer and director of government Affairs. So we're a new administration, obviously. You all know that. So we're here to help if you have any questions. I might have questions for you because it's a new topic for most of us in the office. So I just wanted to introduce myself this morning. So thank you.

 

Blake Meyer Morning, everyone. Blake Meyer, policy adviser with the governor's office. I'll be here at all the meetings. My areas are commerce, labor and licensing and regulatory. So I look forward to working with all of you as we go along.

 

Justin Brasher Hi. Justin Brasher, senior assistant attorney general with the Arkansas Office of the Attorney General. And I have with me my colleague.

 

Nicole Pugh Nicole Pugh, Assistant Attorney General.

 

Justin Brasher Nicole will be in this committee for the session. Myself, I'll be more roaming the halls. But you can feel free if you have anything that you want to get on the radar of the office as a whole, you can talk to myself and we'll make sure that that happens. So there you go. Thank you.

 

Representative John Maddox Thank you guys.

 

Lorrie Trogden I got the look from Mr. Maddox, so here I am. For the record, I caused Les' coffee spill. So I will own that, Les. I'm Lorrie Trogden. I'm the president of the Arkansas Bankers Association, and we are always here to help with anything. Banking can be a little complicated, trying to navigate the cross section of state law and federal law as we're heavily regulated on both sides of that field. So here if you need us. Give me a call any time. I think most everybody has my contact information, but if you don't have it, I'll give it to you.

 

Representative John Maddox Thank you. And members, I do want to say I think I have almost-- there's just a few members who do not have my cell number. After committee, I will give that to you because I want everyone to have it. I'm not necessarily going to say it right now, but thank you. Mr. Bethel.

 

John Bethel Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. I'm John Bethel, director of public affairs for Entergy Arkansas. Entergy is the largest electric utility in the state. We operate in 63 of 75 counties. And I'm familiar, I think, with everybody at the table. And if you have questions or need information about electric utility issues, I'm happy to help. If you have questions from constituents, do that as well. And also in storm and bad weather events, I'll work to keep you informed on the situation in your district. And if you have questions during those times on restoration efforts, reach out. Thank you very much.

 

Richard Bearden Morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. Richard Bearden, Impact Management Group. We represent the Arkansas Heart Hospital, Arkansas Bariatric Surgery Center. So we'll be down in here. Austin McCollum, no pictures, please. Also, John, did have a little issue. My electric bill was a little bit amped so I'll visit with you after this but look forward to working with you all.

 

Representative John Maddox Anyone else? Everyone's in a good mood today. You might want to come up and take your shot.

 

Kelly Erstine Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee. I'm Kelly Erstine, I represent the Independent Insurance Agents of Arkansas. We represent about 400 independent agencies across the state of Arkansas, mostly property and casualty, both personal and commercial. We do handle benefits as well, but mostly property and casualty. So look forward to working with all of you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

 

Jodiane Tritt Good morning, everybody. I'm Jodiane Tritt. I'm the executive vice president of the Arkansas Hospital Association. I'm also an attorney. So happy to be with you and happy to be a one trick pony, if you will, and be all hospitals all the time.

 

Representative John Maddox Thanks, Jodiane.

 

Charlie Spakes. I represent Black Hills Energy. We are a natural gas utility, mostly in the northwest, crossing northeast part of the state. I think we have about 340,000 customers in Arkansas. So ditto what Bethel said. If I can ever help with constituent matters or storms or legislative issues, please give me a shout.

 

Anna Strong Morning, y'all. I'm Anna Strong. I am the executive director of the Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. So kids health issues, insurance issues, that kind of thing. I'm around if you guys need anything. And I look forward to working with y'all.

 

Representative John Maddox Okay, that looks like it. Thank you, guys. And most of the members know but to the members who are new on this committee, a lot of the folks that just introduced themselves, they'll be here every meeting and they'll be helpful sometimes. But you'll definitely be speaking with them. So I just wanted you to get to know them. A few other announcements I'm supposed to run through real quick. All the members will use their own devices to pull bills. I'm sure you know that. But I'm supposed to read that. 

We need to have a quorum of 11 to start every meeting, and I'm sure we will comply with that. I was being serious. And that's really about it. Agendas are prepared in accordance with the House rules. They're prepared two days in advance. Sponsor notifications will be sent to members who have bills. But I think we don't have anyone that's new. So everyone knows that on this committee. 

We are going to meet every Wednesday at 10 a.m. in this room. Our hope is to only meet on Wednesdays. I believe we stuck with that last session. I don't think we had to have too many other meetings. However, as of now, we're not going to meet next Wednesday because we don't have anything. So that's good. If that changes, we'll let you know. You can always text me or Vice Chair Steimel if you have anything. 

I just have a few other things just for me that I want to say. I guess one thing that is important, just kind of housekeeping, when you use the restroom back there, as you know, shut the door when you go in. Leave it open when you leave. Because if you close it, it locks. And then we have to get staff to come unlock it. So that's actually kind of important. So let's try to remember that. Okay. 

The one thing that we did last time, the one thing that we instituted the last time that I think worked well and we're going to do it again this time is when you have a follow up question you do not need to ask myself or vice chair Steimel for permission. Just ask your question. It's my opinion we are here to do committee work and to vet the bills. And the way I look at it is when you ask a question and a lot of time that leads to a very relevant second question, third question, as many questions as you need to ask as long as they're relevant to the topic. 

I want to give you that latitude because I think we need to do the work in here and try to get to if it's a good bill or not. Frankly, I think it worked well last session. There's times when I will have to ask you to stop. But do try to be reasonable and don't abuse it. But that is something that I certainly think worked well. And I want to continue to do that. So don't ask me, because for some reason, a few of you always would still ask me last session. So don't do it. Just ask your questions. 

So one other thing that I said and the best we can, the rules say that the chair is to maintain order in the committee. Representative Eubanks is laughing. But in all seriousness, and I think we did a good job of this last session and I would like for us to conduct ourselves very professionally even when we are asking questions of witnesses that we disagree with, members of the public. I think let's try and let's treat them with a certain amount of professionalism and dignity because we reflect on this body and this institution, which is very important to all of us. So it's something I'd like to see us continue to do. 

So other announcements, if we have any special order of business, we can do that. You know how that works. Last year, we really had only had a couple of very lengthy issues that we had to deal with, but we made it through and sometimes it just takes a while. So that's what we'll do. That's really all that I have. Representative Vice Chair Steimel, If you have anything.

 

Representative Trey Steimel Not really, other than echoing what John had to say here and just happy to to work with everyone here and to pass some comprehensive legislation going forward. Thank you.

 

Representative John Maddox Okay. That is it. Any questions from the members? Okay. Thank you. And as of now, we are not meeting next Wednesday, so this meeting is adjourned.