Sen. Ralph Alvarado

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 216 to establish the right to designate an essential caregiver to visit a resident in-person at long-term care facilities, assisted-living communities, and state mental hospitals; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to promulgate administrative regulations to establish conditions for essential caregiver visitation; EMERGENCY.

Amend KRS 337.010 to redefine "employee" to include workers in sheltered workshops whose employment begins on or after January 1, 2026; amend KRS 337.295 to require new administrative regulations concerning sheltered workshops and sheltered workshop employment; amend KRS 205.5605 to exclude referrals to sheltered employment from the definition of "covered services and supports" as of January 1, 2026.

Amend KRS 304.17A-164 to establish cost-sharing requirements for prescription drugs; require rebates to be passed through; establish confidentiality requirements for the rebate information; create a new section of KRS 365.880 to 365.900 to provide that the actual amount of rebates received is a trade secret; provide that compliance with the prescription drugs cost-sharing and rebate requirements shall not be in violation of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act; create a new section of Subtitle 17C of KRS Chapter 304 to apply the cost-sharing and rebate requirements for prescription drugs to limited health service benefit plans and limited health service contracts; create a new section of Subtitle 38A of KRS Chapter 304 and amend KRS 18A.225 and 164.2871 to require limited health service organizations, the state employee health plan, and self-insured employer group health plans provided by the governing board of a state postsecondary education institution to comply with the cost-sharing and rebate requirements for prescription drugs; apply to health plans issued or renewed on or after the effective date of the Act; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2023.

Amend KRS 164.370 to define terms; require a governing board of a public postsecondary education institution to adopt a code for student conduct; establish minimum procedural requirements for a nonacademic violation when the violation is punishable by a suspension, expulsion, or termination of student housing, including a presumption of innocence, written notice, maintenance of an administrative file, the right to be present and participate meaningfully, the right to fair and impartial treatment, and the ability to bring a support person; establish enhanced minimum procedural requirements for a nonacademic violation when the violation is punishable by a suspension of three days or more, expulsion, or termination of student housing, including the right to be represented by counsel, to present relevant hearing evidence, and to cross-examine hearing testimony; provide a respondent who is suspended for three days or more, expelled, or has his or her campus housing terminated the right to appeal the results of a disciplinary hearing; provide that a participant has the right to appeal a Title IX allegation that does not result in a finding of a violation; provide that a respondent or designated complainant shall have the right to appeal a final order of the governing board in Circuit Court; provide that nothing in the section shall be interpreted to impede or delay law enforcement, impair an institution's ability to take reasonable interim measures in a student discipline matter, impair an institution's ability to effectuate a valid judicial order, impair an institution's ability to terminate a student's residence in campus housing for any other reason than a student disciplinary matter, or limit any addition rights afforded under federal law; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to require a public postsecondary education institution to publish a report on student discipline every three years; establish the required contents of the report; permit a postsecondary education institution to apply to the Attorney General for an exemption when the institution maintains that required data cannot be adequately deidentified to conform to federal law; provide that the Act may be cited as the Kentucky Campus Due Process Protection Act.

Propose an amendment to Section 54 of the Constitution of Kentucky to allow the General Assembly the power to limit noneconomic damages for injuries resulting in death or for injuries to persons or property, and the power to provide statutes of limitation; provide for submission to the voters.

Direct the use of a total of $81,000,000 of American Rescue Plan Act State Fiscal Recovery funds in fiscal year 2022-2023 to address the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting essential need for retaining and recruiting nurses, nurse's aides, respiratory therapists, emergency medical personnel, and other critical medical staff in acute care hospitals and nursing homes; require distribution of funds of a minimum of $3,000 per licensed hospital bed and a minimum of $1,500 per licensed nursing home bed; require acute care hospitals and nursing homes to report expenditures to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services; require the cabinet to report to the Legislative Research Commission and the Interim Joint Committee on Health, Welfare, and Family Services; APPROPRIATION; EMERGENCY.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 151 to establish definitions for KRS 151.700 to 151.730, regarding the Kentucky River Authority; amend KRS 151.710 to clarify membership requirements for directors of the Kentucky River Authority.

Adjourn in honor and loving memory of Chuck Morgan.

Adjourn in honor and loving memory of William "Bill" Amey Jr.

Recognize January 27, 2022, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.