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SB 2749 Mississippi Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Community health workers; establish licensure program by Department of Health and certain provisions of law related to.

SB 2749 would establish a state licensure program for community health workers (CHWs) in Mississippi, requiring all CHWs to be licensed by the Department of Health starting January 1, 2026. Licensed CHWs would provide specific services like health education, chronic disease support, and cultural communication assistance, with Medicaid reimbursing providers for these services. The Department of Health would set training standards, core competencies, fees, and scope of practice, while collaborating with Medicaid to seek federal approval for reimbursement. This bill directly affects CHWs, healthcare providers, and Medicaid beneficiaries by creating standardized practice requirements and expanding access to community-based care.
Issues: ✓ HealthcareSupports HealthcareEstablishes CHW licensure with Medicaid reimbursement, expanding access to community health services and standardizing care delivery.90% confidence
Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 20, 2025 Last action Feb 13, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced → Current version · 7 edits
MODERATE
This bill establishes a new licensure program for Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Mississippi, requiring them to be licensed by the Department of Health by January 1, 2026, to legally practice. It authorizes Medicaid to reimburse CHWs for specific services like preventive care, health education, and chronic disease management when employed by Medicaid providers. The bill also amends existing Medicaid reimbursement rules for various health services, including dental, pharmacy, and hospital care, while removing unrelated formatting and page markers from the original text.
Scope change
The bill's scope expanded to include a new regulatory framework for Community Health Worker licensure and Medicaid reimbursement for CHW services, while retaining and modifying numerous existing Medicaid service reimbursement provisions.
SCOPE

Established a new Community Health Worker licensure program requiring the Department of Health to create rules for core competencies, application processes, fees, and scope of practice by January 1, 2026.

ELIGIBILITY

Added restrictions stating that no person may represent themselves as a Community Health Worker after January 1, 2026, unless licensed by the Department of Health.

FISCAL

Authorized the Division of Medicaid to seek federal approval for reimbursement of CHW services and specified five categories of reimbursable services including preventive care, health promotion, communication facilitation, patient education, and other approved services.

REQUIREMENT

Required the Department of Health to approve competency-based training programs and continuing education providers for licensed Community Health Workers.

DEFINITION

Added formal definitions for 'Licensed community health worker' and 'Core competencies' to the Mississippi Code.

TECHNICAL

Removed page headers, footers, and formatting artifacts from the original bill text, consolidating the document into a clean Committee Substitute version.

TIMELINE

Set January 1, 2026, as the effective date for Community Health Worker licensure requirements and Medicaid reimbursement implementation.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
3
Key actions
1
Committee
2
Jan 29, 2025
Upper · Passed
Title Suff Do Pass Comm Sub
upper
Jan 20, 2025
Committee
Referred To Public Health and Welfare
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.